Mission

I went back to KL last week.. with a mission >>>> to collect my wedding dress! I was nervous, yet dying with excitement! For some of you that do not know, my wedding dress is actually made by Grumpy's mum.

While Grumpy and myself are both Malaysian Chinese... for the weirdest of reasons, we both agreed that we were going to follow the Australian (or more like Western world) rule whereby Grumpy is not allowed to see me in a wedding dress, until our wedding day. Hence, we were not going to do a pre-wedding photo shoot like everyone else back in Malaysia. Plus, we are running low on moolah.

So on Saturday, we both arrive in KL. We flew Air Asia.. because we are on a budget.. it was fine, it is not as bad as it seems. Anyways, Grumpy's parents picked us up, but after that, we went separate ways. I stayed with my parents, while he stayed with his. When Grumpy arrived home to his house from the airport, (this is also partially our fault because we did not inform them), his mum (probably equally excited as I was) had laid my wedding dress in his bedroom! OMG. When Grumpy told me, I sort of freaked out. I went "YOU WHAT?! YOU SAW THE DRESS?!?!?!?! YOU SAW THE DRESS BEFORE ME?!???!" Hahaha.. but he assured me, he quickly stepped out from the room that instant, and did not even get the opportunity to see the design of the dress. He asked for his sister's help to put the dress in a different room.

Anyways, my mum said its fine for him to see the dress. Just that he is not meant to see ME in the dress before the wedding. The next day, I make my way to his parent's house and.... I am jumping!!!! The wedding dress is gorgeous. I absolutely love it. She made it exactly as how I asked her to.. She is brilliant! No sneak peeks as yet.

Apart from the dress, I must admit that this trip was a bit sad in some ways. At some point, I felt like I was in a play called Romeo and Juliet. But thankfully, that bit is done.. and I am back here now. Phew. My mum was getting very emotional by the fact that I was growing up, and getting married, etc.. we had a fight, which Little-Miss-Drink-A-Lot said that 'no trip back to KL would be complete without the customary fight with our mothers'.

Here is how the rest of my short trip in KL went...

I got my hair done by this talented hairdresser at the Gardens in Midvalley. He has digitally permed my hair twice this year, and on both occasions, I am very pleased with the results.



Each day my parents will ask me "What do you want to eat for lunch?"
I reply "Toast Box".
"What do you want to eat for dinner?"
I reply "Toast Box".
I LOVE LOVE LOVE TOAST BOX! Ya I know, its not Malaysian...



I had bak kut teh in Klang with my grandfather, aunties and uncles..



They even have a domain name..



I got my nails done. While seated, in front of me, three young girls were also getting their nails done at the same time. They look like they were 5 years old. WHY in the world do 5 year olds need to come in for a manicure and a pedicure? I asked the nail person.. "Is this normal? Little kids getting their nails done??" She nods her head.



Here is one of my favourite places to have afternoon tea in Subang Jaya.. It is called Bawang Merah. You pretty much help yourself to the food, go back to your table.. eat your food, then before you leave, just drop by the counter and try to recall what you have already gobbled up in your stomach, and pay for it.



And of course, here are pictures of my dog back in Malaysia.. He is quite old, and his hind legs are failing him.. despite the old age, he still loves to play with his toys. A boxer trait, I think.







Seven weeks to the wedding. OMG.

melts my heart

This picture melts my heart...


Seen here

Melbourne marathon

What an awesome weekend. I have yet to post pictures of my dinner at Vue de Monde from the week before (I really have to get them from my friend).. but here are some pictures from the Melbourne marathon. It was on Sunday. I have no idea why we all signed up but many people from work participated. We even got a personal trainer to come in the Wednesday before the run, and he took us around Treasury gardens. I have never been with a PT before, but it was good fun. I signed Little-Miss-Whats-For-Lunch for the PT session as well, and she couldn't stop mouthing the words "I AM SO GONNA KILL YOU" through out the entire work out session. LOL.

It was a bit of a shame that the run clashed with a visit from one of my closest friends, Little-Miss-Bargain-Hunter from the Gold Coast, but the good thing is that I was able to bring her to our wedding ceremony venue at the Abbotsford Convent on Saturday. And the fact that she happens to be one of my bridesmaids too.

So here it is, on Sunday, the St George Melbourne marathon, I completed the 5km run with Little-Miss-Curtains. Little-Miss-Whats-For-Lunch did the 5km walk instead.

It was such a beautiful day for a run. Sunny, blue skies, a cool breeze.. and apparently, we finished in 33 minutes (from the time of the gun), or 31 minutes (my personal time). The best part? Finishing the race in the grounds of the MCG! It felt really good!

Little-Miss-Whats-For-Lunch and myself, with our medals after the race.

And today, we got our certificates. It is only 5 kms, as opposed to what my boss, Belgian Truffles did.. He did the full marathon and completed the run in 3 hrs 57 minutes! What an accomplishment! But this 5km run is just the baby steps I'm taking to do more serious running in the future. We aim for the 10km next.

flowers

I have not been feeling my best, I must admit. I was sick last Thursday. It was awful. I threw up six times. Yes. One, two, three, four, five,.. SIX times! No I am not pregnant. It must have been something I ate or drank. I have been careful, watching what I eat.

Believe it or not, Chapel Press took ages to get back to me. A bit disappointed there. Anyways, in my previous post, I mentioned about the other Letterpress designer, I call her Karen from W & G, even though she goes by the lovely name of Meaghan, she actually responded to me the following Monday. So today we finalised the boring bits (i.e. money, invoice, terms and conditions, payment).. in the next week, she will start working on our invites and I am already quite excited. I need to work on the wording soon. I guess it is all becoming more and more real now!

I met up with a really nice florist ages ago. She was lovely too, but a tad pricey. I will be meeting another florist in Prahran this weekend, just to get a cheaper quote. Grumpy does not give a rats ass about flowers. I found this picture on this website yesterday and I love it, aren't her flowers beautiful? I'm thinking, I'm sure I can whip this up myself? I told Grumpy the kind of look I am going for are flowers that look like I just picked them out from my garden... and he goes "What? You want to pay someone all that money, to look like you just picked them out yourself from your own backyard?"

Royal Melbourne Show

A few weeks ago my boss asked me, very casually if I was interested in doing a three day training program for some new starters here in the Melbourne office. At first I was like.. ermm.. are you serious?! :(

But after giving it some thought, I said Yes, why not?! If I said no, he might take it the wrong way. Also, as Training is included in our official job descriptions, I had to... at some point, in my role, do some form of training activity for people. I have done it in Dublin before and it was fine.

On Monday morning, I came in early, turned on my 'Out of office' for the next three days, and went into the Training Room. There were five new starters and I had to give them training in our registry system. It went really well, I must admit. It was the first time I was doing training in the Australian office. I thought I would be nervous, and when I'm nervous, I talkreallyreallyfast.. but I was quite calm. My friends would occasionally peek through the glass walls to check on me and give me a grin from the outside. Everyone else in the office, apart from the five new starters, would occasionally raise their hand when they see me walking past, saying "Miss!!! Excuse me Miss!"

My boss thought I would be exhausted on Monday being the first day. But it was only on Wednesday evening that it hit me. I felt so thirsty, even after drinking heaps of water. My throat felt sore and I was really tired by home time. I even made it to Body Jam class that Wednesday evening, but I could not help myself from yawning in class!

Friday morning, much to my surprise, my boss and I received an email from the head of the department saying thank you for the training. There were a lot of kind words about me too. Its nice to receive some positive feedback and just a simple thanks. This is a key element that appears to be missing from my colleagues in the Singapore office. And an even better part of the email was that many of my senior bosses in the Luxembourg office were copied in the email. Big smile on my face!

Okay now on a different note, the wedding preparations. I mentioned on Twitter recently, that I am experiencing symptoms of a very lazy bride to be. I really need to get my invitations sorted. A few weeks ago, I was in contact with a nice girl who owns her own letterpress business. Personally, I am more keen on helping out sole business owners as opposed to larger companies. I have seen her work, and I like it. She was so lovely over the phone, sounded like Karen from Will & Grace. Karen is my favourite W&G character, after Jack. However, after a series of unanswered emails and voice messages, I have had to resort to a different famous letterpress company here in Brighton.

So I went for my first appointment with Chapel Press yesterday, alone.. shame, I wanted Grumpy to come along but he had to work. It went really well. It was important for Grumpy to see how the letterpress invites look like, because they cost a lot more than normal digital printed invitations. Letterpress invites are definitely not the cheap route... but when I got there, and after seeing the samples, I was sold! Grumpy has no choice now.

Spoke to Mum about them. She said "Girl, why don't you make them in Malaysia? They are sooo good over here!!" I told her I could not delay it any longer. Invitations take at least six weeks. When I go back in November, its just too late to get my invites printed at that time. She said "No lahh in Malaysia you can get them sooo much faster, not six weeks lah!!" She tried hard to convince me on going the Malaysian way, but I am known for being stubborn in the family. She said "How much do they cost?" I lied, "$10 each" hahhahaha There were many OMGs after.. chill mother chill. By the way, they DO NOT HAVE LETTERPRESS wedding invites in Malaysia. Come on!

I end with some pictures from the Royal Melbourne Show last night. I had so much fun. I took these few pictures from my iPhone, more pictures to come from Mr Happy's Olympus PEN camera.

They felt nice..like a rug! Told Grumpy, the next time you eat lamb, think of this little fella here!




I am SOOO gonna take you home with me! :)

post surgery

The recovery period from my wisdom teeth surgery has been good. I had the entire last week off from work to rest. Yes, to rest, not a holiday! Everyone else thought I was on holidays. Jeez.

Days 1-4 post surgery. I eat only soft foods ie. porridge or soft boiled eggs with toast for brekkie, yoghurt or noodles for lunch, and congee for dinner. I walk around the house with ice packs wrapped around my cheeks.

Day 5 post surgery. Wednesday. The eve of my birthday. Grumpy and I decide to go out to a nice restaurant for dinner. I can only chew on one side of my mouth, but I want to celebrate! I get us dinner reservations at Tempura Hajime in South Melbourne at the last minute. Tempura Hajime can only sit 12 patrons at a time, and so you can imagine it is indeed a very intimate dining experience. Like the name of the restaurant, the chef cooks only tempura, in front of you, similar to teppanyaki.

There were 12 of us earlier that night, but because being the 'natural born slow eater' that I am, and also with only half my chewing capabilities that night, we were the last ones left in the restaurant at that time. Everyone else had finished and gone home. hehe I was very quick to receive sympathy from the chef due to my wisdom teeth. Another good thing with this restaurant is that he cooks based on how quick or slow you eat.. Overall, it was a good restaurant, absolutely delicious food, and very friendly service.

Grumpy and I, weird how I could even manage a smile. It must have hurt.

Day 6 post surgery. My birthday. I still can't chew properly, and OMG, there is visible bruising on my face! WTF. It is yellow!

Day 7 post surgery. I decide its time to go to the gym. I choose to go for a session of yoga. It is important that I keep all physical movements to a bare minimum. I get tired easily, and occasionally feel sore around the jaw. Later that night, I agree to meet the girls for dinner at TGIF in Jam Factory, South Yarra. "Will you be able to eat Jules?" they asked. "Yes, I'll try". I pick a nice salad for dinner instead of steak or ribs, ya know..

"Jules, what do you want as a birthday present?" asked Little Miss-Whats-For-Lunch. With all the spare time I had at home in recovery, I surfed a lot on Net-a-porter, mytheresa.com, and Shop Zoe Online. I replied, "Miu Miu bag".

So.. what do you know.. my friends go out and get me a Miu Miu bag..

Notice the yellow spot on the side of my jaw? :(

I read my birthday card from the wombats (we call each other wombats). It is hilarious. In the card, there is a picture of me from my previous post (face wrapped with ice packs), photoshopped into a fairy = a tooth fairy.

I also get a knitted scarf, which comes with a hood. Its really nice. I love it.

And a little note pad, in the shape of a cute bag. They also stick a Miu Miu label for me on this bag. Too funny.

I get chocolates, lollies, chewing gum, Smarties. Must be the work of Little Miss-Whats-for-Lunch.

But the main presents were two books from the Twilight series. Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. I'm still half way reading New Moon.

After dinner, we head out to Little Miss Curtains new home in Cranbourne North. She's a dear little friend of mine, and I am so very happy for her that she is finally moving in to her very own home, which she bought together with her boyfriend.

Here is a picture of us together in her living area. The house is still very new, and not completely furnished as yet.

Day 10 post surgery. I return to work on Monday. My yellow bruise is now green! Everyone comes up to talk to me, asking me how it went and sharing wisdom teeth stories.

Today is Day 15 post surgery. There is still some bruising, but I am fine. Occasionally I feel tired after too much chewing.

I will see my surgeon soon in ten days.

more pics of BFF weekend

Pictures from my BFF weekend a few weeks ago.
It has been a while since I laughed that much..



Dinner at FOG Prahran

And the next day, we were all headed to the Yarra Valley


Some wine tasting


A lazy Sunday winter afternoon..






Some posed shots






My favourite picture with our reflection on the water