The Cutesy Cleo

Winnie and Cleo had a big showdown last I was home; territorial little gurls indeed.

They have lived together under the same roof for the past 6 years and yet they still don't get on well. Is there a potion I can get to make them the bestest of friends?

New Pet

We have been feeding some pigeons and some little sparrows in our backyard. Last week we found a new visitor feeding on the (bird) seeds too, have a look.

She is quite a clever little one as she would turnover the little container of bird seeds (and even managed to break one in the process!), make a big mess on the ground to get exactly what she wants. We gave her some nuts and she has taken all of them too to be buried somewhere in time for the winter I am sure.

Now we rarely see the sparrows and pigeons as much as we used to, she must terrify them with her size and gung-ho-ness (I believe this is called survivor skills in the animal kingdom). Poor little birdies!

Who would have thought a squirrel can survive in canary wharf!

My Two Little Gurls

A holiday shot - Winnie bonding with bump at 31 weeks.

Emotion-High

What a week! Not sure if it is purely due to pregnancy or the extra activities that happened throughout.

I think it all began last Sunday; entertaining during one part of the day and sorting cat matters in the second half of the day. That was physically and mentally exhausting. Mentally, because some people are plain toxic toxic toxic.

Wednesday was dinner, prior to AA's departure, at this lovely place in central London. The food was exceptional, company was tres fun, service excellent. Abit on the pricey side but they threw in a free dessert on top of each of our own yummy desserts and even served up some vanilla ice cream for me when I casually mentioned that none of their dessert had that in it. Now you know what I mean by excellent service. Also, one of the many the perks of having a bump, how I love the attentiveness of the waiter(s) waiting on me (us).

The other nice resto was at J's birthday a week ago, food was sublime and service was great too. Anyone planning a special meal should try these restos - Asia De Cub@ (Covent Gdn) and Sk3tch Gallery (Conduit St off Regent St), if you haven't already that is.

Alright. Back to my hectic week.

Work was awful, being tired meant I had so much difficulty concentrating on the tasks at hand. Having only a few weeks left before I leave for maternity and loads to do made it 1000 times worse.

Oh but I do have a confession, I was distracted with this new online group that I recently joined. It's a mother's group with lovely mommies from around the world sharing their experiences and so I have been catching up on threads, forums and messages on the board. It is very informative and certainly makes up for dullness I face at work. How naughty am I, if only I did my work as diligently as I read the forums.

With new online group, blogging and FB have taken a back spot. I actually had some problems with sites on blogspot, could not access it at all, not even my own blog, up until tonight. Wonder if I was the only one experiencing this. It didn't help that the office restricts access to these sites too so I was blog-less for a couple of days.

Another issue that truly got me upset was about our trip home. IK has work in KL and I am merely tagging along. We had my tix sorted, upgraded and booked, my holidays approved, when suddenly his office decided to switch meeting dates just a week before the flight. Bah. Oh how that threw us off-course. I had to adjust so many appointments which were not easy to change - one being my appointment with Dr G in KL, my next appointment with the midwife here, find another date with upgradeable options, my holidays had to be re-approved, my birthday (it shall now be celebrated here boo hoo). Thankfully it has all been sorted after much tears (on my part) and anxiety + hardwork (on IK's). Mental torture I tell you.

A whole mixed bag of emotions I was going through - happy, sad, angry, excited, upset, but mostly T.I.R.E.D.

I am 28 weeks today, that is 7 months along into my journey. It has been so far so good, alhamdullilah, last week's roller coaster ride notwithstanding.

Can you believe we have gone through > 1H 08, and it is already August 2008?

TGIF, happy sunshiny weekend peeps.

Ingredients for Summer ~ BBQs, Clowns, Ice Cream, Parks

Finally some semblance of summer-time. We were at IK's office summer party slash family day yesterday.

It was held at Gray's Inn's lovely garden/courtyard. There were lots of bouncing castles for kiddies + games for the adults too so IK was well entertained despite initial plans of leaving after an hour (!). Me, I was just enjoying the food - BBQ chicken, prawns and avocado salad was delish - and the company I was with.

When we left at four, weather was ice-cream-perfect, plenty of sunshine! We adjourned the party in search of Thornton's ice cream before ending the evening at Greenwich Park, feeding the squirrels some nuts.

This morning, IK left for the Farnborough Airshow while I am home-bound busy sorting out the laundry. Boo hoo hoo. To be honest, laundry or no laundry, I would have tagged along had there not been any worry of how the thundering jet noise will/may affect bubba.

Alrighty I am off to marinade some chicken for din-din; nasi ayam on the menu tonight. Toodles.

Latest Edition from Home II

Latest Edition From Home I

Blast from the Past - The Sequel

I have had two noteworthy reunions since last weekend.

The first was with the girls at Didcot. Anna's home is lovely, very tastefully decorated with hard wood furniture and she has a beautiful garden with a gorgeous olive tree (my fave!). She was ever so kind to prepare a lovely lunch for all of us.

It was nice to see everyone all grown up with bubbas but are still able to maintain the youthfulness of yesteryears. Everyone with bubs I say, but more accurately, everyone 'cept Anna and I.

These zany girls and I had a really wacky time during our first year at E6. It was my first time living amongst the Welsh and British. I was lonely, missing home and these great gals were warm, kind, friendly and welcoming that they helped ease my homesickness. Thankfully we got on really well and I was never made to feel out of place, despite being the ‘different' one.

I can never forget how considerate they were - not wanting to exclude me from their xmas meal of turkey, potatoes, yorkshire pud, they made a separate halal roast chicken just for me. Twas our xmas dinner to celebrate the yuletide season, to celebrate the new year, to celebrate our new found friendship, to celebrate the end of term, before we all went home for our xmas break that first year; such respect and sensitivity shown towards my practices and beliefs, I was so touched.
That was winter of 1994.

It is now spring of 2008. Who would have thought the friendships forged would last this long.

Well, they’ve been constantly keeping in touch since they left university. It was only I who lost touch when I left Cardiff 11 years ago to fulfil my dreams and ambitions back home.

I really would not have found any of them had I tried to mainly because they had adopted their partners’ last name. I owe Leanne the world for locating me on Facebook that fateful day in November. Otherwise the weekend in Didcot would never have materialised.

To great friendships I say!

***

The other reunion will have to be for another post, I need to sort this messy home for now!

The Joy(s) of My Life

Playing Papparazi

Yes I have been an annoying shutterbug to these two bag of fun furballs!

They have been a sport posing-schmosing for me but clearly from their expression they are not one bit amused *tee hee hee*



I hope that everyone is enjoying the holiday season as much as I am.

Here's wishing everyone a very Cherry Mistmas!

I Miss My Furballs

Mumsy is great; she keeps me posted every few days on these two little girls she (secretly) dotes on. Getting calls from home is always a treat for me. Mumsy will update me on their antics and I never tire or ever get enough of their anecdotes. Wish I had the capacity (more money and annual leave please!) to be home more often to experience the joy myself.

It is such a pity that they can't talk nor can I cat speak, otherwise I can tell them both how much I miss them.

For now, I’ll settle with Mumsy being the best source of 'cat chronicles' and the closest thing I have in terms of communicating (indirectly) with Winnie and Cleo.

And yeah, I miss Mumsy too.

*sniffs*

Five

I have not been tagged, but I think this is fun!

5 Things In My Handbag

· Wallet
· N95 and iPod
· A Cath Kidston ‘bubble rose’ cosmetic pouch. I heart Ms. Kidston.
· A little 2007 diary and a note book for list-making/appointment-keeping as I have a gold fish memory
· Oyster card for the unforeseen London-by-tube expeditions

5 Things In My Purse or Wallet

· Hardly any GBP
· One credit card and two debit cards
· Receipts in case I want to return my purchases
· Reebok Sports Club membership card for my ‘no-show’ pilates classes
· Photos of loved ones

5 Things In My Favourite Room [The Bedroom]

· My laptop
· Plants on my bed side tables; I love my plants
· Photos of Winnie and Cleo
· Seashells wind chime from Brighton
· My reliable heat-generator ie. the hubster; very crucial especially during these crisp + cold winter nights

5 Things I Would Like To Do

· Go for a two-week long beach holiday, a nearby Greek island perhaps?
· Have the ability to cat speak with Ninnie, Cleo and Ginster
· Be a great photographer
· Gain the trust and subsequently provide shelter to that stray cat sighted at Asda [it’s too cold out there to be on your own Kitty]
· Reduce time on internet and spend more time on other more important stuff

5 Things I’m Currently Doing

· Obssessing over Facebook
· Learning how to use the SLR [I use the term 'learning' very loosely here]
· Planning a short break somewhere near
· Avoiding household chores
· Waiting for a visit from Mr Stork

SuperPoke Me

It looks like the Facebook craze has taken over the entire world. Everyone I know is now on Facebook biting, tickling, throwing sheep, sending a round of drinks, updating moods, adopting a fluffpet, growing a gift, leaving messages on walls and sticky notes for their buddies.

It’s all so addictive and fun for someone like me who never experienced the YM [or was it IM? God it escapes me] phase everyone when through ages ago. Yes, I was sadly not very internet-savvy then. Thanks Becks for the invite to register on Facebook!

Good thing that came out of this is I get reunited with friends from school I have not heard since I was 17. Amazing. And it’s fun to get daily updates on your friends when you’re far away from them; you know what they get up to – thanks to notes on walls, updates on their daily on goings application, etc. At least that saves me moolahs on phone calls.

I must admit the novelty has faded away a little as opposed to a month ago when I first got on it. Now I am less excited about the applications as I used to be. Then, I would add on everything I was sent and clutter my profile page. I am now Facebook-wise(r) and only accept what I really want and have since deleted everything else.

It is addictive in the sense I come home from work everyday and the first thing I do is log into Facebook [the stinking office restricts access to Facebook/Gmail websites, but can you imagine if they didn’t], hoping to find a new friend request or notification of some sort. It is really lovely when your friend whom you’ve not seen in a while finds you on Facebook and sends a request to confirm you are friends indeed.

While I have been going through this Facebook mania, IK on the other hand has been hooked on eBay [tried to get him on Facebook but he won’t budge]. Checking on watched items ending soon - that’s pretty much the first thing he does in the morning and as soon as he gets home. Oh you should see how he bids; he does get so aggressive, it's quite scary. I think it’s his competitive streak emerging there (!). Anyways, he is well chuffed as he has gotten some Asterix books at a bargain and he also got me the Little Britain season 1 and complete season of Will and Grace DVDs. Ain't he sweet? I am now waiting eagerly for that to arrive in the post.

A peek into our current daily routine – it is quite hilarious really, we look like two geeks, dashing upstairs after work and logging onto our laptops into Facebook and eBay respectively, hardly any conversation between us in the first hour or so! We joked that we now need to communicate via emails, sending each other messages like ‘Bila nak turun masak?’ or ‘Weekend ni nak buat apa?’ whilst sitting next to each other on the bed. Haha. Talk about living in this new internet age and time huh.

The bad [or good?] thing that came out of this is we hardly watch telly anymore. I know nothing about the on goings around the world; IK still reads the newspaper in the web so he isn’t quite as tragic as I am.

I can only hope this excitement and my fascination for Facebook will end soon as I think I am accelerating the expansion of my derrière rapidly due to my lack of activity and interest in anything else apart from exercising my fingers super-poking my mates.

Har-hars Under the Stars

We were at the Open Air Comedy Night at Canada Park last night and I am so glad that we, well, I insisted really, made the decision to go.

You know how it is, you come back home from work, you get busy cooking and smell like eau-de-fried noodles, then sit down for dinner, wash up and half an hour later, all you want to do is plonk yourself in front of the telly and subsequently collapse into a pile of snooze. Especially true for lazy-bones-IK (!).

I was feeling sluggish too but forced myself to get dressed for this event. Since the show started at 8 p.m., we had lots of time to get there really.

We arrived and realised that a big crowd had already gathered. It was a good turn out and we had no choice but to take a spot at the back but it wasn’t too bad as there were big screens available to aid viewing for the backbenchers.

Got our spot, spread out our ever so reliable picnic mat, got the snacks out and we were good to go.

There were five comedians; Patrick Monahan, Michael McIntyre, Jeff Green, Shappi Khorsandi and Adam Hills, out of which I thoroughly enjoyed three who were truly truly ab fab! They were so hilarious; I was guffawing and rolling on the grass. They each had about 30 minutes to perform and the entire show ended at approximately 10 p.m.

We felt bad for leaving Prince during that whole time, constantly wondering if we should dash off after the 3rd act as it was 9-ish by then. Is this God’s way of preparing us, should we ever have our own tot I wonder? That guilt-ridden feeling a working mum would experience for leaving her child behind to attend social activities. Eeeks I don’t think I’m quite ready for this yet. But I digress. (Note to self: Need to sort this lifestyle change/adjustment pronto.)

Alrighty, back to subject at hand - in a nutshell, the whole show was a blast, we had loads of fun, watching it under the stars did it for the romantic fool that is me and Michael Mcintyre, Adam Hills and Shappi Khorsandi were simply ace!

New Friend

I blog-hop anonymously a lot but rarely, if not never, leave comments on anybody’s blog unless they are friends. One blog I chanced upon a few months ago that sparked my interest was the post on a particular blogger’s experience in cat relocation. Let’s refer to said blogger as ‘she/her’ for simplicity shall we. This was a matter close to my heart as I was in the same position awhile ago when I had to leave the Motherland and was seriously considering bringing Winnie along.

In early January, I was heading to the country that the blogger had relocated to, for a holiday. I thought why not ask if she could provide some helpful tips on what I can expect of the country. So for the first time, I dropped her a comment, thankfully she reciprocated and after many email exchanges, we sort of agreed to meet for coffee when I was in her territory. Due to my limited time and her busy schedule, we had to forego the meet-up but agreed that hopefully one day our paths may cross again (little did we know that it would be this soon). We continued to communicate via emails and I, leaving comments in her blogs and before long she declared her plans to come to London in March. We were given a second chance at meeting, how great is that?

Yesterday we finally met up and it was great to say the least. Initially I was apprehensive about the meet. Making new friends at this age seemed daunting. I had my reservations and many 'what-ifs'; what if it were totally different being face-to-face as opposed to communicating via internet? But it turned out just fine and dandy. On my part I really think she’d be someone I could spend a lot of my time with. We had one big thing in common, our love for cats and I guess the majority of our conversation centred on feline-related topics. It is also a bizarre coincidence that our husbands work for the same company (well technically the same). I think we chatted for a good three hours, non-stop; there was so much to share! As she had lots to do and not enough time, we had to put on hold this new friendship of ours and rely on virtual sessions i.e. chats/emails/blogs for now. Perhaps one day soon she will come back here, and me, travel there. Or, maybe when we are both back home for good, we could nurture this friendship to the next level, who knows.

Without a doubt, the blogsphere is a wonderful virtual place that can bring (real) people together. It's just incredible what the internet can offer you.

Girls Night Out

Date: 29 March 2007
Time: 6pm -9pm
Venue: Jubilee Place, Canada Place and Cabot Place

This event held in Canary Wharf is into its third year and highlights are all things girly - fashion shows, fun and frolics of shopping, enjoying live music + entertainment, product demonstrations, relax with some pampering treatments, such as massages and makeovers.

I met up with two friends - old and new - for this event; new from work and a dear old friend whom I had not met since I left my first job in 2000. I got off work early and headed to the shops to investigate the special offers and discounts while waiting for them as they had to travel in from the city.

The live entertainment was deafening to say the least and I think the entire womenfolk of London congregated at the wharf that night. Men, you certainly missed out on the bevy of girlies if you didn't head to the wharf. Regrets regrets.

I had my own (regret) too. Knowing full well my weakness for Gap, I should have avoided it instead of head on straight for it. Duh. I grabbed quite a few items (surprise surprise) as everything was 30% off but not after being elbowed, jabbed and getting the obligatory touch-that-last-available-size-if-you-don't-cherish-your-life glances from psycho female shoppers. Then there was the insanely long queue to pay but luckily by the time I reached the till, both had arrived safely, no doubt abit disoriented by the crowd and noise.

We traipsed the malls abit, checked out the fashion show, treated ourselves at the chocolate fountain, enjoyed free manicures before finally checking in at Tiffinbites for some dinner where we could have a proper girly chat and rest our tired feet.

Old friend and I go a long way back as we had been in the same primary and secondary school. We talked about homes + properties, food + cooking, good holiday destinations and work. It's always nice to be with good company and good food (and good bargains). All agreed that we should do this more often, and not wait until next year's GNO or until one of us gives birth for the next catch up sesh. It was a thoroughly enjoyable three-girls night out indeed.

Squirrels Galore

Felt that the much needed animal-interaction was long overdue. Packed the 'snacks' and headed early to beat the throngs of tourists who roam about Hyde Park.

We obviously were not the only ones pining for their company + eager to meet our nut-hoarder friends; there was a couple comfortably seated at the best spot (!) and feeding them already. From the looks of it, these lucky squirrels definitely have a constant supply of food from the locals/tourists. Something to be thankful for; at least we can all sleep easy knowing they are well fed.

They are so brassy and brave, it's such a wonder and a joy to be with these fearless furballs. This beats retail therapy any day.

These cuties would come over, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, sniff about, sometimes even brave enough to climb on your extended leg, and ask (if you may) for some, perch on you, pick and choose a peanut, scoff it down nearby and would come back right after for the bigger sized nut, usually the chunky brazils to run off into the bush to stash away these precious commodities. And then come back for more!

Have a look at these cute little fellas.