As usual, my two weeks away had flown by. This trip was filled with family duties…visited the grandma and other assorted families. But of course, the main reason for the trip was to attend dreymer’s wedding. That deserves a full blog post, so I shall leave it for now .

We also had a grand ole family vacation in Krabi, Thailand, where it proceeded to piss it down all 4 days we were there. I got conned by the ‘rents to stupidly hike up a mountain but got massages all 4 days we were there. Meh. Did’nt do much shopping this time around as the exchange rate was outrageous, which is always annoying. But personal highlights for this trip were my endless trips to 100-yen shops and wolfing down durians endlessly. Nom nom nom…but bacon was most definately not impressed!!

I have so much more to say, but there is only so much I can do with my super mini keyboard here. Will hopefully be back and fully functioning later im the week, so I’ll be back to bore you more with my mindless chatter!?

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Today I turn a decade older. Hmm. Not really a good thing. Or is it?

It just feels that I turned a decade older but age is really just a number. I am very suprisingly am still pretty much wrinkle-free. I don’t feel any different, and I even still wear my favourite army jacket that I bought 10 years ago in the states. So in many ways, nothing much had changed in life. I’m now sat on the bed I had since I was 14, staring at the apple-green walls of my room, decorated by posters that still scream ‘teenager’.

Oh, except I seemed to have acquired a husband along the way, lived in 3 different countries, partied like its 1999 ,collected many friends along the way and can now afford many things I could only dream of when I was a struggling student in 2000. I’ve lived well, made mistakes along the way, but I never ceased learning. I learnt to let go of the things I cannot change, learnt to love myself, learnt to never let go of dreams.

I look back to my 20′s, and in the words of Edif Piaf, je ne regrette rien. Its been a fabulous ride, and I wouldn’t have changed a thing. I would have been a pleasant suprise to my 20 year old self, no I’m not old and dowdy at 30, and I can now afford many nice things, including the travelling I’ve always dreamt of. And fabulous friends and a husband that loves me (most of the time ). And shockingly, a mortgage well within my means.

So yes, you did ok kid,you did ok. Have a happy birthday, with many more to come.

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Lately I’ve been thinking about my attitute towards food versus my general disposition. Blame it on too much reflection time during my daily commute. I had always refuse to let distance separate me from the food I love. If I can’t get to it, I’ll make it. Self sufficiency and all that…

This attitute is generally true with my personality as well. I refuse to let things get me down or prevent me from doing something, unless it’s a physical impossibility. If I can’t buy it, I’ll make it. Just because I’m miles from home it doesn’t stop me from sourcing what I want. I’m not too sure if this is a good attitute – I spend way too much time firstly imagining, and then coming up with hare-brained ideas of what to do to curb my yearnings.

So last weekend I made bah kwa – a traditional chinese sweetmeat/jerky that I had never known anyone to make at home before. It tasted very alike, and I promptly celebrated that fact by consuming most of it at one go. The weekend before last I made yee sang, a Chinese New Year salad ushering in prosperity and what nots.

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It does not stop with food from my childhood though. After one too many dissapointing ventures into pseudo-burrito bars, chain tex-mex restaurants and even indie mexican restaurants, I have decided that enough is enough. I will NOT settle for sub-standard mexican food any more – for some curious reason the UK’s defination of Mexican cuisine is thoroughly different from what it actually is. For example, I believe that burritos does not come with rice, unless its a San Franciscan Mission-styled burritos. However, ALL the burritos that I’ve had here contain rice – how very peculiar. And not alot of pico de gallo nor cilantro (coriander).

So yes, this weekend is mexican weekend chez moi. I am proud of my ability to not let barriers get in my way of food, and life.

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It’s been way too long since my departure from the land of the brave. I only lived there three years, but it was one of the three most dramatic and memorable years in my life. Part college life, part first time freedom, but I love the good ole US of A. I love the food, I love the cities, I love the climate (well, I DID live in California) and I love the people. Ever so polite with great customer service, many have tried to replicate by have sorely failed.

When I left so many years ago (2002 to be precise) I did not think that it would take me such a long time to return. I always had grand plans of returning to do my MBA, and possibly starting a career there. I was young, I was ideallistic and naive. Now I am not so young but still ideallistic and naive. I did not realise how difficult it was for me to return to the US of A as a tourist, not to mention as a resident. My Malaysian passport would be the major hindering factor. Bureaucratic red tape, low exchange rate and general lack of holidays whilst I was in Malaysia held me back like nails to a coffin.

Well, I’m back now. It might not be for good, but at least I’m back. It might not be home (California was), but it’s close enough.

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aargh

Definately too much work aggro – and a well deserved break away from all this. Even my bento making adventures is going haywire, the FIRST time ever that I’m making a bento for someone other than me & bacon and what happens? I SCREW UP! It still looks pretty good though..

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Maybe its because I made two bentos instead of one – it’s me trying to do too much at one time. But I wanted to give the organisers something to munch on as she had to deliver the bento to the winner due to my bonkers work schedule:

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Alright, enough bento showing off (to see more, go here) – need to go off to sleep to prepare for another day of WAR at work before taking off! niteynites peeps, seeya in two weeks time!

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tetley – a man’s best friend (??- 3rd Feb 2010)

the cat passed away yesterday night. One moment he was there, the next moment he was gasping for air. And then he was no more…We think it was a heart attack, and am as upset as hell. He was the first cat I ever liked (not a cat person) but has hit bacon very hard as he’s been with him for 11 years and is the first pet he had that died on him like that. We both spent a day at work dazed, confused and of no use to anyone….I could hardly eat whilst bacon had just scoffed food down his throat nonstop. We’ve wrapped him up in his favourite fleece and put him in a box (he likes boxes) – and had just buried him next to the cherry tree that he helped planted. More like distract us by sitting in the hole we dug. And then we went out and got fish & chips….his favourite food. As usual, I left some fish for him…but this time he wasn’t there to scoff it up….and it had to go into the bin.

likes: drinking fish-infused water, picking a fight with other cats, sleeping on the bed with us, afternoon naps with me, sleeping in the laundry basket (with clothes in it)wearing my hairband, a good tickling, being cuddled, freedom to go in and out whenever he likes, meowing when you’re on the phone, sitting under umbrellas, going into the toilet with you, following you everywhere you go and his favourite thing ever; come running when he sees you approaching home after a day at work.

fave foods: melon, edamame (soybean pods), ham, tuna, smoked salmon, roast, milk, spicy curry, pepperoni off the pizza, KFC, catfood in jelly, barbequed food, kebab,

hates: travelling by car, confined spaces (he was rescued from a locked garage), collar, snow, loud noises, too much sunshine, not being able to sleep with us, no human company, us being away on holiday, other male cats, alcohol (suprisingly, seeing that he’s named tetley).

I’m so sorry for all the times when I refused to share my KFC with you. Hope you are in KFC heaven. The house is too quiet without you. We will always miss you xxxx

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I have also been furiously planning for my trip down under in 3 weeks and counting! I have had to slash a few good many recommendations from people out, but basically it seemed to have turned into an eating trip rather than regular tourism. Weird. I still need to decide what I want to do in Gold Coast – it will be a trip of Melbourne-Gold Coast- Sydney. Unfortunately Perth proved to be too expensive for me to fly out and in again – with prices reaching about £200 – £300 each way. I would have had to fly into Sydney again, doubling the airtickets and effectively costing nearly as much as it would have if I were to just fly to Perth and back direct!

OH, by the way, do you like my new header? It looks more like a proper picture made for a header rather than my previously half-baked attempts. Thanks to moo who is always helping me sort out blog related stuff

So I thought I wouldn’t bother him any more than I already am as I start a new blog. WHAT?!? NEW BLOG? YOU HARDLY UPDATE THIS ONE AS IT IS!!

Erm, yes. Sorry. I thought it wouldn’t be fair to you my dear readers to have to put up with my new obsession with producing healthy lunch for myself and bacon. The only reason I blog about it is so I continue to be motivated under the watchful eyes of fellow bento-making crazies. If you think my lunches are crazy, you should REALLY click on some of the links that are on my new blog, not another brown bag lunch . Extremely impressive. For me, I just want to make sure I eat healthily, with a splash of cuteness when time and inspiration permits. I also eat far too much rice for my own good, so this allows me to strictly portion myself to 1 cup of cooked rice at any one time.

Okay, back to work before my boss arrives..shh…don’t tell her I’ve been secretly blogging…

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Year of the winning streak
Sometime in Febuary, I won a wok set from one of the SMS competition (it was an Uncle Ben Chinese New Year Promo thingy) that I entered whilst pushing my trolley around the supermarket. Fabulous. I never win anything – ever. May it be lottery, lucky draws, raffles….I am not born lucky let’s put it that way. So winning that wok set (even came with chopsticks, rice bowls, spatulas, apron & oven mitts!) really invigorated me. For some reason I told bacon that my ambition in 2009 was to win a holiday….to which he just laughed. And laughed. And laughed. He did ask how did I forsee going about winning a holiday, to which I said I had no clue. So he continued laughing. Throughout the year I kept entering random competitions and quizzes….futiley I might add.

But look who’s laughing now.

The universe works in mysterious ways. I DID win a holiday, and what a fabulous one at that. To be honest, I was thinking of winning maybe some bog standard trip like some tickets to Spain or a weekend trip to the Lakes (more of a torture for me to be honest as I hate walks)….but I’d much rather hop on a plane to sunny Sydney! WOW. I so rock. Like the Rocks…

In between, I also won other fabulous free stuff…Opera tickets (we went to see a very odd 12-piece band play) and a great Urban Outfitters goody bag. I also bagged myself a free coffee table book when I went to the do that was thrown to publicise Havana Cultura.

And speaking of which…

The year I turned public
I’ve been blogging for half a decade. Unbelievable. I have never gone to any bloggers dos ect…just because I’ve never had the inclination to. I do not protect my online identity well enough, as in I display my pictures ect, but it’s hard meeting people because then I would need to tell them what I do as a job – and I am old-school enough to remember that being dooced is not a good thing! So this was definately the year that everything changed. I started tweeting more intensively, and had got to known some local bloggers/tweeters as well..believe it or not, prior to 2009 my audience was primarily from US, Australia and of course Malaysia.

I’ve been to some ‘brainstorming’ of bloggers..i.e. the Awesome tour of Sydney meet and Havana Cultura intro Tapas night. I was sent a book by indie publishing house Prospera to review. I read massively, but chick-lit is not one of my favourite topics, so I suprised myself by liking it…and subsequently my first book review came to life.

And of course you cannot forget..

The year I got made potentially redundant (again. and again)
I’ve been working for the same company 2+ years…and I’ve had a change of 4 jobs. Even with my sunny disposition, I am beaten down, which is slightly depressing really.I love working in this company, but I’m not too sure if I can take the stress of the perpetual change.

However, not all change is bad…

The year I got active
I had known for some time that I really need to get back to training. Living in Leeds does not bode well at all for outdoor activities, it is either too cold for me or rainy. And I hate rain. Rain rain go away. I went for a few runs in March, hoping to make that a part of my life rather than a random occurance. Having Tiesto on the iPod helped significantly…although that did not last too long – very soon the cold wind chafting my ears and I was getting distracted by stopping at the small meadow down the road from me and feeding the miniature ponies that live there. They are ever so adorable. Okay, distraction again.

So in October (yeah, VERY late I know) I decided to get off my lardy ass and DO something about it. I revisited my Wii, and set up a schedule for myself where I do 30mins -1 hour as soon as I get home from work, before I start on dinner. The first day on the EA Sports Active was tortourous, to say the least. I ached in places I did not know exist…and it wasn’t good. I soldiered on, and manage to finish the full 30 day challenge thingy. However, I am only slightly out of breath at the end of it, and not nearly sweaty enough, so next up I purchased the My Fitness Coach: Cardio Workout. And most definately the most worthwhile £10 I’ve spent in a very, very long time. Not only was the game super entertaining ( my mii earns points to buy outfits – I’m now dressed as a pink bunny!) , it got me off the couch and sweating buckets. Excellent, excellent game. I’ve always loved kick boxing, so this was a natural progression for me. Amazingly, I’ve only missed the odd day and sometimes a whole week; but I always return and doubly punish myself by doing extra long excercises when I do return to it. So semi-regular, I would say…better than nothing though, and I can see my biceps taking shape!

For 2010, I have received another fitness wii game, Your Shape – and will be starting off 1st Jan off with a bang. Oh yeah. That loud bang would be me jumping and breaking the floorboards with a bang. No, actually, I’ve had to move the Wii from my upstairs living room downstairs so I can jump and hop to my heart’s content without coming through the ceiling. The sounds of a herd of elephants….music to my ears…

And speaking of music…

Soundtrack to my life
Ever since I fell out with my iPod a few years ago I had increasingly been removed from listening to music, which I used to find great joy in. Two things happend in 2009…I found my music mojo back with the appearance of my iPod touch and made a return trip to the great Glastonbury. Oh yeah. I am up to about 10gb worth of music on my iPod, and having a long commute on the bus and the ability stay hooked on my iPod whilst I’m at work helped massively with me catching up on what I’ve missed. And more. It was the year of discovery; the last time I fell in love with so many different acts in one year was when I was coached intensively in 2005…

Glastonbury also introduced me to a number of excellent new acts for 2009. I fell in love with British music….first time in my life. I’ve never been a bandy sort of person, but this was the year of the kooky female vocalist. I discovered new tunes, danced to a silent disco, joined Pete Tong & Deadmau5, and saw how Timo Mass hates the adulation of fans…unlike most other DJs.

A scroll through my playlist will show a very eclectic mix from Thievery Corporation to The Killers, from Nouvelle Vague to Florence + The Machines to Chinese pop songs, Lady GaGa, Hed Kandi mixes and Diana Krall to sleep to and Mika to wake up to. Oh yesh. I definately got my music mojo back.

Oh, speaking of music…

Defining gadget of 2009
If there is one purchase that defined me this year, it was getting back to Apple. It all started with Elvin taunting me with his new purchase from NYC…and like a stupid little puppy, I listened to him and got intruiged. So I bought myself an iPod touch too with this year’s bonus payment. The last of the great bonus…so I thought I should do something about it.

It’s definately turned my life upside down. For starters, surfing the internet whilst in the bath…playing neverending games whilst on the throne, watching my chinese serials whilst waiting for a bus….seriously, the price repays itself a thousandfold and ensures that I’m never bored again. Even drey got one….and I got bacon one for Christmas as well. I now feel so ‘connected’ it is unreal. Everything on your fingertips. And those Apple adverts? They are right. There is an app for almost everything. Amazing. Should have got it ages ago.

Just like…

Furniture!
We have some at last!!! I have been toying with the idea of moving for some time now…but at the moment that’s looking next to impossible due to the rapidly falling house prices. I’ve been putting off decorating and furnishing rooms other than my living room & bedroom, but seeing how I’m rapidly accumulating crap, I really needed some furniture. There is now a huge pile of IKEA stuff in my downstairs living (turned Wii) room which I will be turning into a library/games/guest room and upstairs room which will consist of a row of wardrobes…and all my crap stuffed inside.

Still working to getting it finished, but will defiantely be up by 3rd January! Can’t wait! At last I have some furniture! Everything will look much more presentable now…

Just like my face…

Facials are back
I subscribe to the belief that you need a regular facial to keep your appearance shipshape….however, since I moved to Leeds there has been a massive hole in my routine. Facials here are treated as more of a treat than a neccessity…and this is reflected in the price as well. And when I do go for facials, they are usually not very good, and I do not feel as deep-cleansed as I really should feel after that. So it was fabulous when I discovered Origins….to think that I just popped in for a bottle of moisturiser.

They charge £15 for a facial, which is by itself a bargin. The £15 then is completely redeemable against Origins products; making the facial free essentially. Products like a cleanser starts from £17, reasonable really. The facial is not the best ever ever, but not too bad. The products seems to work with my face, and the essential oils smells delicious. I would happily pay £15 for it even without product redemption; a regular cleanse-exfoliate-mask with some essential oils and a complimentary hand massage…although that is a bit touch and go, it really depends on who was on duty that day as to whether you get a hand massage. But seeing that it is practically free – no complaints there, eh?

Oh, which brings me to…

Me the complainer
This year I have definately turned complainer. One of them annoying whingers. I think I just about had enough with bad customer service that I have experienced in this country. I complained about Subway limiting their toppings for me, I complained about my bus drivers being rude, being late, not turning up, taking a fag break….I complained when I had difficulties getting someone to help me with booking my trip to Sydney.

Seriously…I have no idea what’s gotten into me. When did I start complaining so much??! I guess its both good and bad…they need to know that they are not doing too hot and I need to get it out of my system rather than let it fester.

Speaking of things that are bad for you

2009…the year that went up in smokes
My on-off (mostly on) love affair with smokes this decade have finally ended. Cold turkey as well might I add. And I am so proud of myself . I still have an occasional craving (when I’m drinking, when I’m having coffee, when I’m working to a deadline, when I’m studying, when I’m stressed, when I’m chatting with friends…well, it’s more than occasional) but I am controlling that craving very well indeed…not given in once, although I do dream of doing it . I know it’s just going to make me feel ugh afterwards. It helps that most people I know here do not light up.

And so that’s 2009 up in smokes then!!

So what am I looking forward to in 2010?

Changes for 2010

I need a promotion. I need more money. I need another job. End of.

I need to get back to blogging/picture taking. 2009 is most definately my worst year in my blogging history. I have dissapeared for weeks on end. It’s not due to lack of blogging topics, I have been so busy doing other stuff. I have upped the ante on tweeting – but it’s defiantely not the same. Yes, it is easier to tweet in 140alphabets or less, but blogging defines me..I must say though, I am having problems with this super long blog post after doing 140 characters for so long!!

Nearly there, but not quite. I need to accept that I am going to live here…and finish my driving license stuff and other residency stuff here. Sigh.

Travel-wise, looking forward to Melbourne-Gold Coast-Sydney in Febuary, NYC with Elvin in May and catching Eclipse in Malaysia with Drey in June/July…of course not forgetting her wedding!! Yay!! Not looking forward to the regular trips that I am making to Scotland & Brighton for work…the trip is overly exhausting and I much rather remain in my small little cubicle in Leeds.

I’ve been trying half-heartedly, but I am going to get serious bento-ing for 2010. No more unhealthly leftovers…2010 is going to signify a rehaul of my lunch habits and it is going to be totally healthy. Or so I say now. Check back at the end of January.

AND HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Thank you for being with me throughout the second half of the decade – and putting up with my mostly sporadic blogging. And random thoughts. Mostly disputed.

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This time around I steered clear of the Vidals & Tonis…..Katie suggested Ego, a local salon. I guess the litmus test is – do I love it? Hmm. I like it, it’s defiantely better than last year’s, but it’s proving hard to maintain; I am regularly waking up to my hair literally shooting out to all directions. So I now have to get up slightly earlier to brush my hair out, put some gunk on it and then blow it out again.

You like?

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