away for 10 days

you never really realise what you missed until it’s not there. true that! i was just back in KL to be part of my close friend’s wedding. when i booked my flight two months ago, all i could think of was how i could utilize my leave to make it worth my flight ticket. i managed it so i’ll be back for 10 days. it had been over a year since i last flew to KL and was excited to be going back after soon long - all the good food, friends, family… and of course not having to work. what i didn’t realise was that after maybe five days, i was starting to really miss my hubby. yes, who would have thought in between all the eating and catching up with friends i’d miss the little things of telling him stories just as it happened, or getting that second opinion when i wanted to buy something. i would miss the random tight squeeze or snuggling really closely to him, even just sitting next to each in silence. it started to feel like half of me was missing and then truly see how we complete each other. how it is nicer to fall asleep next to your loved one, to have the time to just share our days together, to just know that you have someone who would love you unconditionally through your weirdness, problems and all. it's really good to be back by his side.

my productive weekend

i'm so proud of myself. i've had a productive weekend. got plenty of sleep and was energized to work on our garden *grin* maybe it's coz i felt i needed some physical activities since there hasn't been any badminton sessions lately. the weather forecast was in the 40s but thank goodness it wasn't or i wouldn't have left the house o_O

we started late saturday afternoon. there was plenty to do and decided to start with the front lawn. the plan was to clear up all the dark, dirty looking bark and even out the soil. Plant one more hedge to fill up the gaps then relay our new eucalyptus bark to brighten up the place. it was clearing the old bark that took up the most time. we filled 25 large garbage bags and this was only the right side of the lawn. since it was getting dark, we couldn't plant our geraniums so left one section to be done another day. three hours plus of digging up bark and soil, i was glad to be able to run the new fresh bark with my fingers to spread them around. i didn't even realise we were working in the garden for a good four hours by the time we were done.

at night while the hubby is busy gaming with the rest of the boys, i continue his lego city project by building the fire station. it's amazing how much detail goes into these buildings. there are hangers to hang helmets. cabinets for storage and there red door in the front of the building rolls up! with all the tiny little parts it only took me about maybe five hours plus to build? and that's only the first level.

when we woke up on sunday, it was gloomy and looked like it was going to rain. after running a few errands, we were contemplating whether to start gardening as it was meant to thunder storm in the evening. i really wanted to finish up that part of the garden since i won't be around to do it next weekend so we starting. the plan this time was to pull out the old 'lalang' looking plants, even out the soil and plant our lovely geraniums. not as easy as it sounded. those 'lalang' like plants had huge roots everywhere and trying to even out the soil with difficult. on top of that, it was starting to drizzle. we were pretty lucky, just as we were planting the last plant the giant raindrops started and we still had to pour the bark. the last fifteen minutes were done in the pouring rain and we finished just in time when we heard thunder and lightning. we were giggling by the end of it all coz we were soaked because we were so sure we would not be able to finish before the rain started and now we're so proud of our garden!

i also took down our christmas tree :( but thought it would be a good idea to get it kept before chinese new year hits >_< it looked like i had a fight with the tree with everything all over the place. the worse part about taking down the tree?? untangling the lights which i very cleverly chucked aside while i took them off. rookie mistake... hopefully i'll remember to tie them up when i take them down next time.

 and i finally finished the fire station.

a recap of my first week 2013

just a recap of my week because i clearly didn't manage a daily post. this year i didn't take any extra holidays for the festive season. there wasn't really a point since it would be quiet at work and i would get to clear up all i needed to do which included clearing my table. unfortunately the latter didn't happen o_O so my table is still a mess.

the inLaws are in town, all we've really been doing is eat and eat and eat. we've had our christmas turkey feast, bacon & eggs feast, our my favourite wagyu beef pho, lots and lots of char siu, siu yok, hainanese chicken rice, seafood.... and the list goes on. i don't even know whether to drool or just feel fat when i think of the amounts of food i've eaten.

since i've been pretty free-ish at work, i decided to learn mandarin (read & write) online on my own. no guarantees i'll keep it up but at least i'm trying right? at the moment, i can write super ugly 'nǐ, hǎo, zài and jiàn'. again no guarantees i'll actually remember how to write it after a while but maybe, just maybe i'll be able to read it.*fingers crossed*

we've started a new home project - landscaping. as per a previous post, we went plant shopping and came home with heaps. the weather has been too hot (30-40 degrees!!! %^&*%) to actually start much but we have planted a tree. we are changing over a whole bunch of stuff and adding brighter flowers into the garden. i can't wait till we see the finish product. oh and i have also told the hubby that i'm happy to help pretty-ing our garden but he it will be his job to maintain it *grin*

it's been a while is MiL got to celebrate her birthday with her kids so she was very happy to be able to do so this week. however, because we already pre-celebrated her birthday when we invited their friends over for another feast, we didn't actually get her another cake. actually, i think we forgot. opps. luckily enough while shopping, the hubby came across his favourite pandan cake and bought one so we added a candle on it for her. it's the thought that counts right?

i started playing an iphone game which i can't seem to put down called okey 101. i'm bad when i start a game, i pretty much play non-stop.

the perks of having a photographer friend that he was happy to take a handful of shots for us as a family. it was fun and as usual wished my face wasn't quite so round but with all that food i obviously didn't do anything about it. our first theme was to make it really bright and colourful and we all ended up with a ralph lauren polo tees. '_' it looked like we were doing an advertising for them. maybe we should propose to sell it too them...  tees for all ages! hehehehe anyways, we then did some dressed semi casually. Gizmo got a little feature too with me. can't wait to see the pictures but in the meantime, some selfies...  ^_^

then we sent the inLaws off to the airport and it was the end of a week. if the rest of the year is anything like this week has been, this year is not only going to be awesome but we're going to fly through it!

my little chicken dog

Gizmo has always been a bit of a chicken dog. he jumps at sudden noises, runs away from the vacumn cleaner, unusual looking items and i think is paranoid to stick his face into holes (chips packet, his snack container.. etc). we also just found out that he is afraid of the 'pop' from bubble wrap -_-. well it is the bigger ones which have a louder 'pop'. look where he went into hiding.

green thumb

i was never really one with a green thumb. my parents definitely were... i remember days when we would follow my parents to the nursery and they would come back with car load full. this included the back seat. so much that it looked like trees were growing in the car and sticking out the window. ahhhh sweet memories.

unlike me, the hubby likes gardening so today we headed out to check out plants. ever since we moved into a place with a backyard, he's been wanting to landscape. while looking through the plants, i found small bougainvilleas.. it was one of the first hard spelling plant i had learnt and also one of my mum's favourites.

we went taking a small piece of our hedge coz we wanted to grow more. not only did we NOT come back with it but we came home with pretty flowers to plant, heaps of soil and a brand new 'canggih' hose. i'll be working tomorrow so the hubby will start it off. now lets just hope that they don't die! *fingers crossed*

new year resolution?

i saw an idea on pinterest where you keep in a jar a written memory each day. thought it was pretty clever but instead of a jar why not put my blog space to good use. that's what it's meant to be for anyway. so this year, i will store a memory a day on my blog. that way i'll have a a good read at the end of the year. many of which i'm sure i would have forgotten.

today i saw my FiL and BiL take pictures and videos of the tv - the new years fireworks. it was pretty funny. we celebrated new years with a good feast of seafood aussie style (minus the bbq) >_< enjoyed champagne and poor G hides away every year when he hears fireworks. and the hubby and i took the our first shot together this year. happy new year!