AFF Suzuki Cup Win - Goodbye 2010

Yesterday Malaysia won the AFF Suzuki Cup for the first time. Yeayyy! ^_^ Our PM declared tomorrow, Friday 31st December 2010 a public holiday. Double yeayyy! That makes today the last working day of the year. I am excited, of course, to get that extra 1 day holiday but today was and Monday will be a freaking busy day for us. Reason being today is a year end! (closing book etc) and on Monday we have to deal with 2 days of maturities (die).

Anyway, 2010 has been a good year for me. Hubby and I took a number of extra steps forward. I moved in with him mid-January 2010 after 3 months of marriage... we furnished the house and made it home together nearly a year ago. I am still adapting to living together but getting a better hang of it now. =p

In June, I finally sat for my Level 1 CFA paper again. I said finally because I was supposed to go for the December paper but I was coughing so bad that I was willing to let go the RM2K+ exam fee to not attend the exam. =( But good thing I passed Level 1 in June so I got to move forward to Level 2 this coming June.

Travelling has been crazy. Went to Melaka for Haslin's wedding 1st January, Terengganu for Norul's wedding in March, Pangkor Laut with parents-in-law, mummy and abg in June. Went to PD for Hanijoe's wedding also in June and then twice for vacation with each side of the family in July. Went to Penang in October for anniversary and an impromtu trip to Cameron Highland. And the list gets crazier.

December 16-18: Hatyai

December 24-26: Penang

January 1-2: Melaka

January 15-16: Sepang

January 22-24: Brunei

January 28-30: Sabah

That's like almost every weekend with little breaks in between. Huargh... Tiring and burning a BIG hole in our pockets but alhamdulillah for the opportunities. I believe this is rezeki of its own kind. Not to forget, both hubby and I changed our cars this year. Hubby gave back his Naza Kia to his mom and bought Mitsubishi Triton just before Hari Raya Aidilfitri. That was to facilitate his business for the annual mantai session. As all of you might have known, I just traded in my little Proton Neo for a Mitsubishi Lancer WANNABE i.e. Proton Inspira. ^_^ Loving these both babies of ours. Hehe.

Investment/Monetary wise I bought an apartment in Kajang at simply no cost at all, albeit a small, cheap one. Rental has been consistent so far, Alhamdulillah. And although I don't have a clear saving at the moment, I took up a huge debt i.e. ASB loan that is now forcing me to put aside a HUGE (for me) chunk of money monthly, for it to be available in the future... 15 years to be exact.

All I have to say now is Goodbye 2010, and Welcome 2011. Hopefully 2011 will be a better year. Although I don't normally have a clear resolution for any new year (it has always been to pass exam with flying colours... irregardless whether it is a new year or not), this year I really have something to achieve in this new book.

1) I want to get back my pre-wedding weight, with no/little financial cost involved.

2) Start studying for CFA as early as possible. (Possibly after the Sabah trip)

3) Pay hubby's PTPTN consistently. (He seldom pays attention to all these things but I am very particular about money and THIS is clearly a commitment I must honor.)

With that, have a good new year celebration everyone! See you next year. *wink wink* ;)

Hatyai Trip

Last Thursday, hubby and I followed my parents-in-law, together with Kak Ina, Abg Nad and the 2 kids to Hatyai, Thailand. FatherInLaw had a wedding to attend and all of us got to tag along. This is my first trip to Hatyai. Yeay...

We left early Thursday morning from Nilai. FIL borrowed an Estima to fit us all in. Stopped for breakfast at Rawang (Thank God. Hubby and I were late, thus didn't have time to eat.), then we stop for Lunch in Kedah at this Ikan Bakar shop, apparently family's favourite. Sedap!!!

I had my first tut-tut experience. Got my first Thai foot massage, which was, in a way, a funny experience since my tolerance for pain is very low, I made the masseuse jump a couple of times. We had teh tarik, which is not that similar to our teh tarik in Malaysia. Other than that we just went around and did some shopping. Well, I didn't shop much. So I just played games on my phone while waiting for them to shop until hubby said he wanted to go back to the hotel to sleep.

tut-tut

teh tarik

The wedding was beautiful. Generally, although the venue looks pretty much the same for a wedding reception here in Malaysia, they do not have a pelamin area. The culture is also a bit different. Instead of the celebrated bride and groom being hidden until the grand entrance, Thai newlyweds receive their guests at the entrance and have pictures taken with them first. While their guests are enjoying their meal, the bride and groom will make their grand entrance walking towards the stage. Then there was some word exhanging event on stage (I didn't understand a word since they conversed in Thai) before the cake cutting ceremony. Later, the newlyweds would go to each table to hand out the doorgifts to the guests. Wah, so tiring!

I also got a pic with CIMB Thai's atm and hubby managed to snap for me a CIMB Thai branch. He says I am obsessed. Whatever~

My new baby :)

I know I should update my blog sooner on this but I was just too busy at the moment. It is near year end now and one colleague is on long leave so I got my hands full until mid next week. Anyway, I went to Hatyai last Thursday - Saturday with hubby and the in-laws. It was a fun trip but I will update on that later. This post is solely dedicated to my new baby, Proton Inspira BLB 2690, pet name BumbLeBee. Haks haks. After signing the agreement Wednesday night (with the correct rate and after making such a huge fuss over the neo transfer), I was told that I could take the car when I came back from my trip but sadly they are not open on Sunday. All the hardship and drama forgetten once I met this new baby of mine. (Now I understand the feeling of being a mother giving birth to her child... wakakaka)
Meet my new bee:

Loan

Okay. Now is the part to sign my loan agreement. Car should be released anytime soon after it got registered, pending loan disbursement.

Just as I was about to sign the agreement, I saw the interest rate = 4.00%.

Hmm, I was told that it was revised down to 3.50%?

So when the dealer called me just now, I asked him and he confirmed again that the rate should be 3.50%, not 4% which is the old rate.

So I called the bank to ask about it and after checking, she confirmed that it should be 3.50%.

My dealer said just sign the deal, later they will revise. He needs it fast to register the car.

But after I sign the agreement, would the bank WANT to revise the rate down?

I don't want to sign an agreement I don't agree to.

Huwaa... No no no. Wait some more laa.

Temper - Part 2

I was sooo stressed out with work last week that even when I got a call that I can already collect my Inspira, I found it hard to be all excited about it. I let hubby do all the dealing with the car dealer as I didn't want to get involved with things that did not require my immediate attention. I had a deadline to meet, which was the year end party so I didn't want any distraction.

Now that everything is done, I started to trace the progress of stuff and started asking around. To my dismay, I found something very disturbing. Hubby has been hiding the fact from me coz he's kinda scared that I might just burst. He was right at that. If you follow the last post below titled "temper", I was already so mad when I found out that I need to find my own buyer. When the manager called to tell me that I would not get my car as soon as I was promised I asked her what would happened to my current car. She checked for me and said "we will take care of it" so I shut up. Then now apparently because it is year end already, I need to top up around 3K to settle my current neo loan... because cars devalue at year end. So why was that when you wanted to make that sale, you promised me it was okay, and now suddenly cars devalue? Because I made that payment already?

WTF!!! You PROMISED to take it at breakeven. I didn't like that because I think with a little extra effort, I could make a little profit, if not much from it. After all, my loan is 7 years instead of the normal 9 years. But I agreed... Fine... At least, it won't give me a headache. At least, I don't have to top up... Not making a loss. And NOW you want to come to me and say otherwise? Are you fucking kidding me?

I said if I had to top up, just cancel my booking, refund EVERYTHING I've paid before. The car dealer just agreed to it. Then I called the manager to confirm that EVERYTHING means including the "service charge" for using my credit card. She agreed but hesitated. Then she said the car is already booked under my name. I replied, I don't care. If your side do not deliver your words, why should I deliver mine??? Just because I have paid doesn't mean that you can default on your side of the contract. She said she will look into it.

Then the dealer called me and begged for me to top up just 1K. He will cut ALL his commission from this deal. I didn't give in and only said I will think about it. Actually still thinking whether it would be possible for me to sell it at another second-hand car dealer or just stick to asking for refund. After all, I still LOVE my neo. I can live with her for another 4 years until my loan settled.

Only after about 10-20 mins or so, he texted me and said okay to take the car at break even. When can I send the car. Hmpphhh... Now you talking. Hubby can be mad at me for being so short-tempered once... when the news was still very fresh and they had not explored all the options out there. If you think you can push me there AGAIN, you are very well mistaken. Deliver on your words or no deal at all. Better yet, if you can't keep your words, get lost!

Where is the line?

We received social media guidelines a few days back. While some are pretty obvious common sense no-no, some did give me something to worry about. Today, I feel like posting "I am super tired, super stress and just want to go home" on twitter but in the end decided against it for fear of it being too similar to the no-nos printed in the guideline. (Now at home I can take a step back and properly think through of what I am actually going to post here. Lets hope these are within the acceptable area.)

Earlier today, I was haunted by my own doing of telling TMI. I did put a bit of thought in it before I hit send. Is the content okay? Is it too personal? Then I justified it to myself that it is okay to share my feelings, at least with my closest friends. But apparently it was still wrong. I have not been a very secretive person before. I seldom keep things to myself as I tend to share my feelings most of the time. I can keep someone else's secret but if it was about me, at least someone out there must have some knowledge about it.

Yes, I understand. As a wife, I am bounded by "the guideline" to keep the privacy of our relationship to ourselves. "The guideline" is there to help maintain the harmony of the marriage. We shall not tell stuff that are too personal, like your bedroom activities, things that can rock the marriage for fear of other people taking advantage of it, things that are embarrassing about your partner and the list goes on. So just now, before I hit the send button, I weighed the situation and think that there must be exception for very close friends. Because it is not something about what happened in the bedroom, it is not something that can rock my relationship. Was it embarrassing? Was it a weakness? Why was it wrong? Say my partner or myself was suddenly diagnosed with a prostate/cervical cancer, would that be okay for me to declare to the public? Would that be embarrassing? (Pray to God to protect us from all that and may we all have a good blessed passing when our time comes.)

Everything is just a bit too confusing. I know my friends meant well. They were just trying to educate me, also not trying to get entangled in sinful web I just created for myself, for not being a good wife by telling TMI. But where the hell is the line???

P/s: I will take a break from looping while I clear my head for a bit. Maybe I shall go repent.