Three more sleeps!

I cannot believe everything is actually happening. Time has flown so quick...

In three days, we will become husband and wife. I could not really adjust to calling Grumpy my fiance, what more my husband?

It has been very overwhelming so far. With many friends and family that have already flown in from Malaysia, we have been busy juggling wedding preparations and playing host.

My hens party was last week, and it was absolutely awesome. A lot of time, effort and money was spent by all the girls, I am truly very lucky to be surrounded by such lovely ladies.

What more do I have to do? Hmmm..

• Video montage
• Name tags - which will be hung over a wooden pear tree
• Packing

Most of it is nearly done. I have four different spreadsheets, so hopefully I don't miss anything anywhere. If I do, oh well.. shit happens.

I must admit, I am a little bit under the weather. I have been too busy to go to the gym or even for my usual runs. Grumpy gets on my nerves every other second. Dad told me before, just go out of the house, go for a walk, get some fresh air. I guess he is right. Only today I was able to sleep in a little because yesterday was my last day at work.

Work has been equally hectic. However, I was pleasantly surprised yesterday afternoon when someone rang me from reception to say I have just received some flowers! I thought to myself, hang on, I haven't had a fight with Grumpy.... but it turns out to be flowers from the Dublin office. I am very touched. It has been over a year now since I left, and they still have me in their thoughts, wishing me the very best for the wedding.

The Melbourne office has been very nice to me too, embarrassing me with a presentation, a cake to share with everyone, a bottle of bubbly and a David Jones voucher.

Mum brought over heaps of presents and cards from family, neighbours (?) and close friends in KL.

I am indeed very grateful at the kind thoughts and generosity of everyone. It is amazing..!

I really must learn to relax now, stop being an uptight bitch, and just enjoy myself!

Three more sleeps to go! OMG!

oh what a year! 2009!

This year has been quite an eventful one for me. Most of the my spare time was spent on wedding planning. Apart from that....

• Beginning of the year I was settling back to my normal life in Melbourne after spending 6 (glorious) months in Europe. Let me tell you now, it was not easy in terms of my relationship with Grumpy and even Dopey.
• I signed up with Fitness First. I heart yoga. And running.
• I started a new role at work, which involves working with Singapore and Hong Kong offices.
• We went back to Malaysia twice this year.
• I had three of my remaining wisdom teeth removed.
• And then I quit smoking! *clap hands*
• We had a very expensive dinner at Vue De Monde.
• I had my first personal flying experience by a friend's brother who is learning to become a pilot.
• I got to see Britney!
• My grandmother left us... to be in a better place.
• We said goodbye to our most loyal dog, Simba. He will be missed dearly! It was so very painful seeing him suffer epilepsy, but we will always remember the best of Simba!
• Was able to spend a bit of time with two of my closest friends, which I do not normally get to see them very often, Little Miss Drink-A-Lot and Little Miss Bargain Hunter.

2010... I hope to....

• Travel more
• Enjoy my job. If not, look elsewhere.
• Be a better person, especially to my loved ones.
• Enjoy the life of a newlywed.
• Save money after spending too much on the wedding
• Read more
• Run more. Maybe half a marathon someday?
• (Secretly hoping to) Move to another country, work there and explore the culture, lifestyle and hidden treasures

Here is a toast to the New Year! Best wishes everyone!


May the new year bring you lots of love and happiness! Wish me luck to our wedding, only 22 days to go.. jeeeeeysus!

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! :)