My New Shelf

I finally got around to transporting my shelves to Kuching all the way from IKEA! I only managed three small ones on this trip, and I still have a lot to go, especially the big ones. But I think I'll just courier them over instead of travelling with them, since they are so heavy. My room looks turqoisey blue in these pictures but it is actually green. I actually wanted my room this color, but the shade of green I got was the closest I could get.

Notice my porn smiling on the shelf?

Not pictured: (non-porny) books to fill the shelf.

And also you can see the line of hooks I imported all the way from IKEA. Hooks are easy to bring because they are small. But who cares! I FINALLY HAVE A SHELF OVER MY HEAD WHOOOOOO!!! Now, if only I have my funky books to fill it? xD

Oh yes, I haven't introduced my boutique yet. I kept forgetting to take pictures of it. Here's a picture of the sign. I think I'll put te rest in facebook for promoting purposes xD.

Signage designed by The Other Farah.

Ta'ra!

Quarter Life Birthday 22/4/2012

It's been a while since I made any birthday posts. And it has also been a few years since I celebrated my birthday in Kuching. My youngest sister's birthday also falls on the same date so this is our first birthday together since a long time. This also happens to be Sarah's first birthday party, so she was really looking forward to her presents. Ahh, the good old days.

Anyway, she celebrated her party at McDonald's with the them of Spongebob, so all her friends are supposed to wear yellow. Of course, not everyone had yellow things to wear, but it was still amusing to see them putting so much effort to follow the dress code. Let's move on to the birthday girls shall we?


Me and my awesome party hat

Sarah and her friends. It's good to be young and excitable. sighs.

And the food, of course. Each bag contains a piece of chicken. There are fries and nuggets as well. Suits picky eaters like me best since I always have my burgers plain xD.

And you can't have a birthday party at this age without games. My dad took the games maybe a little too seriously...



 Now presenting our birthday cake! It was a surprise, apparently, because I came home for my birthday on the last minute hahahaha. You might remember this picture from this post. It is the exact same picture used. My elder sis had a copy and it was one of those rare pics of Sarah and I together.

Although I didn't get to eat my own head.

 After the party, we all went home and Sarah went to excitedly unwrapping all her presents with the (probably unwelcomed) help of some of her friends. Later that night we went out for seafood because that's all I wanted to have for my birthday. Presenting the oyster pancake!

Can't believe I've seen this anywhere else in the world but here.

After dinner I met up with Totchi at The Atelier, this bar restaurant that was set in a renovated colonial home. I played pool for the first time since I was maybe ten or twelve waaaay back at the Kiddies Club at Damai Beach. I sucked at it, but it was still fun. It was funny how everyone there had a drink, a bottle or just a glass in front of them while I had a complete tea service before me! Isn't it obvious that I don't belong in such places? I met some interesting people. Bar flies are often nice people, I was told. I just didn't dare to take pictures of myself there because I'm afraid that people will take it out of context. :P Either way, my clothes smelled of smoke when I finally went home and had a feverish, cigarette-smelling dream that night because turned out I was on the verge of a fever that became full on the next day.

Overall, what an interesting birthday! Ta'ra!

Fruityful Day

Even though I think my soul died a bit today. But never mind. Today is my day off, so I thought I’d do the second part of my errands. I woke up at 2pm today (whoo!) and decided that I need to finally go to the bank to transfer some money. The bank closes at 4.15 today, so I thought I should get there at least by 3.30. Should be easy right? Not when you’re me! Between waking up and leaving the house, took me about one hour and a half. I reached the bank at exactly 3.30pm – without eating. I only managed to scarf down two Viennese cookies after showering. It was pretty quick though. The last time I went to the bank is because I had to make a new ATM card and the previous two times before the last one, was for the same reason but without my mykad, as I was recently relieved off my wallets. Long story.

Anyway, after that I had lunch – where to go? – of course Pavilion! That’s my kitchen. I was craving for nachos and was pleasantly surprised that there is the same stall that sells nachos here in Pavilion as the one in KLCC! What’s funny was, I saw the nachos behind the counter of Little Taiwan so I asked the girls there where they got it. They pointed to the stall behind them. After that, after I sat down with my food (nachos included), someone else passed by and asked where did I get them! Hahahaha! Obviously people don’t know about the nachos!

While I was sitting down to eat, I turned on my phone and its faulty sim card and found that I had 3 missed calls from MPH. I tried calling back but my sim card hated me and kept cutting my line. After lunch I still had plenty of time before Maghrib so I thought I’d finally buy those stupid ink cartridges that kept giving me warnings about their impending dooms. So I made my way to Sg. Wang. And bought the damn ink cartridges.

And because my SIM card kept dying, I bought a new one.

Yes, Digi. I was too lazy to take a pic of my sim card so I just googled a digi image. I am not doing it any free or paid advertising. I always buy my temporary sim cards as Digi. So while I was on an sms-ing spree, telling everyone about my new number, I got fed up with the faulty buttons on my phone and thought, what the hell – let me just buy a new phone!

And so I did.

I name it NordKitten – after my laptop –NordKatten, meaning Nordic Cat hehehe.

Cameo.

It’s a Walkman W100i Spiro phone for RM250. Cute, cheap, good brand, reputable seller – what more do you need? Well, how about some accessories? Not so easy. For both case and screen protector, every seller nowadays are selling only for ; iphone, blackberry, galaxy or any variations of smartphones therefore. Gone are the days of the buttons. So I just bought a sock for it.

I wanna see how this one goes before I decide to buy anotherone which is crocheted, colorful and slightly longer, able to cover the whole phone. Because swiping your card takes some of your soul, therefore it needs some nourishment after that.

Nothing a Subway sandwich can’t fix!

I’m still keeping it for later though, since I just had a big late lunch. I also stumbled onto my neighbor who is recently married and thought I should finally give him his wedding gift. Just to be neighborly. But sighs, I still have some chores to do – clear up my desk, hang my laundry, fold my laundry and take out the trash.

((5 hours gap where I went to my neighbour’s house, hung out and had dinner. I have nice enighbours))

Forget all those things. I need to shower!

Ta’ra!

Tea Time

Apart from lunch (and brunch, or dinner and maybe supper), tea time is my favorite time of the day, regardless of when that may be - early in the morning, after lunch, late afternoon, or after supper at night before bed - I just looove tea! I love it so much that when I went to London I brought home a whole collection of tea!

Do not be fooled - I actually have a lot more! Those are just my Whittard collection. I have a few more from tourist tat shops. All were purchased for personal consumption, but I decided that I should share and gave away some of those with nice tins, like the one the shape of a double decker bus. Despite that, I still kept this one with me. It's loose leaf tea, but still...



Sherlock Holmes London Tea! And yes, I bought it just for the awesome tin! There's some 'back story' on the back:

It says: "This delightful blend of a Secret Victorian recipe known only to Mrs. Hudson, could have been served to Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in their study in Baker Street whilst foiling the exploits of Professor Moriarty".

I certainly wouldn't mind the fictional taste of tea made for fictional characters! Also, I have opened this tin yet. It's currently decorating my dresser xD.

Tonight's tea is Whittard's Afternoon Earl Grey.

My favorite tea is obviously Earl Grey. I have about...five or six Earl Greys of different brands and made it a point to taste all the Earl Greys of available brands. My favorite daily Earl Grey is from Dilmah because unlike these British teas Dilmah is not as strong. Or perhaps because the packets are smaller so the tea doesnt get bitter towards the end. Either way. My 'Tea Service' tonight:


I kept forgetting about those two pieces of cookies in the fridge so I included them there. Here you can see the stool doing what it's meant to be - being a tea table. While I was drinking this, I was going through my London pictures and some Norway pictures...well basically I was going though my camera memory card! So I thought I would include some very well overdue London pictures. Just a bit, though, don't be dissapointed.


Here we were, drinking hot chocolate with the London Bridge in the background, waiting while my older sis and bro went to the London Dungeon. I skipped out because I was a wimp xD.



Here's me again, I think we just came back from Paris. Tired. Probably hungry, and needing to poop. Or maybe just fart. Travelling makes me gassy.



And this is the very, very friendly hotel porter whom we nicknamed Mosby. (actual name Gabriel) He is French Nigerian. Took this pic after coming back from shopping one night, and was waiting for dad's cab to arrive. Apparently daddyo's cab arrived earlier and they were already lepaking in their room. Either way, very friendly guy this Mosby.

Oh, and of course. Can't blog about tea and London without finishing with this. xD

Feel like a Sir

Ta'ra! xD

Redecorating

I'm redecorating my room. I painted it green last year during my raya break, so now I'm ready to put up shelves. For inspirations, I have been going through these mooks (book+magazines = mooks).

I'm starting to get quite attached to these Hitori Gurashi series. I like these Japanese interior mooks because they feature rooms of real people, not just show rooms or designer-styled rooms or houses of really rich people. They are ridiculous and ridiculously expensive! After perusing these mooks I have somewhat decided what design I want. I already bought the shelves. After getting the rest of them I am complete hehehe! Although it might not be a bad idea to just add oneplank shelf in my KL room to put all these:

Ohh don't worry, I have more xD. These used to reside on the box for my pants under the aircond. But one night my aircond suddenly squirted water downwards on my precious pile of porn so I had no choice but to move them. Talk about a higher power!

And oh, you might remember the stool that I assembled myself that I mentioned before.

TA-DA!

Most of the time it's a tea table. Better than the previous stool, which was too low. Somehow, I found a toolbox lying around the house and the tools inside were sufficient to put this together. I felt so awesome and self-sufficient after that and had an ego orgasm.

Also recently I found myself with a bit of time, trying to decide what to do with the contents of my beading box, so I made myself some bracelets.

They are all swarovski crystals, put together with wire and sterling silver chain. And yes, I wore all five! Alas, I had to remove them when I was making grilled cheese, and forgot to put it back again hahaha! If you're interested to get one for yourself, don't be shy to ask me ;) I charge very reasonable price hahaha!

Man, I am so not used to typing lenghty blog posts. I'm getting old. Ta'ra!

Norway Trip ~Sightseeing~

I had a headache after being told I was stuck in Amsterdam for 14 hours, so apart from Amsterdam pictures, I will upload everything else. That said, I don't like Amsterdam. Now then, during my trip, I went to Sweden for half a day and a daytrip to Denmark. Kristiansand was strategically close to these two countries. But while in Oslo the first time, I went to a place called Vigelands Park, which is a park full of statues of a fat naked man. Rows and rows, monuments after monuments of the statues of naked people. I heard this place was actually a private property of said naked man, which is why all the naked men statues look alike. It's probably the face and built of the owner. Apart from the obvious 'eye candy' it is actually a very nice park. Perhaps in the summer. The Viking Museum! You can't go to Scandinavia without visiting at least one! It was not very big, but it had 3 almost complete viking ships on display.Here's me, eating ice cream out here in the snow. I'm hard core yeah. Came back to Oslo the next week with Farah A to sightsee. We were joined by Karoline and Kari. Went to Munch Museum where the famous painting 'The Scream' is. Apparently, Edvard Munch made several versions of the Scream and only one of them is ever on display at one time. Unfortunately, the one on display when I was there was the one made with crayon on cardboard. I was so offended I didn't even bother taking a picture of it. Hmph. After that we went to the nearby Zoologisk Museum and Biologisk Museum. A werewolf? I was in Sweden for half a day.Blow proudly ye Swedish flags. It was nice and sunny in Oslo yet the moment we entered the Swedish border, it turned foggy. It was fun doing spontaneous sightseeing as 'historical sights (Hysterical Sight)' are marked on the road so you can just stop by and snap photos, just like this stone ship, just laid out in the backyard of a farmer's house. From afar it looked like the stonehenge. Ice patches everywhere. It was such a long and icy trek, but for the sake of being in Sweden I pushed on!!And we stopped by the goodies outlet in Sweden. Like a factory outlet of candy and chocolate. I bought some Swedish chocolate. Yum yum. Next, Hirtshals, Denmark.Costs 20 Danish kroner to climb up the lighthouse. We just had lunch, so I was content with just appreciating the view from down there. Apparently, Denmark does not get snow, but their wind is a killer. Cold and strong, even the trees grew bendy because of the wind. Here I am, freezing at the beach of Denmark, but determined to walk on! I was in Kristiansand most of the time and when I am out, I spend most of my time shopping. But when I am not shopping, I did some sightseeing too. Like, going to the fjord!

FJORD, WE FINALLY MEET!!

And going for nature walks around a frozen lake.

I was so excited when I saw a creek in Sweden, and when I returned to Norway there were creeks EVERYWHERE! Yeah I was so sakai.

I also went to the Dyre Parken (zoo). The Kristiansand zoo is the best! I was petted by a sheep.

And met some old friends.

Orangutang hahaha!!

Of course, can't finish this entry with my favorite place to shop, MONKi!!! I MISS YOU MONKII!

Ta'ra!

Norway Trip ~Initial~

I've been back for approximately one week now, but I've been too occupied with recovering from jet lag and the tons of laundry. I've only started doing my KL-used clothes laundry today! I am not going to seggregate my blog entry into part 1, part 2, part 3 etc, like how most people like to do because I will surely never get past part 1! So I'm going to start with the highlights of my trip, followed by whatever that came to mind. Also, I do not work for Tourism Norway though I wish I do, but I hope my entry would help more tourists go to Norway *ahem*.

First off,

Welcome to Norway in the SPRING!

Yes, I was expecting pretty flower buds too but I was greeted with piles and piles of snow. Temperature was around -7. Yay!

First let me tell you the premise of my trip. I was in Norway for exactly 3 weeks. I arrived from Amsterdam in Oslo, and stayed one night in Hamar at my friend Farah A's study home. Hamar is in the mountains two hours away from Oslo and of course, colder than Oslo. However, the bulk of the trip is spent in Kristiansand, way down south of Norway, which can also be said the most southern tip of Norway, thus the least cold. Of course, least cold being around -5 to -1 for the first week alone. Refer to map below.

I really just went there to escape reality (was in the thick of doing my survey and I fled). I never in my life have thought of ever going so far north for holiday, but I thought why not? I've heard so many nice things about it and I was not disappointed! I worked my ass off at Kinokuniya accumulating funds for a holiday trip to Japan and I ended up on the opposite side of the world instead. The tsunami hit Japan the day I left for Norway. Is it a sign?

Anyway, I was quite tired of the over-rated touristy locations ie China, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Venice, London, Amsterdam etc and I longed to go someplace nobody had even thought of going, thus, Norselands! I had a really great host and I am therefore eternally grateful to them! I was a pineapple in Polar bear lands and they went out of their way to make my stay as comfortable and pleasant as possible! Thank you very much my venerable hostess!

In the next post I will talk about the places I went to. The bulk of the pictures are on facebook, as I'll only be talking about the interesting bits here hehehe. Ta'ra!