Post Exam Evaluation

Hey peeps. This the 5th time I went (6th time paying) for a CFA exam. And by far is the MOST challenging one of the lot. I'm not referring to the difficulty of the paper but to the things that happened to me prior to the exam.

1) As you know, my dad passed away a month ago, halfway through a revision class I paid for. I had to skip one day from the 3-day course, which means I missed out on two very important topics: Financial Reporting Analysis and Corporate Finance.

2) It took me about a week or so to recover from the mourning phase and then my stepmom brought up about the asset issue. She told me sad stories about how my dad was short on cash bla bla bla... I fell for it and felt really sad that he never told me all about this money issue. I even told my stepmom to give me her account number if things get too tight for them later. I went back and cannot stop thinking about it and it made me so miserable. Until I kidnap my mom and told her everything that was on my mind. That was the best decision ever because moms are the BEST. She helped me see through things and think more rationally. It was such an eye opener. Whatever hardship they think they are going through now, we have been through worse. Yes, mom was right. Actually my dad managed his assets well. He left behind 3 properties and minimal debt. Maybe not a lot of cash as one would hope, but I assure you, it is enough to last them a few YEARS if they manage it well. Here I am, trying to make ends meet while raising a young family. I have debts here and there. Why do I need to worry about them when I actually need to worry about myself more!!! On top of that, she told me she won't ask my uncle about the piece of land my dad shared with his brother. But a week later, she asked me to go back to Perlis with her to talk to my uncle about the land. Urghhh... Cakap tak serupa bikin. I didn't ask for my portion of the assets my dad left. Why do you need the land so bad. When people say you are materialistic, you denied but here you are clearly showing your character. Hide it a bit la. Very ugly la. I did say I will file the necessary papers for the land but now when I see how desperate she wants it, I'm going to leave it as it is. Everyone can go fly kite. I don't care about it anymore.

3) My blackberry broke down last week. The screen just went blank. Fine. I don't need it anyway since I use it only to BBM people. Wednesday, I broke my baby's Samsung Galaxy Tab. It was beyond repair. And I panicked because she has grown attached to that toy of hers. So Thursday I went to Endah Parade with hubby to buy her a new cheap tablet, brand: Ainol. Never heard the name before but was supposed to be good for cheap tablets range. Today, that screen went blank. Adeihhh...

4) I got conjunctivitis a week before exam and it took so long to recover that I had to go to exam with red-eyes. It means limited eye activities during the whole week when I was supposed to be studying!

5) Last but not least, last night around mid-night, Tricia was sitting at my study table "writing" on my notes. Hubby was making his signature drink in the kitchen. I walked 7 feet away from her to watch The Karate Kid that was on TV. 30 seconds later, out of nowhere, Tricia started crying so loud. We were so worried because we didn't know what happened to her. I checked all my stationery: pens, eraser, pencil lead, pen caps... everything was intact. So she did not swallow anything. We checked her mouth.. every inch of it... her throat... her pampers... her legs...  nothing... no cut, no blood, no mark... but she still didn't stop crying. I let her go a few times... Hoping that she would point out which part was painful as she can now say "sakit".  We kept asking her to show it to us but she just continued crying. Hubby suggested taking her out for a drive. To our disappointment, the crying did not stop. Hubby suggested going for an X-ray just to be sure she didn't swallow anything. At that point of time, I was up for anything. I just couldn't bear looking at her suffering like that. But on the way to the hospital, hubby finally said it... Maybe she "saw" something. Well, maybe... Who knows. So hubby put on Yasin and like magic, the crying stop. She finally drank her milk and went to sleep. That was such a relieve. But it was 1am. Whatever energy, enthusiasm I had for the exam before had evaporated. Vanished. It was just too much to bear in such a short span of time.

The exam I think was quite a disaster for me. If it was one of my uni papers, I am quite confident I would have passed it, not with flying colours, of course, but a pass is very possible. But this is the CFA exam we are talking about, where 144K of people are sitting for it worldwide and only about 30% or so pass the respective levels. So irregardless whether I score 40% or 60%, I have more chances of failing that not. Whatever. I told myself this before I sat for the exam: With the amount of things I had to go through before the exam, I forgive myself if I fail the paper. We'll just try again if we feel like it. If not, let's just forget it. I just don't have that energy anymore. At least, not now.

The Last Respect

I woke up around 6.30 that Monday morning. Was expecting heavy Monday traffic of people going to work but surprisingly the traffic was quite clear. Went to buy a few packs of nasi lemak for people at my dad's house. Arrived at my dad's place around 8am and saw quite a number of familiar faces around, mainly my cousins all the way from Perlis and Penang. Gave my stepmom a bit of money for the burial expenses. Recited Yasin a few more rounds before the van jenazah arrived around 9am. My dad was taken for his last shower and prayer at Masjid Al-Mujahiddeen Damansara Utama, near the roundabout behind uptown. Hubby looked somewhat lost but I shoved him into the room to mandikan my dad for the last time. We went  in when he was about to be tied up. Both my parents-in-law came to the mosque so they helped to hold Tricia while everything was going on. Performed prayer at the mosque and then off we went to the cemetery. 

The cemetery was quite far, all the way at the end of Kota Damansara. Hubby and I nearly got lost going there. But we made it in time for the burial and recital of talkin. Tricia was tired for waking up so early that she slept in the car through the whole process. Hubby had to wait in the car with her. Everything went so smoothly. The weather was a bright sunny day. It was just a beautiful day. After everyone went back, my stepmom and half-siblings stayed back to recite another round of Yasin. She just wanted to accompany him awhile more. As much as I disliked her, I can feel her pain of losing her husband. It must be very hard to accept and surely a very painful experience. This is my dad's lot number. I'll put it here so that I will never forget.

I settled the payment for the penggali kubur but my stepmom had to add on for my dad's grave. I was not sure who and when to pay that day, that I missed the uztaz. Was told that everything was covered by Khairat Kematian at the mosque but family normally gave some token anyway so I want to give that token to those people who helped. So hubby and I went back to the mosque to settle those payments and arrange for tahlil that night and the night after. We ended up paying the tukang mandi jenazah because hubby mistakenly thought he was the uztaz and then went back to leave another packet for the uztaz who helped managed the whole burial process.

That night, hubby had to settle a few more things but he helped took care of Tricia while I went for the tahlil. Mighty did me a HUGE favor by ordering food and delivering them for the tahlil that night. I ordered the food because I was not sure whether my stepmom had ordered it or not since she didn't reply my message. Was initially quite frustrated to see there were so many food available but family and friends comforted me saying that better more than not enough. Mighty again became my hero and helped to distribute the excess food to other mosque. So everything did go well.

I was late for the second night of tahlil. I cried and cried in the car as I was too frustrated with myself. Nearly gave up and thought of just reciting Yasin from elsewhere but somehow I managed to pull-through. Arrived just in time for Doa. Missed the Yasin altogether so I read on my own after that. Tricia was with me the second night and she was an angel. Hubby arrived slightly later when I was performing Isya' prayer. And my mom was also waiting outside the mosque. We went for dinner nearby and went back later to get our cars. Surprisingly, my stepmom and half-sister were still there. I went on to asked for a copy of my dad's death certificate. She told me it was not ready yet and asked why I was late. I didn't realize she noticed me when I walked in because as usual, I simply just sat there alone, not looking left and right for people I know. I told her I got stucked in the jam and would try to be early for the next one, which is later today.

Looking at her, words suddenly jumped out of my mouth. I asked her how she was. She said it was tough. It was very tough. She said since she worked from home, they always did things together. My father liked to eat so they always went places to eat. My siblings were very affected because they were very close to my dad... because my dad always treated them like friends. And then she said, to tell you the truth, he never performed solat before (which I knew) but she told him, "if you want me to change, you have to change yourself first" and for the past 2 years, he never missed a prayer anymore. Not only that, he always waited for prayer time before going out. MasyaAllah. I never knew he had changed. No wonder the whole burial process was so smooth. No wonder he looked so much at peace. He was definitely ready in the true sense. My heart lifted when I heard about it and Alhamdulillah, I could not have been happier. It was just the right way to go. I hope, when my time comes, I could be as ready as he was. Tears swelled in my eyes. I thanked my stepmom and made my move home. 

For the memory, this is the last picture I have of my late father when he was alive. This picture was taken just a month ago when we brought Tricia to see him. I miss you already, pa. I truly hope your soul are blessed in the afterlife. I love you... and I hope you knew.

What happened when I got the news

I arrived home not knowing where to go next. I asked my mom to call her friend who lived across the street from my dad. She said no one was home. I tried looking on facebook, hoping to find information on my dad's passing but was also half-hoping that the news was not true. Unfortunately, one of his cousins updated about his passing but no other information was given. *blank* This is MY father we are talking about and I didn't have any information whatsoever. Tricia was looking at me one kind since she rarely saw me cry this bad. At that moment, I thought, I could just call my dad's phone. Maybe someone would pick up when they saw my name. No one did. I waited. And lucky enough, my half-sister called back. When I heard her voice, I confirmed the news was true. And we cried together on the phone. She told me that they were at Pusat Perubatan Universiti Malaya PPUM and waiting for doctor's confirmation/police report etc. They don't know whether to bring him back to Bukit Antarabangsa or Damansara Jaya (DJ) just yet and would inform me later.

So I took Tricia up with me and took my shower. My period cleared-up, alhamdulillah, so I could at least pray for him. Performed maghrib prayer, recited Yasin for him and left the house, not knowing where to go. Mom asked us to send Tricia to her before we go. Nyah texted me asking whether we want to go together. Called my dad's phone again and this time my half-brother answered the phone and told me that my father had been brought back to DJ. Sent Tricia to mummy and went to DJ with Abg Amir, Nyah, Pakcik Yaa, Abg Own and Abg Sham. Of course, hubby drove me that night. 

It was raining heavily so I arrived in DJ only around 10pm. I went straight in. Brought my Yasin with me and just sat there and read. When they lifted the white cloth covering his face, reality hit me. It was really him lying there motionless but most importantly looking very peaceful. I tried to stop myself from crying and just continued reading my Yasin. In my mind, I imagined packing him lots and lots of bags of my Doa for him. Bags of Doa from his child for him to bring back with him to see his Creator. I lost count how many rounds of Yasin I read for him. I hope he has plenty of Doa to light his grave.

Family from all over came to pay their last respect. Hubby's side of the family also came. Around 11pm, nyah and family went back. I stayed on until 12am. I was torn that night. I wanted to stay there and be with my dad the whole night until everything was settled. But I looked at my hubby and he looked tired. I knew he hadn't eaten yet. Then I thought about my baby, who was at home with mummy. Then I looked at my hubby and asked him whether I should talk to my stepmom. We had never, I repeat, NEVER had a good relationship all along. I could never carry a single conversation with her that wouldn't end up in a fight. But hubby told me that I should. She went and thank all my family members from hubby side who came. So I should at least reciprocate. At least she took care of my dad all these while.
So I did. I went and talked to her nicely and was really hoping she wouldn't cause a scene like she normally did. To my surprise, she was really nice. I asked her whether she needed me to be there that night. She said I could stay there if I want. Then I told her actually I need to go back to my baby. She replied, then it's okay. Come back tomorrow before the burial and we could carry out the process together. Seeing how nice she was that time, I finally managed to say thank you to her for taking care of my dad all this time. She also said that I shouldn't blame my father for not telling us that he was dying because he didn't want family to know. And she had to respect his wishes. So I told her I didn't blame her because I knew it was my dad who didn't want to tell me. Not her. So I'm fine with it. I accepted it long ago when he never told me he got admitted, only told me when he got discharged.

Hubby took me to Hayaki uptown for dinner before going home to my mom's place. Tricia was already asleep when we arrived and my mom said, she kept going to the window asking for mama and papa before she went to sleep. Reminded my mom to wake me up early in the morning so that I won't missed my dad's burial the next day and went to sleep immediately.

28 April 2013 - The day my father passed away

I don't know how to start this... 

It was the day I feared since I was in primary school. I don't remember how old I was exactly when I first got the news that my father had a heart attack. Was it when I was in Standard 4? Around 10 years old or so. Since then I was always reminded by family members that my dad could leave us anytime. 

Last Sunday, 28 April 2013, my father passed away around 4.30pm. He was 62.5 years. I just finished my CFA class in Sunway at 6pm when I received the call from my uncle, Pakcik Yaa. Shocked but not totally unexpected. You see, a week before, I was working the whole day on a Saturday. Went for dinner with hubby, baby and mummy at Muhibbah that night and I thought I saw my half-sister having dinner with people, who looked like family members but I don't know a single person at that table (except for that girl). I could be wrong though because I wasn't wearing my glasses and my eyesight is quite bad now. So texted my dad on whatsapp as below:

21 April 2013 17:08 - me: Hi pa. How r u?

22 April 2013 07:33 - me: I thot i saw dania at muhibbah saturday night. But I'm not too sure sebab rabun.

22 April 2013 07:34 - me: The ppl ard her looked like family but no one i know. So i didnt say hi la. Takut salah org.

23 April 2013 14:19 - him: She went to bangsar that night with some friends

I texted him on Sunday and Monday morning and he replied only on Tuesday. I knew in my heart that something was not right. He never took so long to reply my message. I called him. He didn't pick up and from the ring tone, I knew he was in the country. I called my uncle to ask whether he has my half-siblings numbers but he didn't. I didn't have any other connection to my dad's family at that time and I felt lost.

So happened, I accidentally left my phone at a restaurant that Tuesday and nearly lost it. But God's willing, the waiter there called me back and I got my phone around 9.30pm. So I replied to his text the next day.

24 April 2013 12:06 - me: Oh salah org then. Sah sah rabun. LOL

24 April 2013 12:06 - me: Nasib baik tak tegur

24 April 2013 12:06 - me: How are you, pa?

26 April 2013 10:36 - him: Ok, fine

I knew he was not fine. But I also knew he wouldn't tell me that he was not. I knew how I was not welcomed into his home by my stepmom so I couldn't just go to his house to see him. I thought of randomly calling the hospitals to ask but which hospital? Even then, I don't think the hospitals would release the information to me. So I quietly told my closest friends and my mom. Mom told me to start reciting Yasin but so happened my period just started that time. I checked his facebook wall. Maybe people who visited him would have tagged him there. There was none. My only consolation that time was that I knew he was still alive. 

When I received the call that evening, my heart sank. I was still in class so I couldn't just break down and cry there. So I ran to my car... walked as fast as I could. Dropped everything. Locked the door and just cried. Phone was running out of battery so I had to connect it to the car-charger first and started texting 2 closest whatsapp groups on my phone... and continued crying.

I didn't have any other information of my dad's whereabout that time so my aim was to reach home to hubby so that he could drive me around. My father-in-law was the first to call me after my husband. I still could not keep my composure that time that I sounded delirious on the phone. The calls that came after was better managed.

Grandmaster in the making

Since you refuse to go back into the water (like me), since you want to become so much like me, welcome to the world of chess, baby.

From work and weight to house renovation and vacuum cleaner

Work has not been slowing down as I expected. Just as I thought we have some extra time on our hands, it kept piling up again, with more new special projects coming up. It is becoming a norm to HAVE TO work on weekends. This is tiring especially when I have a major exam coming up in June and I have yet to study. =.= Signed up for a revision class in Sunway though next weekend. Hope to be able to cover the syllabus one round before I attend the revision class (which at this rate, is impossible). Paid RM720 for 3 days revision class and one mock exam. Hope it pays off.

All this stress is taking a toll on me and I don't know whether this is a good thing or not. Yesterday, after lunch I felt dizzy and little out of breathe. My initial thought was, am I having high blood pressure. When CY (colleague/friend/TCB batchmate) came in, he said maybe I was just tired. That is probably true as I have been sleeping late the whole week. I have even lost weight. 3-4 months gym workout could not give me this result. I am at my wedding weight now? I thought it was impossible to achieve. I still feel flabby though... looking at my fats protruding from every angle of my body. If this goes on, I might be able to achieve my ideal weight of 52kg after all.

Was it 3 weeks ago... I came home late from work on a Friday night and found out hubby took a room at Equatorial Bangi. The hotel was not bad at all. But I wasn't so thrilled because again, I had to work that Saturday so only went there to sleep. Hubby and Tricia got to enjoy themselves in the bathtub and had breakfast at the hotel. He later told me that the reason he needed to check into a hotel so much was because he smelled like cow dung after delivering cows during the day. So it got me thinking, why don't we buy a jacuzzi? As usual, when I got excited about something, I will keep talking about it and my colleague/friend/gym partner Soke Yee suggested that I go to perfect living expo in PWTC that coming weekend. Maybe I can get a good offer as the jacuzzi I was looking for apparently costs around RM10K. So 2 weeks ago, we went to PWTC for the expo. Initially found a 2-person jacuzzi for RM11K and it was not even that nice. Continued walking until the first hall and found this at a much lower price, 35% cheaper than the first one! Put in 30% deposit for it. There are a lot more choices, nicer ones but at a slightly higher price but I am opting for the cheapest one I can find first as we have many other things to think about. Maybe then if we have extra cash, we could change to those with see-through glass design. 

Our next problem is renovating the toilet. We know our toilets can't fit in this huge jacuzzi. It is a 5' x 5'. I wanted to renovate the toilet in our master bedroom upstairs because it will be in our room. But the renovation cost is going to cost a bomb. Extending our toilet downstairs make sense because we only need to do minimal renovation to extend it to our backyard and hubby was all excited to put it downstairs as we are practically living downstairs anyway. After a long thought, I told hubby, we might as well make a new master bedroom downstairs. It is going to be easier for me to when the next baby comes around. I can serve my confinement period downstairs without having to go up and down the stairs for water/TV/internet. The design has been giving me headache. We are going to get hubby's cousin Dira, who is an interior design student to design it for us. But first I need to know what I want, right? And I want to take down our 8-feet-cupboard downstairs with us. (This design was sightly altered by Soke Yee from my initial design.) I prefer Option 1 as it makes the room looks bigger and spacious but am still open to suggestions. We have not asked for an estimated renovation cost yet and I am just praying that we could afford it. All travel plans (other than the UK one for abang's graduation) has been cancelled.

One final purchase I am looking for now is a good water-based vacuum. One rainbow vacuum salesperson came to our house the other day. I wasn't even interested to listen because I knew the product already. I don't deny that it is a very good product and I want it very much but the price is just ridiculous. RM8K for a vacuum? That's a bit too much. Surveyed online and found people selling a 3-year one on mudah.my for less than half the price. I excitedly called my husband to tell him about it but he said he is tight on cash now so hold that thought. With sad heart, I let go. But last week, Soke Yee was also looking for a good vacuum. And we agreed that rainbow is a very good one. So we decided to call the seller. Funny thing is, when I told this person my name is Farah, she was confused because she said I sound like a chinese. Yes, my English now has a Chinese accent to it after more than a year working in this department. (Okay, that is definitely not a good thing.) Moving on, she told me that a lot of people are looking to buy so we must hurry if we want it. Soke Yee said she will think about it. After much thought and after telling her mom (she got scolded by her mom for wanting to buy a RM3K second-hand vacuum), we decided not to pursue it. She then threw me some other good vacuum names. And I think Dyson is a good alternative at only quarter the cost of a rainbow. Maybe later today or tomorrow, we can go around looking for one.

That's it for now. So many stories cramp up into one post while I have the time to blog about it. Now I am going to spend the little time I have with my babies until I have to go to work later in the afternoon. Until next time, peeps.

1 year + 5 months = 17 months

Woke up Saturday morning and I was excited to try out the new swimming class in Bangi. Went over to UKM and when we arrived, we noticed we left our swimming bag at home. =.= So we ended up watching the class that was going on. There was only one baby in that class and we saw she was doing some basic stuff so we decided not to join. Went back home and took Tricia to Pusat Maritime Putrajaya for a dip but she cried and cried and hang on to me for her dear life in the pool. Ended up playing by the poolside with papa while mummy had some time for herself in the water. Okay. She IS turning into ME. That was exactly what I did when My mummy sent me to swimming class when I was 4. Hmm. How? She is scared of the water now. Mummy said I shouldn't force her because she didn't force me. But that would mean not going to swimming class at all. All the classes before would be such a waste. Haih.

Last Sunday night, we had dinner with mummy in KL. Since mummy was going to work in Sunway after Maghrib, we left around 8pm and reached Bangi around 9pm. Tricia slept on the way home. When she woke up and realised we were home, she got restless. Got very cranky and kept asking us to help her put on her "tacut" or kasut ie shoes. She became very demanding and kept showing us the door. Later around 10.30pm hubby gave in and said "Okay, let's go out". I needed to do some groceries anyway so I suggested we go to Tesco Kajang. Tesco is open until 12pm on Sunday nights. And off we went.

After a little shopping and pushing her in the trolley between the isles, we went home. On the way back, we were talking about her singing her favourite song, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Her father said she can only sing the first line. I argued she can sing until the second line. I don't know whether she could really understand what adults are talking about. But for the first time that night,  while we were arguing about it, she suddenly "sang" the WHOLE song for us in the car. *Speechless* and PROUD!!! Awhhhh sayang. (You are SO clever.) Of course, the third line onwards all we could hear was some mumbled words but the fact that she can hum the whole song was something new to me. (For the first two lines, we could hear the resemblance of her words to the real lyrics.) We have been unable to record her singing the whole song yet. Every time she sees us taking out the phone while she is singing, she will stop.

Now she has also learned the art of kissing. No, no, not the french kiss one. The "comforting" one. I fetched her home Wednesday night. Being in her car seat, she can't reach over to me to kiss me while I was driving. But out of a sudden, I felt she was kissing my left hand that I put on her. It was such a "romantic" moment. (Awhhh, you miss me?) And then at home, I was laying down in front of the TV and was suddenly hit with her tab on the forehead. Then I cried out. "Tricia, sakit laa" sambil ngomel2. She suddenly bent over and kiss my forehead to comfort me. *melt*

Sing/Swim/Slide away, baby girl

We are entering April already and I haven't progress anywhere with my studies. Sigh. But this post will be about Batrisyia. Her progress update. My baby girl now LOVES to sing and dance. We always sing and dance with her in the car and now even when she's alone, she would just simply sing by herself. Whenever she hears music that she likes, she would move her hand and body to the beat. It is such a heartwarming sight. Last month, we took her karaoke-ing for the first time in Nilai. Hubby took a huge room for her to run around. She had to much fun, made sound at the mic, climbed onto the table and danced to JLo's Dance Again song.

Last week, after I fetched her from Nilai, while in the car on the way back to Bangi, she sang MaMaMaMa! Tica Tica... Wahhh, she made a song out of that two simple words. When I was imitating her, she put in Papa into that equation. Of course, Papa has to be in. He is her best friend!

Tricia swimming class for this semester is done. We have about a month's break before they start a new semester. I must say I am not happy again. Teacher Bryan hired 3 new trainers for the baby class and I found these 3 new teachers are... well... New. Progress is slow again and they seem to repeat the same thing over and over again for Tricia. It is going nowhere. My colleagues have been telling me stories about their swimming class in Sri KDU. And their reviews sound good. Their FB page is AA Water Babies. Since we are always late for our swimming class, I was looking for a class for babies around my area. And Sri KDU is not anywhere nearer to Bangi than Shah Alam. Coincidentally, Abby sent me a poster of AA Water Babies classes in Bangi! So I'm going to try them out next week. Was supposed to go yesterday but I had to work Saturday. Not going to complain about that because we just got injected with a Booster. Life is good this year. Haha.

Hmm, what else. Oh, like any other kid, Tricia loves to play whenever she sees playground, be it indoor or outdoor. The first time we took her to play with the slide at McDonalds BBB, she didn't know what to do so she seem quite scared to go into the tunnel slide. Once I put her in and she knew what to expect, she got excited and kept going again and again. So now we will take her to play whenever we have the chance to do so... Dataran Nilai, Giant Nilai, KLIA, The Curve. Anywhere with slides! Hehe. Apart from having a jolly good time, it is good exercise for her too. She seems to observe what other kids are doing and kept imitating them, like climbing the slides from the front, going head first etc. Giving mama heart attack every time.

Thinking too much?

Hubby watched Lawak Ke Der 2 and quoted one of Harith Iskandar's joke about how a germ would get trapped in a woman's brain but will hear echo in a man's brain. Point being how women always over-think stuff. In I Don't Know How She Does It starring Jessica Parker also highlighted that women always think about a lot of stuff before they go to bed.

Well, currently, my head is so messed up that these two scenes popped up in my head. I started the day this morning by being stucked in the jam before exiting to Kajang Silk and near Kampung Malaysia Raya all the way to TUDM. The jam was worse than usual... the usual would be a little more than an hour, this morning was about 2 hours. That was the first thing that contributed to my headache and stress today.

Current worries stuff swimming in my head:

1) Work - updated funding table, special ops list, hedge accounting treatment, dig in old things I haven't settled

2) Home - wash clothes, fold washed clothes, mop floor?, cook, file paid bills, hang clothes to send to laundry for ironing

3) Bills - wait for credit card statement to be updated, check whether astro/maxis/unifi bills standing instruction got rejected when my credit card limit maxed up, remind hubby to pay maid's salary, asked money from hubby to pay his PTPTN loan

4) Study - why am I still at Reading 2. March is already ending!

5)  Travel - what time are we starting our journey on Saturday? Why these people haven't decided what time to move? Where are we staying? Should I book first to get best rate? Maybe should just walk-in. 

6) Grocery list - Tricia's milk, catfood, dynamo, pillow?, picture frame. 

I am just very very lucky that hubby helped out with taking care of our baby Tricia. Gives me more room to worry about running the household and other stuff.

Bills, Bills, Bills

Hi all, 6 minutes until my lunch hour ends. Was sooo hyped up to go to the gym during lunch time this morning but it was again CANCELLED. Blerghhh. It was my decision though. Work has eased up a bit so I had to catch up with my BILLS. My credit card limit maxed up when I bought our ticket to London and all bill payments had to stop. Haha. Today mom's cheque cleared so I just had to clear the bills out of my way. Let's list down what I did during lunch time today:

1) Called MAS to transfer abg's Enrich Miles to my account to buy his return flight ticket

2) Was told I need an authorisation letter to do that so emailed abang authorisation letter

3) Redeemed my credit card points to convert to Enrich Miles

4) Paid my Bangi and Kajang's house quit rent

5) Paid Bangi's electricity bill
6) Login to TNB's website and paid mom's electricity bill

7) Paid my Bangi's Indah Water bill

8) Called Indah Water to get mom's outstanding balance and paid her bill

9) Registered and login to Syabas website to get mom's bill and paid that bill

Productive huh? All from the convenience of my office desk.

Boat Ride at the Mines

I've been too bogged down with work that I felt that hubby and I hadn't been spending quality time together for awhile. One day at work, I randomly texted hubby telling him that I wanted to go on a date. It had been awhile. He quickly replied he's on it. Cleared the schedule for Sunday night, 3rd March 2013. We were going for a boat ride!!! I dressed up for the occasion, with my tudung selendang and heels... because we we going on a date. LOL.

When we first arrived, I was excited. Tricia was disoriented. She just woke up. Oh yes, we brought our baby along. Hubby knows how uncomfortable I am leaving the baby on weekends. There were 2, now there are 3 of US. I was in awe with everything. I was just plain touched that hubby went to spend so much money on taking me on a date. I just cannot express enough how lucky I am to have him as my life partner.

The journey took about one and a half hours. It was such a relaxing, romantic dinner. It was quite scary going down the water lift though. But we survived. Haha. Hubby ordered continental set for me and Italian for him. The service was wonderful and we were also served with sparkling water. We were brought to see birds sleeping on the nearby tree by the lakeside. The boat went as far as the Palace of the Golden Horses yard. I could see the road I take everyday to work, the Besraya highway. I told hubby, next time whenever I feel stressed going to work, I will look over to the lake and think about this moment. It will give me a warm feeling in my heart remembering this very moment. It was just magical and it was made wonderful by my loveliest one-and-only hubby. I love you with all my heart, syg. Thank you so much for a wonderful moment.

More new stuff

Hola people. The weekend is FINALLY here! What was supposed to be a relaxing week at work with all the monthly PnL stuff done, turned to be a super hectic week doing a special project. We even had to go back nearly 12am Wednesday night but the super exciting thing about it was: The big boss now knows my name! LOL. Yeah, it is a big thing to me, considering I wasn't officially acknowledged when I transferred in and after nearly a year joining the new team, it is nice to be finally recognised.

Last weekend was about catching up with family and friends. Saturday went to Dina's baby aqiqah. Sunday met my dad in the morning and went to hubby's schoolmate's open house. Hubby bought a new blackberry, Z10 by trading-in his HTC oneX and decided he didn't like it. So he went and traded that Z10 with a Samsung... was it Note 2? I'm not too sure. Had to take in a RM350 depreciation loss for using it for about 3 days.

As for me, I redeemed my credit card points for another DVD player so that both TVs have their own DVD player. The first one was redeemed too. I like free stuff. =p Decided to redeem it before hubby can say he wants to buy a new one. Haha. I was right. Right after I told him I redeemed my points, he said he WANTED to buy a blue-ray DVD player for his TV. Too late babe. Too late. =p And then, I also decided to buy a cheap AUTO washing machine since the one I had was semi-auto. Been complaining too much about the amount of washing I have to do to friends that they pushed me to buy a new one. Surveyed at one electrical shop, the lightest load around 6-7.5KG price were around RM750. Went to Seng Heng and found a Panasonic 6.5KG load for RM699 and extra RM100 discount for members. COOLNESS!

Matta fair is currently going on. Malaysia Airline also has their own promotion in March in conjunction with the Matta fair. So we bought our flights to London for abg's graduation in July. We don't quite look forward to it because it will be in fasting month. And the fasting time would be around 2.30am to 9.30pm! For Malaysians like us, that is seriously long. Hopefully it won't be too taxing on us and we can have fun and function normally. Bought Tricia a child seat although she is still entitled to infant ticket because we don't think we can handle holding her for 13 hours straight. Damaged done RM3.6K+ for adult and RM3.1K+ for Tricia... covered by dearest TokMama.

Oh yes, I just want to add: A tired mama is a useless mama. Last Sunday, after all the visiting and the shopping, I was trying to clean the house a bit but I was SUPER drained. Hubby was sleeping and Tricia was her usual active self. I was compiling hubby's work papers in a file and Tricia was circling me trying to take a cup of water by my side. I couldn't do it on the table or she would start to ask me to pick her up. So I did it on the floor. First, she fell down on the file and had two small cuts on her legs from the steel. Second, she managed to kick my cup and spill all the water in it. I was TOO tired to get up and mop the floor although I KNEW she would fall down if she slips. True enough she did and all I did was look. I couldn't even bring myself to pick her up and comfort her. Slowly I woke her papa up so that I could take my turn to rest... but only after I changed her wet clothes from the fall and then hug her to sleep with me. Woke up an hour later to a big portion of fried rice, prepared by dearest hubby.

Water anyone?

Following my health check the other day, hubby and I decided to buy a water filter system to solve my lack of water issue. It is actually long overdue... Our water arrangement all this while was: I would boil the water, let it cool down, then store it in a used mineral water bottle. Hubby doesn't like when the water had been stored for too long. He said it tastes weird. I, on the other hand, don't have that much time to boil and store that frequently so our drinking water supply was always low, which made me want to save the water rather than drink it.

We went online and considered Coway water cooler. The range is around 3K. After discount can get around 2.8K. Been pestering hubby to buy it soon but he said he was waiting for his cheque. So it has been delayed for a week or two. Until, last weekend, my kettle broke down. The only kettle we have to boil water to prepare the baby's milk. So I pestered and pestered and I said we need it ASAP... like today! Hubby brought me to Warta to survey for other water filter and we found a cheaper one by Magic. Never heard that brand before but it filters the water and serves the same function. So I approved. It only costs us RM938, but we added an extra filter so total RM1K. Now we are proud owners of water cooler/heater. LOL.

 

Then came a new problem. My baby girl, excited with this new discovery, kept pressing the cool water button. It made her clothes wet and left a water puddle on the floor. So last night, I immediately went to look for a baby gate. This is definitely long overdue too. Wanted to buy from Mothercare but was told by my friend it cost around RM500-700 per set. OMG, so expensive. Asked around and was told they sell it in Manjaku. I rushed back home and taraaaaaaaaa. Around 150+ per set + extra 40 for extension. Brand: Sweet Cherry. 2 sets including extensions = RM400. Well worth it. Poor my little baby... Ripped part of her freedom. Haha.

My 16 months Batrisyia

Last night, hubby took me and Tricia on a beautiful BEAUTIFUL sunset dinner on a boat. I will blog about it later as my phone is currently not detected by the computer so I cannot extract the pictures. In this post, I just want to update about my baby girl. Last night during dinner, like other babies, she got restless after sitting for so long. She kept reaching out for cutleries and then throw them on the boat floor. I kept taking these things away from her until this one time she got so mad at me and shouted at me while banging the right hand on the table. I got so mad and told her off: "Batrisyia, you cannot yell at me!" (tap on her right hand) And then stared at her. (Papa rubbed her right hand where I tap.) To my surprise, not only that she didn't cry, she actually stared back at me. And then, she hit the table with her left hand while shouting "Ahhh". OH MY GOD! Such a rebellious baby I have here. I tap her on the left hand (papa rub her left hand) and the staring contest continued until both of us got bored of it. Tsk tsk tsk. The zodiac did warn me that our characters will clash and she will be closer to my husband... Never in my mind did I think it would be this soon.

On other news, her vocabulary is growing:
1) Nak
2) Ambik
3) Sedapnyerrr
4) Tokma
5) Baby
6) Jatuh
7) Bird
8) Fish

How baby came about? Last month, my mom observed that Tricia has been calling both of us (hubby and I) "baby". I didn't think it applied to me. While I have been calling hubby "baby" in front of her, hubby never did the same to me. So I thought, she was just mimicking me. Hubby came back one night and told me that Tricia clearly called him baby when they went for a walk at Dataran Nilai. So I concluded she called HIM baby and not me. Until... there was just the two of us at home this one night, we were in front of the tv and she was looking for my attention... she tapped my shoulder and called me "baby, baby". Not once... A few times. Oh what??? My mom's observation was TRUE!

Teeth
#7 below left at 13 months
#8 top left at 14 months
(Is it normal for the pair to be up and down, instead of left and right?)

She still cannot say "susu" so she cannot tell me when she is hungry. But she understands when I ask her, "Do you want susu?". She will reply "Nak" and the point at her milk on the table. Sometimes I couldn't find her bottle so I asked her to find the bottle for me and she did! Another thing she cannot do yet is telling me when she poops. Need to train her that because I think it is very important... Sometimes she passed motions just before we went to bed and I would think that she was just cranky because she was sleepy. Happened a few times! She had to go to bed with it. Huhu. So yeah... I hope that comes soon.

 

She can now have a longer fake telephone conversation on her own. She would use my phone or even her toy phone, sit on the stairs and then pretend talking to someone. I don't know what she talks about. Couldn't catch what she was saying. Possibly asking her Tokma to come over and telling Tokma how mean her mama is.

 

Owh, my mom kept telling me how I started talking, when I was a baby, by saying "Pta, pta, pta" because I didn't have enough voacabulary to speak. The day we first heard Batrisyia said "Pta, pta, pta", hubby and I burst into laughters. I think that was possibly 2-3 months ago? When she was between 13-14 months. Despite all that fights, she is still my SUNSHINE. ^_^ I love you, sweetheart.

Health Check

If you read my last post in January on our trip to Jerai, you would have known that I was planning to go for a blood test. It was kinda lucky that I didn't go that weekend because I found a health check up deal on mydeal.com.my for only RM89 at Well Again, Dataran Mentari, Sunway. It included blood test, urine test, machine test and BMI check. I bought it in Jerai and went for the check up last weekend. I expected good results from the check up as I don't have serious health problem and my health checks when I was pregnant were always good. To my surprise, it wasn't that good. 

One thing for sure, my water content was very low. It led to various not-so-pretty results. 1) My body weight composition. Fat content was high, muscle and water were low. Quite frustrating to see that since now I am an avid gym-goer. Told myself that maybe before I started going to the gym again, the result could have been worse. My BMI was borderline fat at 24+, which I already knew. (Fat >25) 2) My blood was quite thick. Mom said thick blood could be caused by two things: lack of water or high cholesterol. I think it was lack of water because I could only see speckled of cholesterol in my blood. Detailed result of blood test would only be obtained later. 3) My kidney & urinary system was not good, again due to lack of water. (This was a result from the machine test). 

The machine test gave interesting results I don't really understand. General Analysis gave 6 results: a) Vitality/Meridien Energy index b) Metabolism Index c) Mental State Index d) Tendon Bone, Qi & Blood Index e) Throid Gland index and f) Autonomic Nerve Index. Basically, everything was normal except my Mental State Index. It was deemed too high because of the high toxicity in my body, probably due to the fact that I am a meat eater and didn't eat enough fruits and veges. Wah... I have always been hearing about all these detox products but never really cared to try them because I don't know what it is. You can't really see these toxin thingy and to me, it just seem like another marketing strategy to sell some weird products. I didn't know they can report that in health report. Another thing is the pH level in my body. At 5.5 it was very acidic. Yes, I know 7 is neutral. Again, too much meat, not enough veges and fruits. Vitamin C was at the right level. Do I take vitamins regularly? Not at all.

My physiology function analysis again from the machine test reported my endocrine system was hypo-health (in between normal and weak) due to high hormone level in my body. This could be due to stress at work. Liver and kidney functions also hypo-health due to lack of water and high toxicity. Immune system was weak. She said I fall sick easily, which was not true. Let mom read the result and she said this is interconnected with stress level. When you are stressed, you produced a lot of hormones that suppressed your immune system. Made more sense. There were a lot more results from the machine test but I am just going to skip that since 1) I don't fully understand them 2) More or less explained the same things. Toxin - Lack of water - yada yada yada.

Vaginal swab was quite gross. I saw A LOT of moving things ie bacteria from it. I was told that they were good bacteria. At 40-50%, it wasn't enough. It was supposed to be around 80%. Mom said again, this is related to the hormone level in my body. Stress actually disrupts the balance in the body. Last but not least, I could see worms in my blood. Hubby and I went straight to the pharmacy and bought worm pills.

The test was such an eye-opener. I was glad I took it. Waiting anxiously for my blood test result. Lesson learned: Drink more water and eat more veges and fruits.

Universal Studios Singapore (part 2)

After lunch, Layen and I continued our journey to the left side of the park. We reached Far Far Away land. I wanted to go on the Enchanted Airways roller coaster but Layen said we shouldn't given that we just had our lunch so we went to Shrek 4D Adventure instead. We saw the 20-minute waiting time and entered, only to discover that the previous group just went in. So we were the first in line for the next show. It was such a sleepy wait. The show was good. We were seated in moving chairs in a theater, sprinkled with water when the donkey sneezed and felt spiders (or was it rats) running at our feet. Looked for Princess dress for Tricia from the gift shop but couldn't find any.

Then we went to The Lost World. Both the Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure and Canopy Flyer had a 40-minute waiting time. No, thank you. Next Waterworld show was at 5.30pm. So we went back to the Revenge of the Mummy ride, which was just next to The Lost World. After that, we performed our prayer at their surau, which was located in between Ancient Egypt and Sci-Fi City.

By then, it was already 4.30pm. The queue at Rapids Adventure had subsided to 15 minutes. Yeay. Put on our raincoat, brought all the way from home and off we went. Next was the canopy flyer with 10-minute waiting time only. How lucky. Hehe. The funny thing was we found this ride to be scarier than our Cylon Battlestar Galactica ride as we felt unsecured and exposed. Haha.

5.30pm it was just nice to watch the Waterworld show. The stunts done were amazing and the interaction with the audience was good. The actors would splash and splash water to those who were seated in front, where the super wet zone was. Here's the Waterworld show set. On the way to the exit, we passed the Ancient Egypt zone again and saw 5-minute waiting time on Treasure Hunters jeep ride. It was more a ride for kids but what the heck.

Our very last show was Lights, Camera, Action!, where we were ushered into a small studio and were shown how a level 4 hurricane was filmed. It was quite cool to see how extensive the preparation for one small scene could be. After that, we did some shopping and bid everyone else goodbye. Had dinner at an Indonesian restaurant in Vivocity shopping centre, which was closing in about a week's time due to shortage of staff. Took the MRT back to Terminal 1 airport.

Checked-in. Performed our prayers. By this time, I was VERY VERY VERY sleepy already due to the lack of sleep I had the night before. Went to our gate and I went to find myself a row of seats to sleep on while Layen patiently sat beside me. Did I snore? I don't know and I don't want to know. Was just TOO sleepy to care at that time. Fell asleep as soon as we boarded the plane and was suddenly woken up by a steward. I thought I was snoring too loud but apparently the aisle seat was damaged in some way and I had to move to a seat behind. Not that the seat affected me but I just did what I was told. Resumed sleep immediately. When we arrived, Layen told me the take off and landing were pretty rough but I couldn't feel a thing because I was in a very deep sleep. Was fetched by my lovely hubby and baby.

A HUGE thank you to my hubby for letting me have some much-needed me time. Come to think of it I should have more me time first half of this year before we decided to conceive again. With two babies later, it is going to be HARDER to take a break. Thank you to my ever so cool and patient theme-park buddy Layen for going with me and accommodating to my every need. Thank you Yat for letting us tag along with you even though we actually went separate ways most of the time. 

Universal Studios Singapore (part 1)

When I went to Singapore mid-January, many people asked why I didn't go to Universal Studios Singapore that is currently the hottest attraction there. My answer was simple: How to enjoy the trip with a one-year-old on tow. So I asked my best theme-park buddies when were they going to take me there since hubby's not a fan of theme-parks. Yat said she was going there with her department people on the 1st of February but we could go together after CFA. 1st February was a public holiday in KL for Federal Territory day. It was a perfect date to go to because it was not a holiday for everyone else. Unable to go anywhere overnight without my baby, I opted for a day trip and the ever sweetest Layen, accompanied me all the way from KL. We bought tickets on AirAsia a week before the trip for RM220. Not bad, huh. This was my first visit to USS but the second for both Layen and Yat.

Met Layen at the airport at 6am in the morning as our flight was scheduled at 7.20am. Arrived on time around 8.30am and took MRT and Sentosa Express to Resort World Sentosa. Arrived slightly after 10am. Got problem to go in because the ticket Layen printed had been used by someone in the group but USS customer service was good, they managed to find the unused numbers and issued us new tickets.

We went in straight to the Transformer ride (which was on the right side of the park), as that was the latest craze and we expected it to be full later. The waiting time was not too bad at 20 minutes. The ride was AWESOME! If the queue didn't take so long, I wouldn't mind going in again and again. It was like watching a 4D movie but it felt REAL enough like you were actually IN that movie. I was in awe by how advanced their movie-making technology is!

Next, around 11am, we went roller-coaster hardcore. Straight to Battlestar Galactica. There were two sides  to choose from: Human (the red track, which was less adventurous) and Cylon (the blue track, where your feet were left hanging in air). We of course went to the blue one first. Since there was no queue, we went to the red one next. Then deciding that it was not as fun, we went back to the blue one TWICE. So in total 4 rounds! Our hearts were pumping so fast, we felt like we were working out. LOL.

Just as we were done with Battlestar Galactica at 12pm, it started raining. Had waffle with ice-cream while waiting for the rain to subside. Layen commented, there went our "workout". Haha. Next was Revenge of the Mummy in Ancient Egypt world. After Battleship Galactica, this is Layen's favourite, roller coaster in the dark

We were ready to join the rest for lunch so we went back to "Hollywood" and "New York" zones. But they weren't ready yet and we saw that there was a 5-minute waiting time in the Madagascar world, which was not that far so we went for a boat ride in Madagascar: A Crate Adventure ride.

On the way back to the restaurant, we passed by Monsters Rock show. Since Layen said the show was a must-watch and there was a 1.30pm show going on, I told Layen we should watch this first and join the group for lunch later. And we did. I had a great time watching all the performers dancing and singing while admiring their stamina to stage that kind of an energetic performance.

We had our lunch at Mel's Drive-In where the food served was halal.

My swimming baby

Today Tricia resumed her swimming class after months of hiatus due to the raining season end of last year and my busy travelling schedule early this year. I initially planned to cancel her classes because I felt it went nowhere. I didn't see much improvement in my baby's skills / her progress was quite slow. It was not so much on HER development but more on the way the class was structured. After a couple of months attending the classes, I felt like there weren't that much progress. We were learning more or less the same things. So I thought maybe I should hire a personal trainer instead, who can focus solely on my baby than a bunch of babies, following MY schedule and at a nearer location to my place. 

However, when I went for her replacement class end of last month, her teacher Bryan told me that this year, they will structure the classes differently. The payment will have to be made upfront, ie RM500 for 10 classes and you have to attend your own assigned class rather than simply walking in to any class for replacement. At the end of each semester, there will be 4 replacement classes for you to attend. This way, he said, the classes could progress from one step to the other rather than trying to catch up the old syllabus for those who missed the classes. One good point. Then he was rather flexible on the schedule. I said I would be travelling a lot in January/February so can I not take the whole 10 classes. Instead just take probably half of the classes. He initially said no, because the classes would progress from the beginning so if I joined halfway I would have missed the first few lessons so he advised I just join next semester. Then he paused for awhile and thought, Tricia had already attended the first few lessons so he said, sure why not. Two brownie points for teacher Bryan so I decided to give it a go and today... at the first lesson after so long, I was glad I did.

Firstly, I was happy when told they have resumed the 10 o'clock class for babies. Before this they cancelled the 10 o'clock class and only offered 9am and 9.30am. 1 thing for sure, we always wake up late on weekends. And the freaking pool is in Shah Alam so it takes at least 40 minutes of driving there from Bangi even when we drive at full speed. Secondly, today there was no one else in our class so we did get teacher Bryan's full attention. Thirdly, I was so happy that today teacher Bryan did multiple submerge sessions with Tricia and I got to see her starting to swim. He would make her jump into the pool and asked hubby to move further behind before catching her. Fourthly, I was so happy to see that Tricia did not cry and teacher said she did not struggle or panic when he held her in the water. Her body reaction said she was very calm. And finally, I was very happy with teacher Bryan because he not only sings nursery rhymes better than we do, he also explains things to us and understands babies very well too. He told us when we did the conditioning, we could see that Tricia was opening her mouth (looked like she was gagging). But she was not breathing that time, she was actually holding her breath. Try to do it yourself... Open your mouth and you can feel that the throat will actually close. And then, when we try to make her lie down flat on the surface of the water, making sure her ears were dipped into the water, she struggled to sit up. Teacher Bryan suggested for us to sing her favourite bedtime song so both of us started singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Tricia felt so weird that we started singing that song in the middle of the public pool that instead of struggling, she looked at us curiously and then she was calm and struggled less. It worked. I was so happy today. =D

On the way back, I was holding her in the car, then I heard her counting "one, two, three". Hah. At 15 months. I'm so proud. ^_^ 

Chinese New Year long weekend

I was really looking forward to the long weekend after a hectic week at work. There were so many public holidays last month, which was nice but translated to shorter working days = longer working hours on the remaining working days. Work had been crazy last week.

As expected, spent the 1st day of holiday on Saturday resting. Woke up late, did light washing, cleaning etc, went to ikea to show hubby some sofabeds and had dinner with mom at Williams, Danau Kota. Sunday, mom came over for lunch at Marriot. 2nd yee sang session for the year. Followed by a 3rd one in the evening with my friends at Taman Tasik Cyberjaya.

Monday morning, woke up before 6am to send mom off to KLIA as she went to visit her friend in Kota Bharu, Kelantan. Came back home and resumed my sleep. Hubby's diarrhea got worse and he vomitted a couple of times during the night. Mom diagnosed that he had gastric flu and said he had to go easy on his diet so I decided to cook soup for him. That afternoon, before going out for groceries shopping, after Tricia and I had our shower, as usual, I was kissing her non-stop. Out of a sudden, she pushed me and said "no, no, no". WHAT??? Why can't I kiss my own baby? Sigh. You are growing up too fast laa, sayang. Mama iz sad. :(

The whole 3 days, I had been focusing my time on trying to catch up with my Game Theory homework on coursera.org until I didn't have time to take a look at my CFA syllabus at all. What madness is this? So on the last day of holiday, I finally managed to un-enroll myself from the course. Fuhhh... It took a lot of will to un-enroll because I was more than halfway through already! Hope it will help me focus more on my CFA studies.

So sad to leave Tricia to go to work today. But looking at the bright side, smooth traffic and 3-working days this week. Looking forward to the weekend!

Singapore trip (17-20 January 2013) - Day 3

I wasn't in a very good mood on this final day because of the lack of sleep I had. Since we couldn't do anything else at 5am in the morning, we took our time to pack, pray and then we went down for the buffet breakfast for the first time at 7am. We had a choice of continental breakfast (cold choices only) and all-in (includes hot breakfast). If I'm not mistaken, it was SGD 38 and SGD 48 respectively. We went with the cold choices because, apart from the pancakes and scrambled eggs, we couldn't eat anything else from the "hot" side. Breakfast was alright. We had a wide range of choices from yogurts to fruits to bread, buns and danish. 

After breakfast, we went to check out the pool, which we didn't use because Tricia had the flu. There were two separate round pools. No one was there yet. Maybe it was still too early or maybe because it was still drizzling. Then, around 9+, we headed to Vivo City mall. Took the MRT from City Hall to Harbourfront, with an interchange at Outram Park. Again did a quick round and couldn't find anything interesting to buy. I felt like most of the things we could find in Malaysia at a fairly cheaper price. Maybe it was not sale season or maybe mom and I were not the shopaholic type but we just couldn't find anything for ourselves. Wanted to take mom for a walk outside and enjoy the view of Sentosa Island from there but it was still drizzling since the day before so we had to stay inside. Ended up buying stuff for the kids from Mothercare but I couldn't find anything nice enough for my latest niece, baby Emma, whom I had not met that time. Fortunately, found something for her from Cotton On. 

By then, it was 11.30am so we had to rush back to check out. Funny thing was Tricia slept all the way from our hotel to vivo city and only woke up when we LEFT vivo city. It didn't take us that long to check out because all our bags were packed already. Managed to check out around 12.30pm. I contemplated to use the quick check out card but since we had time, I decided to queue. Luckily I did because housekeeping recorded that we drank a bottle of wine and ate a pack of Oreo from the minibar. When I gave the lady a puzzled look, she quickly said, you couldn't have bought that and waived the charge off our bill. Fuuhhh. Apart from the breakfast that same morning, I had one more additional charge, i.e. wifi charges. I bought 24-hour connection for 1 device at a cost of SGD 28. Freaking expensive, I tell you. I should have did data roaming instead of buying that. They didn't even have free wifi service at the lobby. That was some of the little things that I didn't fancy about this hotel.

We asked the hotel to keep our bags while we had lunch at Subway in Raffles Mall next door. I confidently ordered Seafood and Crab for myself and was tickled that they didn't have it there. Haha. Okay. Different country, different menu. Mom ordered her standard Tuna and I had eggs for a change. Around 1.30pm we took a cab back to the Terminal 2 airport. We reached there around 2pm. One of the earliest to check in and had to waste 3 hours doing nothing as our flight was scheduled at 5.30pm. Went looking for prayer room and was told we had to go inside through immigration to find one. So we sat by Starbucks for awhile, trying to kill time and let Tricia run loose. 

At 3.30pm, we went inside. Mom went for prayer while I bought a tabloid for myself and a book for Tricia. She had her milk and went back to sleep. While I read my tabloid, mom went window shopping for a bit. I was very very exhausted that I couldn't get myself to move but it was so open that I couldn't get myself to sleep. Pity mummy had to entertain herself. She bought some kuihs (malay delicacies) and ate beside her sleepy cranky daughter, ie me. Flight was called on time, but once inside we couldn't take off due to bad weather in KL so our flight was delayed for half an hour or so.
I couldn't sleep on the flight back because Tricia was up and restless. She didn't want to stay in her seat and wanted to go down to play. I even brought her to the toilet with me while I peed. =_= Felt SO good to touch down around 7pm. Had dinner at mom's favourite place Eden. Took cab back to Nilai for RM48. Cleaned up ourselves before meeting the very good baby, Emma Husna ^_^ Supposed to go back to Bangi but I just couldn't get myself to drive back. Slept in Nilai that night and woke up earlier that morning, drove back to Bangi for my clothes before going to work.