Outdated!

Gosh... I am SOOOOOOOO outdated! No wonder everyone has been changing their blog's layout. Ahaqs! =p Okay... This is gonna take awhile to adjust and getting used to.

Hubby's way of giving me money

I am known to be a VERY deep sleeper... If there's such a term. (More accurately in Malay is tido mati.) Last night, I was sleeping on the couch by hubby's side while he was watching TV when I suddenly felt suffocated and woke up... There hubby was pinching my nose with a RM50 note. When I came to my senses, I asked him what it is for... He answered, "Duit utk ayg". So I took it, put it in my pocket, wrapped my arms around him and went back to sleep. And then my nose got pinched AGAIN... "WHAT IS IT THIS TIME". "Duit utk ayg"... The process repeated for 4 TIMES!!! Unbelievable. Well, after the fourth one, I gave up trying to go back to sleep...

I looked at him, eyes wide open, and started asking real question like where he got that money from (it is not salary day) and what is the money for? (I am the finance manager for the whole household. Gotta know how much is for what.) After making sure he's not gonna pinch my nose again, and making sure how many pieces actually landed in my pocket (I have another stack of bills' money from mummy in the pocket), I try to go back to sleep... Only to be told, "Lets head upstairs now". Ish.

2 MIRACLES in a week!!!

After a sluggish phase last week, things are picking up a bit finally. It's only the second day into the week and I have already gotten two surprises... MIRACLES really.

1) I have been looking high and low for this close friend of mine from primary school to no avail. We lost contact when we were in form 1, 13 years of age that time. Out of a sudden, 13 years down the road, now at 26, HE himself looked up for me on the Facebook. Like wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... miracle!!!

2) I PASS MY FREAKING CFA LEVEL 1 PAPER!!! That alone is a HUGEEEEEE MIRACLE!

I am sooooooooooo HAPPY!!! Alhamdulillahhhhhh...

Okay, that's it for now. Hehe.

P/s: Level 2 study partners - Layen, Yat, Eu Jin, Hid, Ekmal and hopefully Carmen who is sitting for Lvl 1 in Dec.

Humbling Day

Dear diary,

Today was a humbling day... I feel like everything I did/said turned out wrong.

1) On some racial issue, found that I mis-quoted a friend and later turned out into this big debate over what was being said.... Lucky they have get used to me so the issue can be disregarded rather quickly.

2) Work - was confused on some issue and instead of going to my superior, I went straight to the client, where my superior pointed out reflects poor coordination in the team. =_=

3) Work - had to revise rate quoted to a client coz when I asked the dealer, she didn't answer so I asked the client what was the last rate quoted instead. And the rate sounds consistent with our board rate so I agreed to it. Turns out, they should get higher rate and the client was of couse, unhappy and her superior called back.

4) Feel bad for not staying over at my mom's place yesterday when she asked me to do so. The guilt drags on...

5) Coughing profusely. Should have taken Doctor's offer for MC today but refused based on the amount of work I currently have, which I now regret.

I hope it stops there. A bit too much for me to handle this especially in my current coughing condition.

Regards,
Farah

Pangkor Laut Resort pictures and ECLIPSE!

ECLIPSE Fever is definitely heating up since it's arrival in Malaysia yesterday! I would have to say, hmm, actually it doesn't quite meet my expectation coz my expectation was definitely sky high but nevertheless, I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Melted from all the loveeee it exudes. Just wished it could be longer to capture the feeeeeeel from the whole story. Oh... I promised to a friend to upload pictures from my latest vacation @ Pangkor Laut Resort on Facebook but was just too lazy to do anything on the computer at home (FB is blocked at the office). So here goes some of the pictures taken from our most recent vacation.

Look at us. Don't we make good lovely parents? LOL

That's it for now. I do need to do some restructuring with my labels later. Adios~

update: You know what... Hell with the labels. After going through SOME entries, I don't think I give a damn anymore whether the correct labels were being used or not. whatever~ haha

Dear Diary

Dear Diary,

It's raining outside and I don't feel like going home yet as I'm sure the traffic will be congested. Plus hubby is still not done for the day. I would just like to record a VERY cheesy story so if you think you'll get sick of it, please stop reading. This morning I woke hubby up before I left for work since he wanted to leave early. Normally I would only give him a wake up call when I reached office. He was sitting on the bed, still half asleep when I hugged him from behind and asked, "sape yg comel sgt nih?". He then answered, "baby". I know I always call him baby though I don't think he approves it so it is a surprise to me when he admits that he is a baby, MY baby. Hehe... SAYANG SGT. Okay. YOU who are determined enough to read this entry even though I changed the font colour to black, please leave a comment. Let's have a headcount of those who actually managed to read this. LOL.

Love,

Farah

Half year into 2010

I want to update you guys on my very recent trip to Pangkor Laut Resort but pics are still with my brother so that will come a bit later... I guess. (If I am rajin enough to post them up here later, that is.) For now, I just feel like babbling. Somehow I suddenly feel obliged to update my blog coz I was sooo bored, resulting in blog-hopping addiction (as my source of entertainment) and was hoping that everyone would update their blog fast enough to keep up with my frequent visiting.

So where do I start... Pangkor Laut trip has been refreshing and as expected... fattening =D ngeeee.... Gosh, I REALLY need to watch my weight now. Speaking of which, since it is THAT time of the month when typically I would need choc to help calm me down/cheer me up, I was craving for a BAR of DARK CHOC and had been bugging hubby about it. Being the sweet hubby that he is, he went ALL the way to KLIA yesterday and bought me one. (The phone is being placed there for you to have an idea of how big the chocolate bar really is.)
And talking about sweet hubby, he bought me a bottle of perfume right after our Pangkor Laut trip. It was totally unexpected. We were walking around in KLCC while waiting for Lin Ali... went past Versace's booth, where the sales lady offered for a test spray, which I "politely" declined (a very quick "No, Thank you", smiled and quickly walked away without looking back). Hubby suddenly stopped me and asked "Perfume ayg dah nak habis kan?"

Me: Yeah. Why?

Him: Meh syg belikan

Me: Tak payah laa...

Him: Apsal pulak. Jom...

*Pushed me back towards the saleslady.* Grrr *&%$#@

Saleslady: Ha, tadi akak tanye ckp taknak....

Double grrrrr.

Well, being us, who don't like to shop much, we did the purchase in less than 10 minutes. (I didn't even get the chance to refuse this gift. Lucky I actually like the smell of it afterwards. =p)

Here you go: Versus by Versace. (You can actually see in the picture, my old perfume. Still quite a lot. Haha.)

And lastly, checked my cimbclicks just now and am so happy to see both loans I have taken (refer post Investment and Investment - Part 2) are now being displayed on my screen... FINALLY! (where can you find a girl that is so excited to see she has more debt now =p wait a minute. I'm no longer a girl. Haha.) So I guess this will drag me into deficit again... until things get sorted out. Hope not for long (fingers crossed).

Oh. 1 more thing. Thinking of going to the dentist to take out one of my wisdom teeth tomorrow. It has been bugging me for quite some time since it came out sideway and has been biting the inside of my cheek, which is annoying. It is also making my lower gum to swell sometimes so better get this one sorted out... Pray I actually have the guts to go do it tomorrow as I might chicken out and delay the procedure AGAIN. heh.

Kids understand

We are currently on the way to Pangkor Laut, following behind parents-in-law's car. When we stopped at a petrol station for a refill just now, hubby went to take his niece and carried her to the newspaper stand. Just before returning her back to her grandparents, hubby complained how heavy her niece is. When hubby handed her over to his mom, she suddenly said:
Sorry Uncle Boy, Qys berat.
Hubby was immediately speechless and left felling a little guilty.
LOL!

Patriotism

Happy Thursday, everyone.

I went to abang's awards day at KYUEM last Saturday. This day marks his last day there as a student so now we can only sit and wait for the result. Guest of honour on that day was Tan Sri Zarinah Anwar, Chairman of Securities Commission, who gave a very enlightening speech about self development, independence and success. She was saying how refreshing it is not to have to talk about regulation, capital markets in Malaysia etc. and talked about her experience in school instead. She told us how her teacher had encouraged her students to be independant, like when the school didn't have enough funds to build a hall, they did a number of fund-raising events to achieve their target. Later, they wanted to have their own school band so they needed fund for their uniforms and equipments. Again, instead of asking for money from whoever and waiting, they actually took matter in their own hands and work for it, which I find very inspiring. They even won the state level that year. I have heard some ppl TRYING to go into business and blaming relatives for not providing them funds "like the chinese". WTF? I'm sure although some Chinese are lucky enough to get funding from their parents to start off their own business, most of them actually work for it themselves. So STOP BLAMING and START WORKING.

She later went on to touch on the working environment, where she said although there is no doubt your qualification is important to get you in, it is how you perform at work later that would actually get you to the next level. This is exactly the issue I have been facing lately. I know my result got me somewhere but it is a constant struggle to keep on improving at work, where all that KPIs matter. I need to go keep on moving. I can't stay constant or I will be left behind. Howww do I do that???

After the event in the hall is over, we went to the dining hall for lunch where I get to sit and talk with one of my own teachers. He was commenting about interviews and find it bullshit when people say "I want to serve the country" during interviews. What the hell is wrong with that? Honestly, as cheesy as it may sound, I DO feel that way. I DO feel like I owe it to my country to work and contribute back to the society given the amount of money they spent on me for my education. I DO feel like I owe it to myself to make use of some knowledge/skills/experience I acquired for the amount of time I put in during my studies. I'm sure it is not much as compared to other ppl I know... but there was still some effort on my side to at least pass my papers. And although the contribution of ONE small person like me may not actually affect the nation's economy as a whole, combine the small small me and you will get like what, more than half of the nation's total working force? (The rest being the high achievers that DO contribute a whole lot to the country's economy and development.) Anyway, as small as the contribution of one person may be, it is still important to the economy, especially when we later aggregate it to make up for the country's total production, ie GDP. Imagine ONE cleaner refuses to work and his decision affected his colleagues and they also decided not to work, can you imagine the effect it will have on our GDP. Not only will the state be left dirty, there will be less velocity in the market as less people have money to spend, thus other people will get less income from say groceries sales, petrol, bus fare, food stalls etc. So in short, don't underestimate one person's contribution. Also don't look down on one person's motivation to contribute to his/her country. It is NOT bullshit.

In case any of my friends working overseas reading this, you guys still contribute to the country in a number of ways. 1) money sent home 2) Malaysia's reputation to the rest of the world. You guys are the country's small ambassadors. hehe. Proud of you guys, being over there, competing with other world class people. =)

Okay, I'm patriotic. Just shut up now. =p

Toilet seat

Since I'm bored, lets do 2 updates today =p

As some of you might have known, hubby has started venturing out from his agricultural business to construction. Not as big scale as his farming business just yet but he has started on helping with building kitchen and toilet for other farmer and recently tiling aunt's house. I sometimes followed him to the sites and I must admit, it is kinda man-ly work. I mean I don't want to get my hands and shoes dirty doing all that, even if I could muster enough strengh to lift anything. But at home, it seems like a different story.

The toilet seat got detached a few days ago and I found it on the bathroom floor.

When hubby saw me in the toilet picking that thing up, he just said "Dah tercabut dah, ayg."

I picked it up, put it back in place, fasten the lock, looked at him and replied "You did all that construction work but you could not get the toilet seat back to its place?"

He just looked back at me grinning with that cheeky, naughty smile....

Sigh

Exam

Hi peeps,

Exam is finally over. (Thank God) I can finally breathe. BUT not with peace.

It was a disaster... again. Here comes the IF ONLY I spent more time studying and doing exercise, it could have been better.

How the hell do ppl study while working, being married and have kids all at the same time.

I just don't have enough motivation to push myself towards this goal.

Perhaps nothing is at stake... that's why I lack the motivation & discipline.

Urgh, I envy+admire my friends who are doing well at what they do...

Am definitely proud of them... But when will I get there?

It feels like I have lost my direction now.

I want to feel good about myself again, have a sense of achievement but it's nowhere in sight at this very particular moment. Lucky I have a hubby to go back to everyday. At least, that is something that I look forward to at the end of a tiring, directionless day.

I am pathetic...

I cry myself to sleep when my hubby is not with me. pathetic.

Investment - Part 2

Geram laa pulak.

I bought Personal Money magazine last week and read about a lady who bought a property earning ard 1.5K rental monthly income and only had to pay 800 for mortgage... She made extra 700 clean money per month! Oh, how nice. I asked a friend, who was one step ahead of me in this property business... she said expected rental income is also 1.5 K per month, with mortgage payment a little over 800. WHY DIDN'T I bought THAT? My rental supposed to be just enough to cover my monthly mortgage payment + maintenance fee. After awhile I remembered, I would need to fork out 10% for downpayment, which is quite impossible for me to find at this point of time... So I was happy again until just now.

My developer called and said that prospective tenants asking for air-cond to be installed, and asking for a lower rent... 700 instead of 750 it was yielding. The air-cond will be charged to ME! Grrrr... When I refused the installation, the lady told me that if I don't install the air-cond, I might get a lower rental income ie. ard 600-620 per month... Marah nya!!! I was not told about this before. I KNEW they'd hide this kind of details from me when promoting the unit. The kind of things I'm afraid off... "The catch" or whatever they wanna call it. So my call: Go ahead with the aircond but rental stays at 750.

And for the ASB loan now, the person liaising with me apparently is quitting. So she passed the processing to another officer, which should be more knowledgable with the product. And NOW he tells me, signing 2 applications would incur twice of admin charge... which costs 110 per application.

Why the hell these sales people hiding vital information from me.

Arghhh. Please... No more unwanted surprises.

My sis-in-law

Yesterday, my sis-in-law, her bf and one of our cousins came over and hang out. The initial plan was for hubby and me to cook prawn fritters (cucur udang) for our guests. It turned out to be the other way round. Sis-in-law aka abby came and took over the post from hubby... did the dough and continued with the frying. Feeling guilty for letting my guest cook (with a tiny little relieve I didn't have to do it =p), I constantly tried to shoo her away to the living room, insisting of taking over the frying part. (I will NOT take over the mixing part though.) Hubby however, was sooo amazed that THIS sister of his CAN cook. Being in a family of cooking experts, he always thought that he and abby were the only ones that can't/don't cook. All the others are very good at it. She proved him wrong. Her reply when hubby asked why she doesn't cook at home was "There are so many professionals around already."

Oh! I LOVE that answer. Haha. I am always thankful to have her around. She makes me feel connected to the family other than the tie I have with hubby. Both of us are not working with the parents, both of us are not in a rush to have babies, both of us like to hang out with friends and now both of us don't cook at home simple because other ppl can cook better. If I were asked that same question, my answer would be "There is no need to settle for my substandard cooking as everyone else can definitely prepare a more decent food that I can." Haha...

I Love You, Sis!

P.s. - I should also add that we both blog. Haha

Investment

After nearly 3 years of working, I am now entering the saving/investment stage.

I have been saving a little bit in my maxinvest and asb through monthly deduction but that is quite insignificant. Being in the investment world, I am presented with all kind of products, which offer varying returns, depending on the amount of risk you are willing to take.

Since I got burnt through shares investment last year, I am now taking baby steps in this investment business. However, I am looking to diversify my investments, to ensure not to put all-eggs-in-one-basket as the saying goes.

Hence, this year, I have decided on 2 long term investments:

1) Property investment - Bought a 3-bedroom medium-low cost apartment for rental purpose in Kajang. Very near to my current house, which makes it easier for monitoring, I hope. Signed loan agreement, S&P etc... Waiting for all that to be processed and the next step is the key taking event, which marks me as the rightful owner of the house. Hopefully will have a new tenant by then as the current tenants' contract ends in May and they have no intention in renewing it.

2) Applied for ASB loan - This one has been pushed to me several times a few years back but I had no intention to invest here as I was led to believe (by myself) that saving small amount of money monthly is more beneficial than taking this big amount loan. However, since the topic was brought up by Hudam in the email loop the other day, we had the opportunity to revisit the topic and discussed about it extensively. Conclusion, still a good investment to take as long as dividend > interest charged on loan. So yeah, just signed my application for that too... Split the big amount into two so that it would be easier for me to prepay the amount in the event of high interest rate later.

I initially had the intention to own 3 houses by the age of 30... The value of the houses need not be big as I have budget constraint but they need to be in an area with high rental demand. Now that I have found ASB loan, I might have to cut down on the houses or extend the deadline. I do think the ASB loan is a good investment now, given that PNB keeps making money and pay that high dividend they are currently doing.

Have fun investing, ppl!

Lepak-ing week...

Hi, peeps! My last week was full... filled with meeting people and finishing some housechores.

Ditched my diet with a plate full of Nasi Goreng Dani Special on Monday.

Lepak with Asserk @ Sushi King and Starbucks, Metropoint on Tuesday.

Had lunch with Mighty, dropped by Midvalley after work to see Camy, Aizat and Babar on Wednesday, before heading to KL to see Mummy and Mak.

Stayed at home on Thursday, where I "played" with the pregnancy test kit at home alone... (I put there played coz I was 99% sure it was going to be negative... which they did... I bought 2... but I was just so excited to test it for the first time =p)

Lepak with Camy, Yat yat and Bojol on Friday at Carrefour Wangsa Maju and Domino's right after for dinner.

Saturday... stayed at home to do some laundry and some cleaning. Lepak with Cyan and Hani Joe at Ice Room, Nilai for some snow ice and went Karaoke-ing with them and hubby. At night, kidnapped Asserk... Had dinner at Red Wok with Asri and soon-to-be fiancee. Played wii until 2am.

Sunday... Did some ironing, went to Low Yat to exhange my faulty second dance mat, went to KLIA to send Mighty off for Japan...

All in all, it was a FULL but FRIENDLY week.
Time to start a new one and slot in studying in between.
Have fun!!!

peace song

Hi hi... Though I don't blog everyday anymore, I guess this is a necessary update following my latest 2 entries. I am happy to say that I have made peace with myself, thanks to all those around me, friends and family, who supported me through out the so-called ordeal. ehehehe... Quite a number of you stepped forward and offered me plenty of advice and related stories. It is much appreciated. Thank you.

Besides that, while I was in the midst of MY cold war and doing my own thing upstairs last 2 days, I suddenly heard hubby singing this song out loud, out of the blue... As in, it is not played on the tv or something. Not sure whether he intentionally wants to dedicate the song to me or he just had this sudden feeling to sing it without any particular reason... but somehow I find the lyrics to be very meaningful. Don't care if anyone wants to call me perasan for that matter.

Ungu : Tercipta Untukku

Menatap indahnya senyuman di wajahmu
Membuatku terdiam dan terpaku
Mengerti akan hadirnya citra terindah
Bila kau peluk mesra tubuhku

Banyak kata
Yang tak mampu ku ungkapkan
Kepada dirimu...

Aku ingin engkau selalu
Hadir dan temani aku
Di setiap langkah yang menyakiniku
Kau tercipta untukku
Sepanjang hidupku

Aku ingin engkau selalu
Hadir dan temani aku
Di setiap langkah yang menyakiniku
Kau tercipta untukku

Pasti waktu akan mampu
Memanggil seluruh ragaku
Ku ingin kau tahu
Ku selalu milikmu
Yang mencintaimu
Sepanjang hidupku..

marriage counseling???

This is a game hubby plays on the internet - http://www.roguevampires.net/
It has a VALA part, where you can take courses to enhance your character's strength in so many ways.
He has not been active since the laptop screen was damaged but I just got it fixed last week.
First course on the list reads: Marriage counseling
Hmm...

You make me sick

Things I feel like doing when hubby sms those exact words to me:

A) Reply with "You disgust me"
B) Chase him out of the house
C) Ran away from home
D) Stop doing all the housechores and stop running his errands

Well, at the spur of the moment, I opted for C, for only a day... since a directive was issued... I should stay home no matter how bad we fight. (I am sure after this, it will be no publishing personal issues on the blog. But who reads my blog anyway...)

His reply to my action above was: Act as nothing happened.

Current software running: Not talking to each other and stay out of each other's way

Seriously? Do you still feel like going home at this stage of life? Home feels like hell when I cannot speak... coz I talk a lot. Not speaking takes a great deal of effort out of me. Hmmphh.

I LOVE CIMB~

Hua hua hua...
Muacksss!!!