And I Turned 28, Alhamdulillah.

Alhamdulillah, another year has passed. I turned 28 on the 6th September which coincidentally falls on the day of my birth day, a Friday. I have much to be thankful for and much more to look forward to, I can only pray for the best and receive blessings from Allah SWT in the years to come, insya Allah.

This year, I decided to take leave on my birthday and do whatever it is that I felt like doing. I had manicure, pedicure, massage, waxing, wash and blow my hair in mind but time was pressing so I only managed to get do waxing, threading and wash and blow. I was actually rushing for Yuna's concert at Istana Budaya that night. In between the "pamperings" I had to go to the office to drop off some stuff up for sale as the office was organising a bazaar. My colleague was such a darling she helped me sell my stuff and proceeds from the sale went to charity. Glad I could contribute something.

Bday lunch with the parentals at Tram Car, PJ.

Us at Yuna's concert.

Stellar performance by Yuna. I must admit she's a legend in the making.

Photo exhibition on sale.

 
The very next day, family treated me for a sumptuous lunch at Hard Rock Cafe - apparently I crave for the 32 bucks worth of hot fudge brownie (I'm salivating here as I type lol) every time that I am pregnant. And fyi, HRC has a sentimental value to me. It brings back memories whenever I'm there as it was once a place where I grew up having family dinners and lunches when my late father was still around.

The last time I was there was 2 years ago when I was carrying Khaisah. I hope to make it a more frequent thing (okay maybe not so frequent considering the price of the food now has hiked up) to relive the fond memories I have with my late Pa. And the food never once failed me. Imagine me eating 3 pieces of fat juicy fajitas all by myself. So, so good I tell you. Yums!

 

 

 

 

After lunch, my husband treated us (me and lil missy) for a night stay at Impiana Hotel KLCC. Told (more like pressing him) I wanted a break/holiday and so he brought me here.

 

Checked in. Relaxed on the comfy bed for a bit whilst Hubs was busy entertaining Khaisah in the bath tub haha. We had tea with Hashley's uncle and aunty that evening and off we went to KLCC for a stroll (more like me window shopping for potential year end bags haha) and dinner.

 

We spent the rest of the Sunday after checking out, at home just relaxing. One of the most relaxing weekends and birthday I have had in a long time. Thanks Hashley for the birthday treat. You know I love you always, even when I don't say it, even when I'm angry lol <3

Tourists in Own City.

It was one of those random nights when we decided to take a drive to the city to bring Khaisah view the city lights (although I doubt she can rationalise why she's there). It turns out that me and H were more thrilled with the whole experience, because honestly, it has been ages since I stepped food at Dataran Merdeka and I guess that's cause I don't have a reason to be there kan. 

We only stopped by Dataran Merdeka and coincidentally there was a rehearsal of a concert (can't remember what it was) which was scheduled on the day after so we got free music by Sleeq to entertain us.

 

 

I guess it's important that we make effort to get to know our city/country a lil deeper - especially when you've got relatives, cousins or friends from overseas coming to Malaysia and you realise you actually don't know much about your own country. Quite a shame, innit? 

Having said that, I aim to go to the KLCC tower bridge someday. Let's take one thing at a time, shall we?

Johor Premium Outlet.

On our way back home from JB, we decided to make a "pit stop" to JPO and that so called "pit stop" lasted for 6 hours. Truth be told, it wasn't me who shopped the most. It was my father in law! Lol. We were quite lucky to go when the items for sale were of good selections because apparently we heard there are times when the choices are tad limited and boring.

In a nutshell, my take on JPO would be as follows:

1. Pretty decent selection of stores available, although secretly wishing for more to be opened like Gucci, LV, Longchamp etc lol
2. Discounts were relatively good. Like for some Ferragamo bags, discounts were close to 3k. 
3. Wished they had more choices for restaurants though.
4. And a proper surau (then, I don't know what's the current update now)
5. Perhaps they would like to consider making a covered parking space (it was raining cats and dogs when we arrived!)
6. Think we should bring empty luggage bags. It definitely will help you have a fuss-free shopping experience. Thank god for Khaisah's stroller (as evidenced below). We would have to make several rounds to the car to keep our loot if not for it hehe.

 

 

 
After spending hours and hours there, I only ended up with a bag from Charles and Keith and pants from Padini. How unexceptional but satisfactory for the price that I paid! I am for a fact a bargain hunter (many can vouch this fact hehe). But yeah, overall, a good start for Malaysia to come up with shopping hubs like these. Only thing that was missing is the dry, cold, winter weather with leather jackets and boots, pretending to be in Bicester Village (not that I have been there aaaany way lol). 

The New Face of Johor Bahru.

 

 

 

If you've not been to JB off late, particularly at Jalan Dhoby, please do so. It has "rebranded" itself, so to speak, with new things to explore and more photos to capture. It's a new haven for fashion junkies to vintage collectors or chic hipsters to shop or hang out with friends and families.

So happened I was there for a cousin in law's wedding in February this year and I usually just stay at H's aunt's place and not go out (cause there weren't much to do except go makan at the usual places - It Roo for chicken chop and Tebing for seafood or ikan bakar or balai bomba for ice kacang and kacang pol) but this time around, my perception of JB changed. It now has its appeal. It's becoming the next Jonker St, Malacca albeit in smaller scale, I must say. Do check these places out if you're in that town :)

Family Day.

Wanna know how my office keeps its staff entertained? Treat them to Sunway Lagoon for Family Day. We get to go not only to two parks but three parks! Apparently it ain't cheap to get into Sunway Lagoon nowadays. Obviously I took the opportunity to go. Who doesn't like things when it's free anyway? So kiasu right? Hahaha.

 

My best friends - Shida and Tasha - Mrs of my colleagues. If you're wondering why they're there too. 

The only activity which I joined in - Senamrobik. Trying to get Khaisah to join in the fun too. Well, as you can see, she wasn't into it that much. Perhaps because the weather was hot. Perhaps too, because it was not Gangnam. That, another story to be told. Haha.

The pretty couple - Tasha and Basri.

Little miss sexy back.

Adam and his daughter, the ever so bubbly Alisha.

Entering Wildlife Park and the first thing we saw was a friggin python! Grrrrr.

She and her ducks. Sigh.

CSR.

So recently I went for my first office trip - a Corporate Social Responsibility trip (or in short, 'CSR') since I started working here. Yesterday marked half a year since I'm here. Wahey!

Anyways, guess where we went? Penang. AGAIN for me. Lol. Can never get enough of Penang, I tell you. Who can resist the temptation of Kapitan's garlic cheese naan?

We stayed at Golden Sands Shangri-La Resort (double wahey lol) for 3 days 2 nights. I even took a room for myself so hubs and Khaisah could tag along. It was basically a free holiday for us - we only had ONE activity on the first day and that activity was dinner hahaha. And another activity on the next day which was the CSR itself.

Fundamentally, CSR as defined in Google, means a process with the aim to embrace responsibility for the company's actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, etc. What we did for our CSR was to go to Pantai Kerachut (the other side of Penang Island), a turtle conservation centre, to help clean the beach where these turtle lay their eggs etc.

It took us 10 mins drive from the hotel to the jetty via bus, about 20 mins ride via boat to the centre's jetty and 10 mins walk under the hot sun and through the super hot sand to reach the centre (thank god I was wearing shoes!).

This is us at the jetty before embarking on our journey via boat.

 
And this is us on the boat. Well, some of us.

It's been so long since I rode on a boat. I truly miss the golden days of me going to the beach every year. Sigh. See what marriage and being a mom do to you. I'm always occupied but I don't know what I'm occupied about. Lol.

Arrived safely at the jetty and it was scorching hot!

After lunch, we were given a briefing about turtles - background, types, origins etc. and they even took out some hatchlings for us to see.

And after the briefing was over, we were divided into groups to do the actual CSR. Some were tasked to plant new ambong ambong trees - yes turtles lay eggs underneath a tree, at night. Some were to clean the beach nearing the ambong ambong trees to make it easier for the turtles to come forward to lay eggs - apparently turtles don't like laying eggs in dirty/messy places. Quite OCD there eh haha.

This was after I helped okay. Hehe.

Then comes the most interesting part of the CSR. We could finally release our hatchlings to the sea! By doing this, we were asked to wait till 645pm so the eagles won't be able see that well to catch them even before they reach to the sea. How risky, poor baby!

And off they go!

With that, our CSR trip ends. Lessons learned: keep hydrated and please don't buy turtle eggs. Hahaha.