I can't do without them (Part 1)

Hello people.

I reckoned I have left my blog for too long, the memory of ever having a blogpage is beginning to fade slightly.

And what's worse is that everytime I tune in and look at Fely's blog she has managed to make nice little changes to her blog page and that really puts me to shame, staring at my out-of-date and out-of-style blog with its layout dated back to the Japanese era. (By the way Fely, I lurveeeee your blog design, so country, so quaint and so stylish at the same time!!)

Anyhooooo, back a while ago, Fely shared with us a list of things she is thankful for...not wanting to be left behind, I have also decided to share with you the things (non-living) that I simply cannot do without, and also not in any order of importance.

1. My Blackberry (you knew that was coming didn't you?)

Well, where do I begin? I know I sound like a techno freak when I say that life is not the same since I've got my BB but it is indeed very, very true. One of my most favourite hobbies -- take random pictures and share them on FB. I love it !!! I don't really care if people will look at them, but I just love sharing random, irrelevant, photographic moments !! These are some of them...Can you guess what they are?!

When I used to catch the bus to work, while waiting for the bus I used to read all the headlines from around hundreds and hundreds of different sources, all thanks to Google Reader. You know sometimes you see at the bottom/top of a webpage that says 'Subscribe to RSS feed'? Well basically, you click on that, and choose to subscribe that page on Google Reader (you must set up a google account, obviously) and Google Reader will pool together all the latest updates and news from the webpages that you subscribe to and you can read them through Google Reader and you can also organise them into different tags like 'technology' or 'blogs' or 'crafts' or 'cookery' !! I get all the latest blog updates on there as well so basically I am up to date where ever I go and it's a never ending supply of things to read, the latest celebrity gossip, the latest news about the Blackberry technology, gaming, computing, the latest news headlines and I am never bored where ever I go. And not to mention the latest thing that Fely and I do, which is having a daily conversation on the BB messenger. It is a must for us !! Even if it's just to say a quick 'hello' or to send each other funny pictures of what we were up to at the time (we draw a line at pornographic images) and I am really thankful to be reconnected with my MPIK soulmate again. It's really changed my life (thanks Fely, HUgS). And also the other little conveniences that a Blackberry brings to you like being able to go online anywhere, so looking up the telephone number of a restaurant or the opening times of a shopping centre, finding out the directions to a certain place, or checking prices and information of certain things have become much much easier. It's basically any information at your fingertips.

2. My knitting bag

Okay okay, this is screaming the 1960's with a granny style !! But I honestly love finding new projects to do (although I hardly ever finish any) and collecting new yarn to add to my collection, again quite pointless seeing that I never finish any projects that I have started. Yessss, even the American Blanket is now classified as an abandoned project (but I might pick it up again, you'll never know). And not to mention I now have 3 crochet and knitting books and I have got all sorts of knitting needles and crochet hooks of varying sizes. Project to date -- ONE, perhaps two, or maybe three... One of my most successfully completed projects is of course my laptop pouch which I am immensely proud of. Till today, I am still struggling to churn out another proud project like that one. Wait for it.... miracles DO happen, people!!

3. My Mac

Well, what can I say?? I love my Mac. Mainly because it is hassle free installing and deleting programmes. And it takes no time at all to start up and shut down the computer, unlike PC. Most importantly, the gamessss I am hooked on, on my Mac. Before this, I was really into playing my Cafe World on FB, and now, my latest craze is discovering the joys of building and designing a dream home on The Sims 2. Although the game has been out for yonks and there is even The Sims 3 out in the market now, I have just got really into it and got all the software and extension packs installed on my Mac. So far, I have picked a valley and built a house by the edge of the sea which I have named 'Ocean's Edge' and with Steve's suggestions and ideas, I have created an open plan house with a really big kitchen area and a bar... this is when I make use of my knowledge from watching episode after episode of Grand Designs on TV. Tonight, tonight I shall be building my bespoke bathroom with state-of-the-art bath accessories !! Can you sense my excitement?!!

Okay, I have spent long enough on this entry and it is time to do some proper work.

I shall continue with Part 2 in my next entry and mean time, keep well and have a happy week.

Little pleasures

Okay... I think Fely made herself quite clear when she said to me in one of our 'SMS conversations' -- go and update your blog so that I have something to read.

So here I am, sitting here, typing this, as usual, having nothing in particular to share but various bits and pieces.

Last year Christmas, I received £60 worth of John Lewis voucher and I was beside myself with excitement because John Lewis sells theeeee BEST and the MOST LUXURIOUS kind of yarn from the Debbie Bliss and Rowan range and they are quite pricey. As keen as I am in knitting and doing crochet, I don't really feel right forking out my 'hard-earned' money just to have expensive and luxurious looking yarn when I can get cheaper yarn elsewhere. But if it was a gift voucher, it's a completely separate issue altogether, because anyhow, I will have to spend that amount of money, so might as well spend it on something that will give me immense pleasure for quite some time!!!

Unfortunately (or rather, fortunately), the closest John Lewis store is in Southampton, which is about an hour's drive away from here (1 hour for me; 40 minutes for Steve). So last month, I managed to cajole the semi-reluctant Steve to make a visit to the West Quay Shopping Centre to splash out on some luxurious and colourful yarn. 

Despite the fact that I had £60 to spend, I was still EXTREMELY reluctant to buy full price yarn and being a typical Malaysian (always looking for bargain), I soon found myself digging through the 'reduced to clear' basket full of 'discontinued' or 'slightly damaged' (when it is labelled slightly damaged, it usually means that it's come loose and therefore deemed unsellable) balls of yarn, and instructing Steve to start digging as well, trying to find as many balls of yarn from the same range and same type as possible. After what-must-have-seemed-to-Steve-like-yearssssss (I think it was about 10 minutes) of digging, deliberation, more digging, and more deliberation, I finally ended up with around 9 different colours of extremely soft yarn balls made from Bamboo.

I've been thinking for a while now what grand project I was going to turn those yarn balls into and the more I thought about it the more clueless I got mainly because the yarns were so mismatching in colours and no way was I going to be able to harmonise the colours !! And also, there is only a limited amount of yarn to each colour, which makes it even more challenging. Then I started to regret not thinking about the colours carefully and merely picking them up because they were cheap !! (serves me right) As you can see from the photo, the colours absolutely don't go with one another, do they?! So I thought, alas, have I spent my precious John Lewis voucher on something that will end up being useless?

So anyway, I thought, I have got to start somewhere, so I started just browsing through websites to get ideas and browsing through the collection of lovely crochet books that I have slowly and surely building up (will telll you about that in another post, a bit of a delight I must say)... and I started making something. Not entirely sure yet what it's going to be, so it will be a surprise project but I will show you what it looks like now. Surprisingly, the colours go really well together, don't you think?

Anyway, I have rambled on and on about some silly yarn (some of you might think) so I'm going to love you and leave you.

Any ideas what I can turn this into?

Hopeless me.

One of the things on my 'To-do list' last week was to ring up my mobile service provider, Orange, to terminate my mobile phone contract which ends effectively next month 2nd March. Since I love my current Blackberry and there is no need for an upgrade, my sensible self tells me that instead of paying up to £30 a  month for the line rental, all I have to do is to get a pay-as-you-go sim from O2 which will allow me to have unlimited text and unlimited internet as long as I top up £15 every month. Simple?

Here's how it went...

Orange 1 : Hello, you are through to Orange Customer Service, how may I help?

Me: Erm, I would like to terminate my contract which ends next month please.

direct and straight to the point. so far so good

Orange 1: Okay. Could I have your telephone number please?

Hmmm, this is easier than I thought....

Me: Sure, it's 07XXXXXXXXX.

Orange 1 : Thank you. Let me transfer you to my colleague who will be able to help you.

Oh oh, and I thought it was going to be straight-forward... perhaps not

Orange 2 : Hello Peng Peng, my name is Beverly. I hear that you are planning to leave Orange. Would it be possible to find out from you why that is?

Must stay tough..... must stay strong...... must stay focussed

Me : Well, I have decided that I can save more money by using an O2 pay-as-you-go sim and top up £15 every month because I don't make a lot of calls or send many texts so I don't really need to be on an expensive pay-monthly contract.

extremely proud of self by now

Orange 2 : I see. Now Peng Peng, How about if I tell you we can do the same deal for you for £15 and on top of that you'll get 200 free minutes as well but it will be a contract-based sim.

Puffff I am not falling for that

Me : Nah, your offer sounds really good but I think for the time being I will stick to my pay-you-go plan because I don't really want to be tied down with another long contract.

Proud of me, aren't you?

Orange 2 : I see. Erm Peng Peng, I can see from your record that you are due for an upgrade of your mobile. Is there any particular phone that you might be interested in upgrading and we can see if we can do you a good deal?

Oh oh......... this could be my down fall....

Me : Well, ermm... welll... I am rather interested in the new BlackBerry 9700 that's just come out. But... but.. to be fair, I am quite happy with my existing BlackBerry to be honest (voice trailing to a whisper...)

Damn it! Stay strong, woman!!

Orange 2 : Right. Now, how about if I tell you that we can get that phone for you for free, and you only have to pay £19.99 per month and you get 200 free minutes, 200 free texts and unlimited web data, which would suit your usage just fine? If you were prepared to pay £15 a month anyway, this is just an additional £4.99 and you'll get a new phone for free.

Hmmm.... I must admit she's making a very, very good point....

Me : Ermm.....welll....Oh okay I'll take it.

Whatttttt am I doing??!!!!!!!! Noooooooo !!!!!!!

Orange 2 : Sorry? Did you say you'll take it? Oh that's great. Let me take down some details.

Me : Oh yes, oh yes...haha (nervous laugh).. can't believe I'm getting a new phone.

hands shaking with excitement by now and voice cracking with giddiness..

..........

The rest of the conversation was just her taking down my details and informing me of my delivery date.

How useless am I?? But I honestly think that was truly caused by her excellent marketing techniques!! And also, to be fair, the actual conversation was longer than that and she had spent a lot more time than I described to persuade me. I only made it shorter so that I don't bore you to death with the actual conversation of me going, ermmm.... ahhhh.... ermmmmm... wellll.....and plus I wasn't entirely sure if the £15 pay-as-you-go sim would provide me with BlackBerry Internet Service so it didn't take her long to persuade me to stay.

But, c'mon, £19.99 for a month and a free BlackBerry 9700 ... Who can resist that??!!

 

As we speak, I have just received a text informing me that my parcel with me new phone will be arriving this evening at 5pm!!! How exciting is that??!! 

Honestly, gadgets and technology would be my greatest downfall. I belong to Geek Land.

What is to be your greatest downfall?

Friday morning...

This morning finally I can drive my car to work.

The MOT, which is the mandatory yearly health test for the car had run out before I realised it so I have been taking the bus to work and have since booked myself and Fuzzer in for an appointment this afternoon so legally, I am allowed to drive it today.

So as I was pulling into a parking space at the Uni car park, I noticed a sticker on my right wing mirror... how I did not see it earlier while driving was beyond me... honest to god I do check my wing mirrors when I drive...

Anyway, back to this sticker... so when I spotted the sticker I was slightly annoyed as I know that it must be the work of one of the kids who were walking to the school just down the road from where I live.. sometimes I get some 'colourful' comments and thoughts scrawled on the windows of the car, especially when it's been a frosty night and the car windscreen and windows become a great canvas for their imaginative minds...

So this pink sticker looks like an ordinary sticker.... but upon close inspection of what it says I couldn't help myself but burst out laughing, and subsequently took a picture of it...

Can you see it?

For those of you who are slightly optically challenged, it says "The future Mrs. Pattinson"....and the writing is surrounded with lots of pink hearts...

Muahahahaha... who ever stuck the sticker there must have thought very highly of moi...

Those who are avid fans of the great Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer would know who Robert Pattinson aka Edward Cullen is and also they would know that he is absolutely D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S. and gorgeous !!!

To be branded "The future Mrs. Pattinson"???!!!!!

Must be my lucky day!!! The sticker can stay there for a while I think...

Have a fantastic and restful weekend and hope to see you soon.

That mother of two really puts me to shame...

Right, I guess I'd better buckle up and start writing a new entry.

Write about what though? I really admire Fely and her ability to constantly update her blogs with interesting feeds and pictures. Quite often I will start writing a blog and then abandon it halfway through because it just doesn't sound interesting enough.

I don't really want to bore you with my daily routine of waking up at 7.30am, getting to work for 9am, finishing work at 5pm, getting to evening work for 6pm, finishing evening work at 10pm, getting home at 10.30pm, shower, a bit of internet surfing before going to bed at 11.30pm. Surely you  must be yawning by now?

Well, the one thing new this week is that I am now having to take the bus to work again... mainly because I have completely forgotten that the car MOT has expired and by the time I remembered (I didn't actually remember, the other half did :P) I had been driving the car illegally for a whole week without realizing it. So I have booked in for Friday to get it done, so hopefully by next week I shall be on the road again with Lil Fuzzer, after a clean 'health bill' that doesn't require too much money to repair :P

It's strange how we get used to life's conveniences...

Before the age of Mobile, we were fine and each time we left the house, we only needed the house keys and money. These days leaving the house without my mobile makes me feel as if I've gone out of the house naked. But I know one person who cannot be bothered as to whether he has his mobile with him and that would be Steve. Everytime I ask him, where's your mobile, the answer is to be expected -- Don't know, really.

Another one is my car... for most of the 4 years I have been in the UK, I was without a car and I was fine, relying on other people's kindness to drive me around and if I can't get that, taking the bus was the next best thing...

This morning, knowing that I had to catch the bus to work has really put me in a grumpy mood. Walking to the bus stop, standing at the bus stop waiting for the bus and walking from the bus stop from outside the university to my building seemed like such an enormous effort.

It just goes to show that human beings can be conditioned to become lazy so easily. When we were in secondary school, having a bicycle to cyle to school seemed like such a luxury !! Remember those good ol days?!

Sometimes, I think it's good to bring ourselves back to basic, and to look at life from a simplistic point of view. That is how you achieve contentment. Cliche but very true.

ANyway, I am rambling on and on now and I guess that's my cue to stop.

Till the next entry, take good care of yourself and smile always :)

On coming home in one piece.

For weeks leading to Christmas and new year, I have been fretting endlessly that somebody in the family might break a bone before the end of the year 2009.

We were booked on a skiing trip to celebrate the New Year in Andorra, a beautiful country wedged between France and Spain.

Instead of looking forward to the holiday and to skiing for the first time in my life, I found myself worrying about every possible aspect there is to worry about, the dog, the danger of the sport, packing, timing to the airport...... yada yada yada.

So Christmas was celebrated with Steve's family with lots of lovely, lovely food, fantastic pressies and lazy Christmas telly. And before bedtime, there was a frenzy of packing and getting all the travel documents ready and making sure the weather condition was fine for us to drive up north to catch our flight to Girona.

Then came boxing day, and one by one, the 'to do list' was ticked accordingly.

::Take Sasha round to my colleague's so that she can be looked after while we were gone... CHECK

::Collect rental car from the airport and get the luggage packed in...CHECK

::Getting luggage FINALLY packed with all the winter gear... CHECK

::Making sure we don't leave anything on in the house that might set the house on fire while we were gone....CHECK

And finally, at 12pm we were on our way to the East Midland Airport to catch our 7pm flight.

As soon as we landed in Girona at close to 11pm, our journey has not stopped. There we picked up another hired car, and Steve started driving, in the dark, in a foreign country, in very icy and cold condition, on the other side of the road, up the mountain, heading towards Arinsal in Andorra which was more than 3 hours away.

By the time we got to our destination, it was almost 4am and we were all tired and exhausted.

The next morning, in order to make our week-long skiing trip worthwhile, we were 'ushered' and 'herded' out of our rented accommodation like a bunch of moo-cows (against our will) as early as it was humanely possible by Steve's brother so that we would get started with buying our week-long ski pass, and renting our ski gear and securing a locker room... etc.

One precious lesson learnt was that skiing in itself was not at all tiring or physically demanding.... it was the pre-skiing 'rituals' that tire you out...
First you have to get yourself all nicely 'wrapped' up for the weather condition up at the mountain top.. which means, thermal vest, and then a ski-top, a fleece and then your ski jacket.... longjohn, and then your sellopads, and thermal socks, and hat and gloves and ski goggles and in some cases, a scarf.

Second, you walk to the ski lift, hop on the ski lift which will take you to the top where you proceed to your locker room to collect your ski gear.

Third, ski gear consists of a pair of 'Robocop' boots, which makes it extremely awkward and difficult to walk around in. And then with the ski boots on, you have to carry your skis and your poles on your shoulder.

Fourth, to make it more challenging, they have decided to put in lots and lots of slippery stairs made from metal leading from the locker, to the actual place where you can eventually start skiing.

So by the time we reached the top, and have our boots properly clipped on, I was sweaty, exhausted and was ready to put my feet up and call it a day.

The first day was difficult. Although we signed up for a lesson on that first day, the language barrier (instructor was Spanish so she, at one time referred to the toe as the 'finger'.. and she said 'to control your skis, you must know how to use your big finger....hmmm), exhaustion, tiredness and frustration took the better of me and the next day by lunch time I was ready to quit skiing.

But I'm glad I did not because after falling down countless times, and performing a rather impressive split going down hill backwards on my ski .... we learnt better and better control of the skis and were beginning to enjoy ourselves a little.

So up and down and up and down the travellator we went, familiarising ourselves on the skis down the nursery slope, along with children as young as 5, whizzing past us as they cruised downhill, effortless, fearless and carefree.

The difficulty level of the slopes range from the Nursery slope, to Green, Blue, Red and Black with Black being the most challenging, obviously. We took a couple more lessons after the first day (fortunately with someone who spoke better English and who did not refer to using the fingers to control your skis) and by the end of the skiing trip, Steve and I were both rather proud that we had managed to progress beyond the nursery slope and had gone up and come down the Blue and even a bit of the Red slope.

In summary, it was a really, really enjoyable first skiing trip for me and I can't wait to go again. Nevertheless, it is an expensive sport and money were spent on ski wear, ski lift pass, ski gear rental, locker room... and the list goes on...not to mention the cost of travelling involved. But it was absolutely great fun and I highly recommend it !!

This is moi in my full ski gear !!

*notice the specially requested pink skis?

And oh, if you click on the picture to enlarge it, see that man with the stripy black and purple jacket on the right in the background, looking at another man who has fallen on the ground? That's Steve's brother trying to help his 80-year-old dad to get back up on his skis. He's amazing. For two whole days he tried his very best to learn to ski and only on the last day, he eventually gave up and said it's not his cup of tea...

New Year, New Post.

Well, currently am in the office but not doing much work as there is a prediction of heavy snow and bad weather so everybody is on the edge of their seats waiting for it to happen and we've been waiting since morning, to be quite honest.

There is a possibility that the uni will be closed tomorrow depending on how severe the weather is going to be like at 6.30am tomorrow.

Naturally everybody is hoping that the weather will be bad but bad weather equals bad road conditions and that is never a good thing.

Anyhow, this is just a short entry before I put in a proper, proper new year entry because I don't really want my blog to be stuck at last Christmas.

Till we meet again, keep well and keep watching this space for a fresh new entry.