The allergy?

I just got home an hour ago after a long trip to Lawas. We visited SMK Merapok. The journey by boat was the usual, me being excited and all, especially with the cool fresh breeze in the morning. We left the jetty as early as 6.20am. A bus awaited at Bangar jetty, which is brand new. It was not open when we were in Temburong last December. Well improvement there I must say :)

Then the trip was spoiled when the veterans bought the strong scented durians sold just outside the jetty. I was like, WTH! So the 8 hours trip, to and from Lawas was accompanied by the unfavoured smell. What's worse, after the visit at the school, more durians boarded the vehicle, giving even stronger scent. Two teachers suffered from migraine today because of it and me, I had asthma attack. The smell was so strong that it gave me such impact. I was cursing silently seeing dozens of the fruit being carried to the bus.

By 4.30pm, we reached Bangar. My plan to catch the boat ride back alone to Bandar failed: the jetty closed soon as we were there. So, I had no choice but to spend another 3 suffocating hours on the bus back to Kuala Lurah. I was in hell! This is what happened when an extra 30 minute duration was spent on shopping at the market at Lawas!! I was soooo angry!!

Thank God Sharul was on time picking me up in Bandar. With the cold rainy weather, my condition would have gone worse. He took me to a restaurant for me to have some hot soup. Obviously I was shivering with fever. When I got home, mom even directed me to go to the hospital. But I need to be in bed soon. One, I am very tired, and two, if I agreed to, I am sure I would be given an MC. I can't do that because I need to be present at tomorrow's course presentation. I hope I will be fine tomorrow. The course is from 7am til 4pm..

I better hit my bed now. Wish me luck peeps! Let's hope that I don't dream of sea of durians tonight. Now I know I am allergic to it :(((

The good sleep & the stupid dream

I slept like a baby last night: the very effect I usually get every time after an hour of foot massage. I am having another one as typing this. Painful, at those major points but feels relieved at the same time. I need a full body massage actually. Remember when I said that I am super sensitive when I enter an unfamiliar place? Well, it's happening again. Maybe tomorrow then I'll have that massage, after the course. We'll see. Then again, I will be joining an educational visit to SMK Merapok in Lawas this Friday: another self introduction to a new place. Well, maybe then I'll pay a visit to a massage parlour on Sunday instead..

I woke up a bit early today: 30 minutes earlier than the sound of the alarm clock that I'd set the night before. Thanks to that stupid dream. Remember the entry I posted about how happy I was because one particular colleague who had left the place am working at? Well, he appeared in my dream. It was ridiculous. He came to me, saying "Hi" and we had a quick chit chat. Then he said, "Hey you know what! I found your blog!!" Right then I stammered, as if trying to cover up a crime. The image of the post came crossing my mind and so I went, "Oh boy..." The next thing I knew, I woke up from my sleep. How crazy!

I don't really mind if he does find this blog, and reads that entry and this very post. I don't think I can stop him, can I?

So YOU.. Welcome to this humble page of mine. And have a good read!

Time to bed now. Nitey nite peeps!

The extra Kg.

Yep! Am not surprised actually seeing that indicator pointing to extra 3 lines of kg. on the weighing scale. I was kind of expecting it, though of course deep inside was hoping for at least it showing the same weight as the one I measured two days ago. This is why I hate going to weddings coz I tend to eat most everything served on the table. I don't know about you but at weddings or any other similar functions, I would choose the food I seldom have at home for example, I'd prefer the 'nasi lemak' or 'nasi minyak' or even 'nasi kebuli' (especially the one with lotsa beef shreads in it) over the plain rice. The reason? We seldom have these kinds of rice at home but plain rice. The consequence? The extra kg.

Similarly, I would choose beef of any dish, 'rendang' or 'black pepper', over sweet and sour fish. The reason? Mom cooks better but she seldom serves red meat or lambs at home. She always says they are next-to-forbidden food in the house. And when chicken korma is on the table, I won't miss my turn having the gravy on my plate of rice. Same excuse, mom says the korma dish has 'santan' or coconut milk in it so it's not healthy. But do I listen? Of course not. It always feels like a must-eat-have dish every time.

So, seeing the extra kg. is like seeing the fatter image of me in the mirror: one quick look then I turn away. In denial? Maybe. Regret? Guilty? Sure.

I feel fatter, heavier, uglier. You name it. I guess I am in my comfort zone now, being happy and all. Maybe the next I know, I am the fattest bride ever! Nightmare. But I just can't seem to stop munching and snacking those guilty pleasures food. I am just too happy to care about how I look now, though I know I'm gonna regret this when the big day is approaching nearer..

I am having my foot massage now, sneaking out my sister's Osim massage machine. My feet feel like they're swollen: fat and bulging. I guess they can hardly carry the heavier me around. I seriously need to slim down to have me feeling better the moment I step my foot on the ground, especially every early morning when I wake up. The pain is burning inside. Every time. I really have gained so much weight!

At the moment, I am attending a week's course on listening and speaking. It's too demanding and overwhelmingly squeezing my brain out. Today, I had a slight discomfort feeling at the lower part of my neck and shoulders. I knew then I shouldn't push my self too much at that session. Maybe the food intake that I'd had has finally shown its effect. I was scared actually but I knew I had to calm my self down and to take it easy. Anxiety won't help with that condition I was in. A quick nap during lunch break had made me feel a lot better. I knew then I should control my food intake from now on. Not for my looks, but for my health.

Ramadhan is coming, which means more good but fatty food. Surely more food intake. I should hold the temptation. I should!

The small serious talk

Well, by now, if you've been following my blog, I'm sure you know what kind of a guy my DF is. He wasn't like he is now. He used to be into-the-serious talks. Planning this and that for our future. Even listed down names of our children (if we have any later in our relationship), and the kind of house we would love to stay in.

Before, our hobby was going into strangers' houses which were under renovation, or were being built. We would pretend to be a desperate husband and wife looking for the right contractors for our so-called house under plan. So by saying so, we got most contractors fooled as they showed us around the incomplete houses they were building: even gave us their business cards. While in fact, we were just doing it for fun. At the same time, building images of how our future home going to be like.

We don't do that no more. We don't have the time as we used to have. The only day we have now is Sunday. And if we're lucky, going for a dine out or movie on Saturday night. The routine, the hobby, we used to have have now gone. Even when we do have the time together finally, we seldom talk. We just spent the time we have chatting about less serious matters. Joking and laughing as we might. Because me miss each other on weekdays like there's no space at all for things that would spoil the mood or even the emotions.

But today, out of the blue we did have that talk. The one when dreams came in and smiles cracked on our faces, like we used to have before. He was in a better mood as he didn't go to work today. The old good feeling reminisced in between. I could feel my self blushing :') I missed that part of him. And mine.

We talked about how everything had gone as we had planned it to be. How worries are not in our diaries like it used to be anymore. We went on about how our lives would be after the marriage. When we would be ready to have our little juniors. How we would make our lives better: me pursuing my Masters Degree and him with his Degree, jokingly warning me not to go on taking my PHD or he would be exhausted trying to catch up :'D

We even went online looking for the uni we would go to after we tied the knot. 2012 is the plan. He would need to work on his fast track programme and to do so, he needs to take about 10 months. We agreed to do it all in Perth. He thinks it's a good place for us to be in. A year there back in 2004 has made him feel belong to that piece of Australian land. I said, "Let's!"

I am still smiling now. I am happy that we had that little talk. You have no idea how much I missed that moment.

We will make it happen. I will make sure of that!

And I made him to promise: no babies till he wears that graduation hat! As for me, I will be on the move with my Masters' proposal paper next week. The girls will be joining me too. It would be fun I'm sure.

And Sharul shall start getting all prepared for that plan we talked about. He should start making reading a habit coz the course we browsed through the uni website consists of quite tough units.

I have faith in him. He will make it.

We will make it!

I said, "We must do this for our kids. We must."

Yes. We will make it!! :)

The day Tiger got lucky :D

Again, it was a last minute decision. Last night, DF and I went to Yayasan trying to have a peek of the area where the Comel Cats Contest was gonna be held. It was slightly bigger than the one held at The Mall last Sunday. This made us think twice to bring Tiger to the event.

But today, after seeing the Brunei Meow's wall stating that the registration fund would go to an autistic child whose mother is suffering from Leukemia, so DF decided Tiger to go join the contest. So there we went, 10 minutes after 2pm. We thought we were late but the queue just wouldn't cut short. At 3pm, the registration booth finally closed and by then, Tiger was placed among 39 other beautiful cats at the centre of the small area.

Like Garnette, Tiger was not happy staying in the cage. I couldn't stay with him until our number was called: number 34. By the time I got to reach him, he was already shaking with fear. He didn't like the crowd.

At the judging table, he was checked.

The female judge questioned me, "Did you just clean his ears?"

I said, "Err .. No." ... then an image of Amal cleaning up Tiger's ear came to mind as I remembered DF's text this morning stating that Tiger was being "serviced" a.k.a. groomed.

By then, the judge commented, "His ears are all red. Seems like they've just been cleaned.."

And so I replied, "Yeah .. A bit of polishing .."

She smiled. Dude! I felt like I was guilty at charge! LoL!

The rest of the hour, all the cats were open for the public to see but not to touch. By this time, Tiger was becoming anxious. The neighbouring cat named Handsome was too friendly. He had his paws getting into Tiger's cage and being defensive, Tiger attacked him instead. Luckily, I was fast or else a fight might have occurred. We separated the two and Tiger remained unhappy for the rest of the visiting period.

After the announcement of the winners of kids' colouring contest, it was then the announcement of the cat winners. The long hair category was won by Snow Shoe's Zaraki, second by Faridah's Brian and third Faridah's PM. Forth was won by a cat owner I just met. The couple looked surprised. I bet they didn't expect it. Fifth place was Keisha's Orion, sixth by a cat named Princess.

The seventh ...... Tiger!!

The announcer had to announce his name twice to make us realise that it was really Tiger that got the 7th place! It was so unexpected :D We were so excited that we missed who won the next 8th, 9th and 10th place hehe.

Tiger got a cat food and groom set hamper :D He was lucky having to win the top 10 in this contest. DF's mom and dad were happy too :D It was a good day :)

Tiger, congratulations! :'D

Me taking Tiger to the judging table, calming him down as he hated the crowd..

Tiger with his winning presents :D

The good GOOD news!

I am happy today. I don't care how it happened, or why it did. All I care about it, HE'S GONE! *wicked laugh* hahhaha!!!

Oh my God! It's like a wish coming TRUE! My hell at work shall end now hah!! The top men are worried sick coz of the "incomplete" project whatsoever. I REFUSED to stay and grasp the rest of the story. I CHOSE to pick just the MAIN GREAT NEWS! Hahahahhaha!!!

I AM HAPPY!! VERY VERY HAPPY!!! LoL!!!

Okay, I sound like a bitch now I know but what the hell! He's G-O-N-E!!! Weeeee~~~~ :'D*taken / copied-pasted from some source when I image googled for "happy funny cat face" hehehhe :p*

The Cats Show 2010

It was held at The Mall, Gadong from 2pm till 6pm. We didn't expect the large crowd. Apparently Facebook has given Brunei Meow great promos on this event that most came wanting to see the cats on display.

Garnette was excited. At home, she was even spending most of her time in her cage, pushing away Fluffy, Tiger and Luna from joining in - the three were showing signs of "worries" seeing her in the cage alone, especially Fluffy. But as she went in, Garnette sent her away LoL! In the end, the three felines left her there by herself heheh :p

In the car, Garnette was anxious. Now she was worried! It was her third time on a road trip and so seeing the outside moving object somehow made her curious. She meowed and jumped here and there wanting to see everything, refusing us from taking her into our arms. Finally reaching The Mall, and eventually putting her on display, she had started to go more anxious.

She hated the attention.

She hated the crowd.

And she hated the small and humid space the most.

During the third hour of the show, she chose to ignore every moving beings around her and dozed off. We were worried of her condition - she had shown sign of stress as bits of her fur had loosen scattering on our shirts - so we took turns taking her into our arms to calm her down. We took her away from the crowd so she could get some air. But this even attracted more visitors to have a closer look at her: taking her photos, touching her and for some daring ones, even asked our permission to cuddle her. We couldn't say "No". We know that Garnette is irresistible..

We took her home an hour before the event ended as the air gone hotter at the end of the day. It's just too humid. Some cat owners also took their cats home the same time we were getting out things together. It was a great event but I'd say, it would be much better if it was held at a more spacious or open space area. Our cats need air and next time, a barrier should be put before the cages. Some public just couldn't be bothered to follow what the organizer had been telling every visitor: "Do NOT touch the cats". As for me and DF, we didn't really mind having people admiring our cat but at times, it's just too much, especially when this old lady suddenly came up to me and grabbed Garnette off my arms! I was like, "Excuse me lady!" and took her back. Macam appaa~~! Sipun ku sporting bagi urang ramai begambar sama kucing ku p mun kurang ajar cematu, bagi marah jua tu dangggg!!!

Well anyway, it was a great experience today. Hope to see more of such event in the future. The organizer said that Borneo Cats Show might be held here in February next year. He's trying his best to make it come true. I hope he'll make it coz it would be amazing having CFA judges to judge the participating cats :D And of course, would be lovely to see cats from around Asia joining the competition! Like our experience seeing one in KK last month :)

Next 15th July's competition will be held in Yayasan, from 2pm to 5pm. We haven't decided to join in or not. If we do, we'll take Tiger this time.

Garnette seems traumatized after today. She has been avoiding me and DF huhu ....

At home: Garnette couldn't be separated from her cage ..In the car: curious of where we would be taking her ..Garnette showing sign of stress: she kept meowing and wanting us to take her out of her cage .. kesian :(Giving up, she dozed off, ignoring the crowds and the heat ..The last hour of the event, I had her in my arms all the time. The crowd was just too many that she seemed suffocated in the cage ..Azad from Azad Cattery recognised Garnette: he owns Garnette's ancestor :DGrooming tips from Edian Cattery :)

The coping-with-stress period

So, apart from me still sick and coughing, with on-and-off migraine and asthma attacks, I have been struggling with the pressure on the coming wedding since that day I got the text message from our middle man in Bandung concerning our wedding souvenirs and invitation cards. We'd chosen the card we wanted, only to find out that it costs us an extra amount because of the lengthy "wakil berharap" lists. Honestly, I don't really like the idea of having the 3-4 pages of name lists in our invitation cards but our parents said, it's a MUST! And so, we both will have to pay the consequences *sigh*

Yesterday, I took mom and Sharul to Miri, trying our luck with cheaper cards while that middle man in Bandung is collecting samples of similar yet cheaper ones to be posted to me next week. In comparison, the ones he offered are way cheaper than those we found in Miri but we'll see. When we find it better looking and of better quality then we'll go back to Miri and cancel our order. These whole cards hassles are just frustrating. Ordering ones locally is out of question: they are just ridiculously expensive!!

I found two websites on wedding cards which are based in KL. I am waiting for their email replies. Whichever is cheaper, that will be our choice. Our budget for wedding cards is below B$300.. Hope that's possible though.. Thanks to that "wakil berharap" lists!! Pffttt!!!

I finally had a foot massage just now, which made me feel a lot better. The migraine is still here but not as bad as this afternoon. DF took me dinner and for a while, my coughing had stopped. Thanks to this cough syrup he bought be tonight :) Chinese herbs are always the best! Though I am still suffering from bad coughing but it's gone lesser since. I don't want to go to the hospital for another check up simply coz I don't want to waste my time waiting, which I know would cause me in more pressure than I am now. You know I am not a patient lady!

Anyway, DF decided to bring Garnette to the Cats' Show at The Mall tomorrow. It's not a competition and entrance is free. She'll be the only peke-nose cat joining tomorrow, Snow Shoe said. DF thought that it would be good to expose Garnette in such event before we enters her in more Cats Shows in future. She's just a kitten but we're sure she'll have lotsa fun! :D

What more do I need to cope with this stress that I'm having than be there with beautiful cats around!

The coughing continues ..

.. and the sneezes. So I had wrongly assumed that the flu was vanishing. The past week I had been trying to cope with cough, the cold and in the middle of the nights, the asthma attacks. That's the worst!

The ventolin pills have finished a few days back and now I am back using the puffer, which to my worry, has not given me much impact. I still feel the wheezy chest and my breathing gives out soft whistling sounds *sigh*. I am coping and how I wish I could go out and do some hiking. I know it sounds dangerous at some point but in the past, hiking really helped me. I didn't experience asthma attacks through my hard breathing up on the hill.

I wish the rain will stop soon. I miss the sun. I miss the warm weather. I miss the parks.

I need to exercise my lungs. Seriously I do!

*cough cough* :((

The vanishing flu

I was feeling a bit weary in the morning but I was blessed with understanding kids in my three classes today, alhamdulillah :) The afternoon CCA was also a blast, though it went a bit slow coz students took so much time on creating their own skit. The end period was involving them doing a pantomime of a local folktale. I had them sing and act coz I couldn't find the only CD that I had of the legend's song. We had fun and we shall continue it next week :)

Eclipse was awesome too today, though Sharul was snoring softly at my side hehe. I don't blame him. It was a slow movie. I mean, I don't fancy much the Bella-Edward scenes. Since this episode showed more of them being alone than the rest, I kind of find the movie a bit boring in between. Why do you think I loved New Moon? Because Bella was mostly alone in there and of course more of Jacob than Edward heheh :p

And Sharul nudged me when I drooled over Jacob's fine muscular figure. Well, what can I say. It's reflex action! Hehhehe :p

By then, my flu had almost gone and I feel better now with less sniffing and coughing yeay!! :D Next week, I shall be on the move! Hiking. Brisk walking. And fasting on weekdays. I need to qada' my missed fasts. I lost count actually but since it's two months left to Ramadhan, I guess, I shall do as many days as I could now. Besides, it's like doing two things at the same time: pay the qada' and me keeping fit and healthy. I need to watch my health coz I do NOT want to rely on the drug pills.

I don't want hypertension to spoil my life! I WON'T let that happen!

I refuse to surrender! ;D