Lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala lalala

I'm gonna start my own song of the week to express or sum up what I'm feeling/ experienced. This week, I'll start off with Lily Allen's Smile. This song is dedicated to this "friend" who've been putting me down in the past, convincing me that I'd be making the worst decision of my life moving to the UK. Well dear, I hope I proved you wrong coz I'm having the time of my life now and have no regrets leaving. To those out there who've experienced that someone (who always have negative things to say about you all the time), don't worry about what they said. They are just insecure. Just because they can't have what you have does not mean you deserve to be put down. All I can say is "The people who mind don't matter.. The people who matter don't mind".

So, this is for you, my "friend":

My trip to Leeds

I am knackered. Last Monday, I went up to Leeds for work for a factory testing on one of our switchgears. I went with my colleague and client. It was a good 4 hour train ride from London. We arrived at the Malmaison hotel and it was lovely! I loved the room - its quite big for a standard room, complete with an LCD tv + dvd player. The room has a nice modern touch to it. I'd like to have that concept for my future home. Pictures of the Malmaison below:


The Malmaison welcomes you.

The bed:

The closet & desk:

The LCD tv & dvd player

The bathroom:


We then went for a good italian dinner at BB Restaurant. Oh my god, the creme bruelle (if I spelt that right!) was excellent... yummm...

The next morning, we left early to Bradford to the S&I factory, where we had the testing. Ricki the testing engineer was very friendly, considering being bombarded by all my daft questions. I've been to FAT testings before when I was with my old company, but this experience is far better. I noticed that they do their testing thoroughly. A usual FAT back home can finish within 2 hours... but here, they do it step by step... explaining every single connection and testing them individually and thoroughly- which is how it should be done. I've never learnt so much about switchgears before! It was an amazing experience. Here's me with lovely Ricki :)

Dim-sum & kway teow... sedap...

Yesterday, I followed Fern & Olu to Croydon for grocery shopping at London's biggest Chinese store. Here at Wing Yip, you'll find everything from Malaysia- well almost everything, from Maggi to pau kacang to kicap manis etc. When I got back home, I went straight to the kitchen and steamed some nice prawn dim-sum and ate them with nice chilli oil.. yum! Dinner was Maggi Asam Laksa... nice...

Today pulak, I cooked myself Char Kway Teow.. so sedap since I haven't had kway teow for a long time. Since it was a bit too much, I had to give some to Maureen, our next door neighbour. Keeping some for tonight's dinner as well.

I know I'm suposed to keep to a strict diet for Vas's wedding but I couln't control myself this weekend. I'll make up for it by enrolling myself to the local health club here in Sutton. Also, might think of joining Salsa classes and Wing Chun. Am just waiting for my pay day this Wednesday. This January so pokai. Gave hubby £1500 last month to pay back what he owed when I moved in to the UK. Also, not forgetting the boxing day shopping... so can' wait for the long awaited pay day.. I worked quite a lot of overtime this month. So hopefully, will have a good start on my savings again.

This weekend I'll have to stay home - the house is in a huge mess! I haven't houvered for a while and the kitchen looks horrible, not forgetting the big pile of laundry! Its gonna be a tiring Sunday today to clean the hose up... but a good exercise too. In 2 weeks time, the lettings agency are gonna come around to inspect the place. So, hopefully the house will be in perfect condition by the time they come in.

I miss Boboy so much though. I really hope and wish he will come here soon. A house is not a home without Boboy :(

Its snowing!!!!

It was so difficult getting out of bed today. I was struggling to let go of my comfy duvet. After much hesitation (and numerous irritating alarms), I finally jumped out of bed and got ready for work. I was surprised when I stepped out of the house- it was snowing!!! It was breathtakingly beautiful....


The lovely snow made my day. I was in a cheerful mood the whole time at office, albeight the huge pile of work on my desk. Though it was rather cold than normal, I managed to keep a smile on my face to last me till the evening. I wish Hubby was here to see the snow. He loves snow. I'm sure if Boboy was here, he'd love it too...

Bon Voyage, Mate!

Tonight we had a good farewell get-together for Arvin, my housemate, whose leaving to site in Baku (Azerbaijan) tomorrow. Marc, Olu, Stella, Arvin and I had dinner at Mama Dumpling's and then to Revolution for drinks. Its good to be out again after quite a while being alone at home. Though it's getting freezing out there. Apparently, its gonna snow in the next couple of days.

Work was boring today. I was trying to stay awake most of the time finishing my presentation. I haven't finish the slides yet, let alone practice on it! I don't know why I'm procrastinating- usually I'll be dead panic by now.

My diet regime is getting better. I find myself more careful now with my food intake, trying to control myself to eat less than 2000 calories a day. Workout wise? Err, I'm failing miserably. I haven't done any form of exercise yet.. though I do hope to start as soon as Arvin leaves. Also, I'm planning to try out Wing Chun tomorrow. I haven't tried martial arts yet, so it might be interesting.

Anyways, good luck to Arvin. Enjoy yourself in Baku. I'll see you in the next couple of months!

TV? No... Zara coat? Yes!

I have a confession to make. I have been very naughty today. I set out to go check out the second hand TV at a repair shop in Wallington. Its about 2 train stops away. When I got there (after a gruelling 20minutes uphill walk from the station!), the shop owner told me that they don't have any TV in stock for sale, only repairs :(

So, since I had time to spare... and I was at the train station anyways, I decided to do a detour to Croydon instead.. you know, just to get some fresh air. By the way, it is the last weekend of the Christmas sale. So, it won't hurt just go window shopping on the last bargains available, right??? Err.. WRONG!

As soon as I stepped into Croydon, I headed straight to Zara. There was quite a frenzy there, coz they slashed an extra 20% off on top of the sale price. So, I kinda looked around, browsed through the sale rails and there it was... the red Zara coat that I saw a month ago with Marc. Its this lovely 60s inspired red coat - I remembered that it was love at first sight... but my heart broke when I saw the price tag - £99. Of course, I put it back, obviously I couldn't afford it. Anyways, the red coat was on sale for £40!!! And it was the only one left. So without hesitation, I grabbed it straight to the till!


I'm so excited... I love my Zara coat! Its one of the best buys ever. On top of that, I also managed to splurged on a summer dress a sweater, a T-shirt and a couple of thermal singlets. Nice...

So, I'm now home feeling satisfied with my bargain buys... especially my Zara coat. Can't wait to wear it soon!

My Television Decision Obsession

This is our TV in our lounge. As you can see, it is a bit too old... no, its actually an ancient antique. Don't get me wrong, it works perfectly fine... but because it was from 20 years ago, it doesn't have any input/output connections. Thus, we can't connect our DVD player nor put in a digital Freeview box.

So, in line with my new year resolutions no.1 and no.3 (to lose weight the cheap way), I am all geared up to exercise at least 3x a week via the numerous DVD workouts that I have. We have a huge carpeted lounge, so space is not a problem. My housemate is gonna leave to site soon, so time share to use the lounge is not a problem either. The only problem is making the right decision to buy which tv.

You see, I can't afford a brand new LCD tv, which costs a minimum of £500 each... minimum! I don't mind a second hand CRT tv. In fact they are becoming so much cheaper now due to the introduction of the LCD tvs. The only thing is that I'm torn with either getting a small tv which can fit in our existing tv cabinet (see picture) or getting a new set all together inclusive of the stand. If I look through ebay, it costs nearly the same for a Sony 24" and a Phillips 32"... so then, I have to decide on the brand aka quality history. I know Sony's the best one out there.. but its quite difficult to find. My budget's the other problem... I hope I won't spend more than £100, inclusive of the delivery and hopefully I can include a freeview box into it as well.

I went through loads of internet sites to find the best deals and I find quite a few good offers. However, a colleague of mine at office told me there's this repair shop in Wallington selling cheap second hand TVs. So, I'm gonna go check it out tomorrow. Well, wish me luck!

A new year, a new start

I know that I might be more than 2 weeks overdue, but erm.. Happy New Year everyone!!! There were so much going ons that hindered me to post much earlier. The main one would be not having our home internet connection connected last December as promised by the internet provider. I can't sign in to my blog from office anymore, for some strange reason... apparently a forbidden message pops out every time I tried to. So apologies for not updating the blog for quite a long time.

But anyways, now that the internet is up and running, I am so happy that I can now blog and hopefully update it as regularly as I would like to. Hmmm... where shall I start??? OK, since my last posting I've had some memorable ongoings that's worth mentioning. I've had my first company ball, wearing my very first formal black dress. It was a good evening. I went with my housemate, Arvin and we had a good time with my colleagues and bosses. It was a 3 course meal dinner and dance. Unfortunately, the pictures are with Arvin (whose back in KL at this moment- you lucky guy, benci...). I'll try and post it up soon.

Then, there was the long Christmas holiday, which Hubby came up to join me here. That was really fun. We spent quality time together and rented a car for the week. We went up to Oxford and went on a shopping spree. More details are in my photo blog. I bought quite a lot of stuff, mostly work clothes, coz unfortunately I can't fit in my old ones from last year. Yup, I've put on weight. I used to weigh an average of 48kgs, but sadly now I'm 54kgs... which is already in the overweight category for my height.

Thus, I'm hoping that 2007 will be a good year- a new start for me. This year I have decided to commit myself to the following:

1) To start my diet & exercise program to lose 5kg before my birthday

2) To start serious work to get my Charteredship

3) To start saving for a house

Hopefully, the above will keep me busy since I'm all alone at the moment. It will keep me a bit focused and lessen the stress of missing my loved ones.