High School Revisited

After much preperation and a little bit of misunderstanding, fifteen of us gathered at Two Monkeys Satay Bar & Cafe for our 8th year reunion since we left secondary school. We were expecting more of our school mates to come, however since there was a big football game on telly last night, I would imagine that they would rather not miss the big game than to see their friends from school.

Although the crowd was small, we appreciated each other's company. We exchanged name cards, life experiences and took a number of pictures throughout the night. The restaurant that we went to just launched about a month ago and I must say the food is above our expectations. The chef is a Malay lad who just decided to co-launch the restaurant with an ex-colleague.

At the end of the night, everybody was happy to have gathered at a wonderful chill out place. May our 10th year reunion in 2011 be a greater event with a bigger crowd.

eventful

Quote of the day must be from a bum hole in a fitness center - "Hormone imbalance?" while pointing at my face which has a few fresh acnes.

Anyway, last weekend was rather eventful where I had reunited with some girlfriends which I had not seen in a long time. First and foremost, one of the lovely Marchmont Girls came back for a holiday with a nice rock on her finger! *SMILES* A big congratulations to her and her partner and may the wedding preparation be exciting and not-so-stressful. Hehe.

Right after our special mini gathering, I rushed home to bake a birthday cake for a friend. This time around, I thought of baking a Jaffa cake i.e. chocolate orange cake to let my guinea pigs taste. To be honest, I wasn't proud of this effort as it didn't taste as wonderful as I thought it would be. To the birthday girl, I'm so sorry that it wasn't my best cake made :( *CRIES* Here is a picture of the cake.

The birthday BBQ was fun fun fun!! To the birthday girl, let me tell you how stressful I was when I was preparing for your day - just for the fun of it.

Number one: It was a Sunday and all cake shops were closed. Because of that, I couldn't fine a fitting tray and a box to cater your cake! I was ready to cut your cake into halves so that I could fit them into 2 smaller boxes I have at home. In the end, I didn't so I searched high and low for that big ass tray to place your cake on.

Number two: After writing some soppy messages on your birthday card, naturally I'd look for the envelope to put the card into. JENG JENG JENGGG - the card couldn't fit into the envelope! OMG I thought I was going to go insane that night. Thankfully, my sister had a nice fitting envelope for your card. The buyer of the card conveniently had forgotten to tell me about the misfitting. *FAINTS*

There you go. The dramaaaaaa! I'm glad it's all over and really happy that your birthday BBQ went absolutely wonderful. Happy birthday again.

celebration of happiness

Just when I thought this would be the biggest finale of the wedding craze month, I received another invitation for a wedding this coming weekend. Slow down people!! I can't keep up. My laundry expenses are now contributing a significant portion of my disposable income!! Anyway, we had a mayjah reunion last weekend at Emma and Edd's wedding do. Friends we hadn't seen for 7 years were reunited so you can imagine how much catching up needed to be done! It was a wonderful weekend with many happy faces and some tearful ones.

The solemnisation of marriage i.e. akad nikah was held on Friday, 02/01/09 at Al-Ghurfan Mosque located just around the corner. The girls and I were all excited for the bride and the fact that all of us had to cover up as a sign of respect in the holy place.

These girls and I were assigned to carry the hantaran (what's new for me eh?). I quickly grabed the Quran before someone asked me to carry the, usually heavy, cake. Heh. We took the opportunity to snap some pictures before our hair get messed up by the head scarves. Oh by the way, if you hadn't realised, the theme colour was blue :)

First reunion picture after Emma was pronounced as Edd's wife. I remember him saying, "Let us all take pictures. Where's my wife? Where's my wife??" He must be proud of her :)

The bride's wedding luncheon took place on Saturday, 03/01/09 at Seri Melayu on Jalan Conlay. We were entertained by dance performances which if I'm not mistaken emphasised on the bride's part-Indonesian origin. Actually, that's just me guessing. They were stunning that afternoon.

We had the biggest reunion since we graduated from high school during the groom's wedding dinner at TTDI's community hall on Sunday, 04/01/09. To be honest, the girls and I were already very tired from attending the 2 prior ceremonies. But hey, anything for our beloved bride!

At the end of the hectic three days, the newlyweds were relieved that all the wedding do were finally over. We wish you both the greatest married life and honestly, we can't wait to see the juniors! :D

Happy 2009

The final day of 2008 started quite tough for me as my boss did not want to approve my leave for Friday. The remaining of the day was still bad until the point where I left my office at quarter past six. Once home, a bunch of us went out to look for tree branches, fire starters and some oil for our BBQ debut later that night.

Our first BBQ went pretty well, I thought, with some wonderful company and delicious food. We started at about 8 pm and ended roughly at 11pm. After a thorough clean up session, we climbed up the hill where the mosque is located to have a first class viewing of the new year's fireworks from three different locations. The fireworks were breath taking and I enjoyed every single bit of it.

Here are some photos from last night.

The Boy Scouts - They started the fire with some charcoals, firestarters, newspapers, broken matches and candles. It took them a solid half an hour to get the fire ready for the BBQ.

Our BBQ grill - we had some sweet potatoes (wrapped in aluminium foil), chicken wings and thighs and lamb chops! My mother marinated the meats with special ingredients (some TLC I'm very sure) and they ended up being very tasty after they were all cooked!

Aha! That's me actually looking after the food. I assure you nothing got burnt under my care ;)

The well done chicken wings and lamb chops. These, I assure you, weren't the end result under my watch! Hehe. Blame it all on SG.

Dear all,

Happy 2009! I hope you had achieved everything you wanted in 2008 and may all your wishes and dreams come true in the brand new year. I'd like to thank all for your guidance and support throughout the year and let us all venture into 2009 with bigger steps and brighter hopes.

Love always, jaygee

121208 & 131208

Yes. Be very surprised that I'm writing again.

On Friday night, I headed to Kampung Pengantin for Naw's sister's wedding and that was the beginning of a wedding frenzy month. Naw used to be one of my homies in Edinburgh and I hadn't seen her since I graduated last year. She emailed me on one of the days earlier this week, surprising me with her return for her eldest sister's wedding. And I was very honoured to be invited.

I still am horrible at taking pictures. The above picture was the clearest picture I took last night of the newlyweds. Great couple, perfect wedding. I wish them all the best and may their marriage last forever :)

Naw looked as marvelous as ever. Glad to have seen her again after a long one and a half years. I wonder when the complete set of Marchmont Girls are going to reunite. I have a hunch at it's going to be when a child (or more) is/are in the picture. OMG. Anyway, last night was lovely and thanks again for the invite!

I reached home last night around 11 pm and only ended the night at 1 am. Four hours later after an unpleasant sleep (no thanks to this crazy cough), I was getting ready for a charity run at the Lake Garden in town. It was the most dramatic 5 am I have ever had. Don't ask me how but I lost my LAST left contact lense while I was dressing up. You have no idea how many times I swore this morning and how frustrated I was. After a deep breath, I told myself that I still have to run regardless being partially blind.

Heh. A minute into the run, I confirmed that I am so unfit. Mind you, it was a 5 km run. After much struggle, I completed the run in forty minutes. It's pathetic. I need to buck up.

These are my team members at work. All of us participated expect for our dear team leader who couldn't make for the run. Although this activity was very exhausting, we all did have fun. I walked down memory lane this morning as this reminded me of the charity runs I joined in my final university year.

yikes

This is the perfect reason why I should bring my camera wherever I go.

Petrol price hike.

Gosh how I wished I had my camera when I was driving back from work. I passed so many petrol stations and ooooh, the queues leading to them were just so crazy! Hence causing a massive traffic congestion.

As you all have already known, the petrol price will increase by 78 sen effective midnight, from RM1.92 to RM2.70 per litre. That's going to make a big impact on my monthly budget and it includes sacrificing many of my favourite unnecessary things.

Anyway..

I attended an award ceremony last night to celebrate some outstanding students sponsored by the organisation who sponsored my tertiary education. It was kinda silly for them to only invite the awardee without any guests allowed. So there I was, going to a function with no one I knew and had no idea what the agenda was like. Perfect moment to just go with the flow.

I couldn't help but notice that when Malaysians give a speech, the bit where the speaker addresses his audience is just neverending. I wished they say "Ladies and gentlemen" instead. Imagine that the speech alone took an hour of the night.

Eventually, I was on the stage shaking hands with the wife of some minister. Got my cert and a mystery gift which ended up being a neat looking watch! Happy me.

Conclusion, petrol price will rise. At midnight.

retreat once again!

I have spots on my wrists as a result of playing beach volleyball yesterday morning. It was a short 10 minutes game for me because I couldn't stand the 11 o'clock heat. I was literally showering in my own sweat. It wasn't sexy.

I sacrificed my weekend for a 'free holiday' a.k.a. company retreat, yet again. This time it's a little different as the crowd was smaller and the people who attended were more familiar to me. I guess it was also better because I had no pressure to sound smart (didn't have to emcee this time!).


While waiting for all to arrive and this includes the VIPs such as the Head of Departments and of course our dearly young and handsome CEO. That was my original seat before we were shuffled around. I ended up sitting right in front of the mic-stand. So I could see all the freckles the CEO has on his face. Woot woot.


Together we CAN make it! This was the exact spot where all the CBKians performed 2 songs for all the audience. The performance was real funny considering that we didn't have proper practice for it. I hope no one took a video of the performance because its something that I don't want to hear again.


Guoman Beach - my room was overlooking the beach and golf course. The view was breathtaking. However the weather was a bit too hot that weekend.


Guoman Beach at sunset. And that was the pool I kept wishing to jump into. I didn't because I don't have the proper attire and I ... erm.. can't swim.


Gala Dinner food feaaaaaaaaast! The stupidly-themed 'Sports Night' Gala Dinner was a blast with great variety of food and many crazy headed drunken men. I was pleased that many knew my name and who I was. And ooh, I was nominated for best dressed thank you very much! Just so you know, I didn't wear anything fantastic. Don't ask me why I was up on the runway parading my outfit.


There! What was I wearing? I don't know but supposedly a tennis attire. Haha. So that got me nominated as one of the best dressed. Those things in my hands were prizes from the activities we had earlier that day. Yippee!

Overall the retreat was fun. Guess it was an opportunity to bond a little closer to the people I work with.

emotions gone wild

Okay, where do I start? So much has been happening since I left to the UK a week ago. Don't get me wrong, I'm still here in KL working my ass off and trying to be happy with my career plan. I returned to Edinburgh only for a short visit to wrap up my life over there.

Edinburgh Waverley Train Station. My Favourite Picture-taking Spot

It felt good to return to a place where you are very familiar with eventhough the weather was a bit too cold for me who was used to the tropical weather. I managed to catch a cold while I was there because of multiple reasons - the drastic weather change, jetlag, killer packings, midnight gossips, and food & beverage consumption. By the third day since I arrived, I was too knackered to open my eyes. However, things needed to be settled so I had to continue the journey.

My final smile for Electrrrrrronics!

Went to Manchester for a night just to refresh my memory of the wet and gloomy place. My sister was sweet enough to cook a marvelous dinner the day I arrived. It was delicious all right, although the portion was a bit too much for me. Still yummy!

Anyway, I have to apologise to 2 of my dearest friends who I did not manage to meet. Miss Bath, I'm sorry I didn't drop by or even call. Everything was so hectic, I felt as if I didn't have time to catch my breath. I hope your exams are doing well though.

For Mr Manchester 'Pop-It' crew.... I got your txt but I was already down on the couch. I'm terribly sorry that we didn't have the chance to catch up :( But I'm sure we will have the opportunity to do so when you come back to Malaysia right? Hee hee.

What's left of the Marchmont Girls in Scotland. We missed you Kat.

I had to attend work the day after my arrival in KL. Ended up in a karaoke club later that night with all the other colleagues. As a result, I sound very sexy this morning. Like Macy Gray.

I received yet another wonderful news from my gal pal who is getting engaged very soon. The thing is, I feel that her friends who include me are more excited about the great news more than she is! Our conversation earlier started off from the wedding plans, to children plans, to children going to school, retirement plans... and at the end of the day, I started flipping out to the fact that I'm turning 24 this year. Time to invest on anti-wrinkle face cream.

Hmm, so it's been er.. 7 years since we left school? The horror.

So Wednesday is a public holiday and I'm very glad about the sudden free day! The perfect time to recover the jetlag and heal the major eyebags under my two big eyes.

7 months later....

Finally the moment to relive the past. The experience will no doubt be a difficult one but closure plays an important part in this life of mine.

I am prepared to have sleepless nights and to be surprised with what I had collected in the past 4 years.

Edinburgh, here I return.

welcome 2008!

Human traffic was bad enough at that hour. Luckily I didn't drive around. Happy New Year!!

goodbye 2007

It's time to say adios to one roller-coaster-ride year. So much has happened in a very short period of time - successes, failures, ups and downs. Let the past be a lesson for the future undertakings.

Not to be forgotten, the things I am thankful for:

1. To perform dances after so many years
2. To run for marathons, eventhough it's not a complete one
3. To graduate with wonderful results
4. To conquer the highest peak in South East Asia
5. To be part of the most gorgeous wedding
6. To be employed by a foreign financial instutute

What made my day was the following words by my boss:


"Thanks for the cupcakes. They're delicious! I believed you received heaps of compliments already. Wishing you a good year ahead and may your aspirations come through. But your efforts are needed of course!"

happy xmas

I'm at a place where people neither have a wonderful-roasted-turkey-with-stuffings Xmas eve dinner, nor am I at a place where people have family barbeque during Xmas day. Sadly, I am at a place where the road traffics don't move, cars are bumper-to-bumper, and drivers are not ethical.

I miss the romantically decorated Edinburgh city. I miss the German Market where I could enjoy the sinful crepe with nutella. I miss the ferris wheel which would allow me to admire the long stretch of Princes Street from the top of the wheel.

My family and friends must be thankful that I don't celebrate Xmas. Because if I do, these are on my Xmas list:-

1. A spanking new mobile phone (my current mobile phone is slowly falling apart)

2. "A fabulous classy red f*ck-me shoes"

3. That gold sparkling dress

4. A whole box of make up set

5. A silver ball pen with my name engraved on it.

6. A bank account with lots of monies in it.

Sigh. Merry Xmas you all.

sayonara

It's scary how time flies so quickly. Today is the first day of December and in 30 days we'll be saying goodbye to 2007. An exciting year I have to admit but let's not talk about it until the end of the year.

The last few weeks have been very hectic for me. There was too much going on until I didn't have the opportunity to get enough rest. Because of that, now I'm unwell and I suspect it's the viral fever which is circulating around.

Last weekend I went to Damai Laut, located just across Pangkor Island, for our bank's CBD retreat. I had to forgo my cousin's wedding just because of the compulsory attendence for this business trip. And let's not forget that I was the emcee for this successful event.

To be honest, it's not so much of a retreat. It's all work, work, work for me and my CMT10 colleagues. What made it even worse is that we had to take the old road to reach our destination. Let me tell you something. My team leader isn't a safe driver.

He had a little too much to drink the night before our departure back to KL. No thanks to him, we were short of one driver, so I stepped up and offered to drive. It was a honourable thing to do i.e. to let my other colleagues sleep during the journey back. I conked out right after I reached home.

Last Wednesday before our 4 months attachment, all of us went for a hike up Bukit Melawati. I was already sick by then, but I had missed the first hike last Hari Raya so I told myself I'm not going to miss another one. The hike reminds me of Mount Kinabalu but obviously it wasn't like it. Hiking was fun but later that evening, my body temperature went up, up, up.

After all these outdoor activities, I am now very tanned and my skin is full of mosquito bitings. Don't get me wrong, I still love being outdoors but for the love of God, let me get some rest. Honestly, I don't think I'm going to recover from my fever anytime soon.

reunited

Last week has to be the best week I have had in a very long time. I didn't have to go to the dodgy side of town for the whole week and the best weekend was concluded by our very successful raya open house.

Preparing was definitely a pain but all the hard work was paid off. Everyone got stressed up because the organiser a.k.a. my mother was stressed up. But then again, if she wasn't like that, I don't think the open house would be as great as it turned out to be. Cousins whom I haven't seen in nearly a decade turned up with their own troops. The children were so adorable but it was very tough to get hold on to one.


Funny how I felt like I haven't seen all these cookies and kueh mueh until the day of the open house. Can you believe that I don't even know what cookies my mother made for raya? This is the first time it happens, no thanks to my busy schedule. Anyway, everything was good until the point where you just had too much to eat.


I decorated cupcakes again but this time they look edible. Lol. These cupcakes were the first to finish (we only made a few). They were supposed to be just plain lemon poppyseed cupcakes with cream cheese top. But since I had too much of the fancy cake decorations, I decided to entertain myself making them colourful.


We had so much food, from my mother's cooking to my grandmother's to my cupcakes to my sister's Mac & Cheese and finally to the catered Satay Kajang. These are only some of the delicious food served. The others were Laksa Siam, Nasi Himpit with Kuah Kacang, Pai Ti (Chinese Popiah/spring rolls), and Longan fruits. We currently have so much left overs despite the good turn ups. So guess what we're eating this whole week?


So that's us waiting for the first guest to arrive. I took out my camera tripod for the occassion but never actually used it. Here my mother was probably panicking in the kitchen. Hehe.


Ahaaa, 3 of 4 Marchmont Girls. We finally met up again after graduation and man, there was so much to talk about. I wished you were here Naw... we have completely lost contact!


The usual suspects some may call us. Don't we all look so grown up? Thank you for coming :) :)


This is one very adorable little boy. I only managed to get this nephew of mine (cousin's son) when I offered chocolates to him. He still makes me weak on my knees....


And finally, my longest friends. The bumble bee and Kadazan dancers days. It's unbelievable that we're still in touch and I love you people a lotttt!

It's still raya so I'm going to wish everyone a Happy hari raya again! x x x

rare opportunity

I thought, since I reached home waaay early today maybe I should post up something memorable which has happened today.


It was the graduation day for our seniors CMT and it was very significant because it was organised by my colleagues and I. No doubt it was tough work but the result was satisfying and we received many compliments from a number of the bank's big shots including our dearly CEO.

The preparation for this event has tested our ability to cope with a lot of pressure and high expectations. I personally was challenged to the highest degree with the responsible of the team leader for this project. However without the concerns of my precious colleagues, I don't think I could have led this important event.


Well done CMT10, without all of you this would not have happened. If it wasn't for our late nights and working weekends, we wouldn't have gotten our panda eyes and all of the great comments today.

eid ul-fitr

Waaaay-heee! Finally to be celebrating Hari Raya at home after 4 long years. The feeling is unusual but of course in a good way. Today I am together with my family, friends, raya lightings, raya songs and not to forget, the long array of raya food! (I'm not going to list duit raya because I know I'm a little too old to be receiving).

First off, I want to wish a very Selamat Hari Raya to my eldest sister who has stood me up and let me come back home for raya alone. I hope your raya will be more than just any other day. Don't worry, I will take a lot of pictures of the delicious food and make you drool and regret for standing me up. Muahahahahaha. Maaf zahir batin :)

Next, to all my Malay Edinburgh friends, Happy Eid to you lots. I'm sure raya will still be exciting with all the open houses throughout the whole month of Syawal. I don't think you are missing any of the food here because you can get something just as good over there. Don't forget to skip lectures on the first day of raya. Hehe.

Not to forget, all of my beautiful friends here in KL, Selamat Menyambut Aidilfitri. We will definitely visit each other sooner or later, even when all of us are busy with our respective commitments. Hope you all will have a wonderful raya celebration.

My family... although you guys are just a few meters away from me, I would like to include you people in this post. Selamat Hari Raya and Maaf Zahir Batin. Let's make this year's raya a memorable one! (Tough for the one who stood me up).

To my S.O., happy hari raya and minta maaf zahir and batin. Have a good hari raya ;)

For those I have left out, I'm so sorry. I wish all of you a wonderful celebration!

mall hopping

I can now confidently say that I am a shoe addict. Although it sucks when you have to share the shoe cabinet with the rest of the family.

Today's new place to explore was The Gardens at Midvalley. Honestly I never knew that it was being constructed. I only found out about it two days ago and I thought I must pay this place a visit.

The Gardens was expectedly posh, somewhat like StarHill when I went there ten years ago. There were gazillion of people walking across the path which connected Midvalley Megamall (yet another shopping mall) to this newbie and I felt as if I was entering BEP's concert hall. Once entered, the interior of the mall dropped my jaws as it was beautifully designed. The line of shops sell things which was beyond my budget so I only had a good window shopping session.

Since the selection of restaurants were still very limited, I had to return to the shoe-heaven-Megamall for some food to break fast with. It was more than an hour before the breaking fast time but oh-my-lord, the queues were crazy at all eating places. I was even thinking of settling for snacks from Carrefour but thankfully there were some empty tables at this pricey italian restaurant. At least I didn't have to delay dinner.

At the restaurant I sat across this family of three just a meter away from me. They ordered their food just before I did mine but somehow my order arrived first. Both the family and I were waiting for the time for break our fasts and when it was time, their food still had not arrived. It is of course not advisable to delay breaking fast but I thought I was being rude for eating in front of them considering that they sat on their table first. The thought of offering my food to them popped up my mind but do people actually do that? So I ate my pizza quietly.

When their order came 10 to 15 minutes after we started eating, I noticed that their pizza was the exact one we ordered! Oh the horror. The scary part was that I was facing the man of the family. I could see clearly the dissatisfaction upon his face, his anger reaching its boiling point. I sped up with the food and left the place as soon as I could.

Then I happily headed to the old sweet One Utama.

happy ramadhan

All because of this weekend, I got into some kind of trouble today. Getting the suitable thing was one hell of a challenge. I suffered a massive headache until I have nearly given up looking. Thought I needed to ease my mind so I bought myself a pair of shoes. Totally didn't need it but it was pretty effective because my headache went away.

It's true how buying something sometimes helps when I'm under some sort of stress. It is a bloody expensive solution and I wish I can say I hardly do it. Seems like these days I've been spending as if money grows from trees. Trouble number one: Fire in the hole. Cash is constantly burning.

Actually that's the only major trouble I'm facing. I somehow ended up with another book today, so that's going to keep me occupied until the end of the year.

Selamat berpuasa everybody. May all of us enjoy the Bazaar Ramadhan and Tarawih this month.

Another Big Day

My brother suddenly said to me, "I can't wait to see them kiss." I snapped at him and said this was a Malay wedding (an engagement actually) and it's not in our culture for the newly-engaged couple to kiss. That was pretty weird coming from my little brother.

What I had in mind before I left for the ceremony was to show my face and have some lovely food to eat. But I was nicely approached by my aunt and was requested to help carry one of the eight hantarans from the bride-to-be to the groom-to-be. It was funny because I was wearing yellow and so did most of the hantaran girls.

Thankfully I have had experience in this area (hehe) so I wasn't nervous at all. Plus, I had to carry cupcakes to the groom's family - was that a sign or what? Of course their cupcakes were nicer than mine. I mean, everyone's cupcakes are nicer than my fairy cakes. I have to admit.

Anyway, it was a lovely event. Most of my uncles and aunts were there and it was wonderful that many of my cousins turned up too. We catched up and joked around about who's getting hitched next. And somehow I think being chosen as a hantaran girl was an indirect way to 'sell' the gift carrier girls to the eligible men out there. Pretty obvious right? It's very rare for a married woman to be selected to do the honourable job.

Fishy update: All Harry, Ron and Hermoine are very well healthy even when they live with the fatty evil Voldemort. Their home now is full with plants and I am very happy that they survived their first day under my care :)