Wednesday, January 31, 2007

I'd Do It Again

After seeing this gown on ebay, I wish to have a wedding all over again. Like, right now.


Monday, January 29, 2007

Doing The Work Scene In Style

I haven’t gone on any shopping sprees for a real long time, mainly due to time constraint, besides I want to save more for our plan of buying a house.

Thank God for the nature of my job, I’m not required to wear professional work clothes, i.e. mini skirts/pants with shirt, and a blazer over it, complete with court shoes, yadda yadda yawn. On the contrary, I was asked to wear casual work clothes, like jeans and such :)

Basically my work place wardrobe consists of mainly jeans, top, and most of the time, sneakers, which my grandma makes so much of fuss about. “Aiyoh! What is this? Where got girls wear like this wan? Please lah, can you be a girl?!” that’s the gist of her Hakka shrieking.

And have I mentioned already Jason bought me a jacket for my birthday? Well he bought one saying when I attend and cover events, I can at least look more professional. Heh. (Tomorrow I have an event @ Hilton! Yay! Can wear my gift and look plofayshenal leh!)

Anyway, I’ve surfed over to BananaRepublic through couponchief.com and I found loads, and I seriously means loads of great casual office/weekend wear which I’d love to own! I love their pants selections which simply oozes attitude. Oh you know how big I am with the whole attitude thing!

The website is almost like a one stop shopping centre, you can get everything you need to cover (or uncover!) your body from head to toe: tops, tees, skirts, pants, cropped pants, jeans, suits, sweaters, swimwear (!!!), oooh and shoes and handbags!

And to relieve the dryness of your wallet, BananaRepublic is offering free standard shipping orders worth $125.00+, now that’s good news for me! The promotion ends on the 30th of April. So do head on over to the site and start filling up your shopping cart, quote them the BananaRepublic coupon code (BRFREE) and be set free from worrying about shipping fees! My fingers are all tingly with shopping bugs now! :)




Birthday Weekend

Counting my blessings on my 27th birthday:

Jason took a day off just to spend quality time with me! But I ended up keeping him waiting because I was rushing to meet my articles’ deadlines. (but then ah, he never give me notice woh!)

Jason brought me to Mid Valley (on a work day! *cough*pontengkerja*cough*) for lunch.

Jason got me a jacket which I’ve drooled after for half a year now. Amazingly he still remembers the location of the shop in Mid Valley (he tends to get lost there) and the exact camel brown jacket (!!! for a guy, it’s amazing!!!) which I’ve been dreaming of and later given up hope in.

Jason made booking in one of my favourite Italian Restaurant for dinner. But the boss didn’t honour the booking by giving the table to another customer only frantically apologize to us when we showed up, citing reason such as his staff mistaken the customer as Jason. After a 10 minute wait, dinner was on the house. What’s sweeter than free dinner?!

Actually, there is something sweeter than free dinner: the petrol kiosk cashier (accidentally) gave us an extra five dollar worth of petrol. If I wasn't too sleepy at that time, I'd be laughing all the way home.

Besides the free dinner and the free petrol, Big Guy gave me another present too! But let me savour it first before I show you the picture :)

Sunday, January 28, 2007

When They Tag, They Come Pouring

1. Are your parents married or divorced? Of course married!
2. Are you a vegetarian? Wish I have the willpower to be one.
3. Do you believe in Heaven? Yup. I’ll be meeting Jesus one day up there!
4. Have you ever come close to dying? I’m still needed down here.
5. What jewellery do you wear 24/7? My wedding ring kua.
6. Favourite time of day? Breakfast time!
7. Do you eat the stems of broccoli? Yes.
8. Do you wear makeup? Sometimes.
9. Ever have plastic surgery? Thank God I don’t need any!
11. What do you wear to bed? Are you kidding? For Malaysian weather you actually
wear something to bed?!
12. Have you ever done anything illegal? Uh, beating traffic lights?
13. Can you roll your tongue? In what manner?
14. Do you tweeze your eyebrows? Nothing to tweeze.
15. What kind of sneakers? New Balance
16.Do you believe in Abortions? Oh no.
17. What is your Hair color? Brown. OK lah, dark brown.
18. Future child’s name? Cannot so anti-climax, wait till the baby comes.
19. Do you snore? No.
20. If you could go anywhere in the world where would it be? Depends lah: HK and Taiwan for food; India for those shimmery salwar khameez and bangles; Ozzie for uh, more food; US for Victoria’s Secret; Italy for gelato; and I can dream on and on.
21. Do you sleep with stuffed animals? Not a stuffed toy person.
22. If you won the lottery, what would you do first? Make sure the money is in my hand and evade tax.
23. Gold or silver? Can depend ah?
24. Hamburger or hot dog? Both also I like.
25. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? I cannot imagine lah woi!
26. City, beach or country? City and beach.
27. What was the last thing you touched? Before answering this question? Heh, you don’t want to know.
28. Where did you eat last? Mamak for lunch. Forced to take their “Briyani Fashion” (?) and cost me RM 10.20.
29. When’s the last time you cried? Yesterday morning. I was very confused and overwhelmed.
30. Do you read blogs? Of course.
31. Would you ever go out dressed like the opposite sex? No, I like my curves too much, though not much of curves lah…
32. Ever been involved with the police? I used to have a friend from the NYPD. Big, burly guy!
33. What’s your favourite shampoo conditioner and soap? Still looking for them.
34. Do you talk in your sleep? Uhh, would I know?
35. Ocean or pool? Ocean I think. Got pee in pool.
36. So, who has the original missing questions? I do. The question is, who so free to actually come this far with this I’m-really-duh mime?
37. Who would you take on a ménage à trois for a dirty weekend? Thiery Henry, but I don’t want ménage à trois!
38. Window seat or aisle? Depends also. Window if domestic, aisle if international.
39. Ever met anyone famous? Leishia.
40. Do you feel that you’ve had a truly successful life? Heading towards there.
41. Do you twirl your spaghetti or cut it? Twirling is oh so sexy.
42. Ricki Lake or Oprah Winfrey? I watched Oprah like, 10 years ago, I liked her then.
43. Basketball or Football? Soccer.
44. How long do your showers last? Depends lah!
45. Automatic or do you drive a stick? Stickless. Easier to manoeuvre
46. Cake or ice cream? Neither a fan, but hot chocolate pudding with freezing ice cream is cool.
47. Are you self-conscious? Oh yes. But not enough to spend tons on cosmetics.
48. Have you ever drank so much you threw up? Yeah. And blabbering too. It was Smirnoff straight. How smart am I huh? And it’s adios alcohol for me since then.
49. Have you ever given money to a beggar? Yeah.
50. Have you been in love? This is a trick question man!
51. Where do you wish you were? On a lavishly plush bed, in an air conditioned room, right now!
52. Are you wearing socks? Not now.
53. Have you ever ridden in an ambulance? No.
54. Can you tango? Yes if I learn.
55. Last gift you received? A jacket!
56. Last sport you played? Uhm………………………………..
57. Things you spend a lot of money on? Actually if you care to know, it’s on stupid Malaysian toll and petrol.
58. Where do you live? Unfortunately, Malaysia.
59. Where were you born? PJ. There is a difference between PJ and KL, please ah.
60. Last wedding attended? Just a week ago, cousin bro’s.
61. Spit or swallow? Euw. But spit lah.
62. Favorite position? Depends.
63. Most hated food(s)? I don’t have food that I hate with a vengeance, but dislikes got lah.
64. What’s your least fav.? Mee Goreng.
65. Can you sing? Yeah!
66. Last person you instant messaged? Uh, Aunty Khim and Sailorsim.
67. Last place you went on holiday? Phuket. Not nice wan, don’t go!
68. Favourite regular drink? Water and coffee.
69. Current Song? P. Diddy/Nicole Scherzinger, Come To Me.
70. Tag 3 friends: I’m not tagging anyone, if you want, feel free to help yourself.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

For The Love Of Ringlies

I was reminded of a wedding dinner some months back, where a Chinese lady walked in to the restaurant with her African husband and a son a little under age 10.

The boy has a face that strikingly resembles a Chinese’s, but there were traces of African. So you can’t really pin-point exactly whether he’s Chinese or African. Not even a Africhinese, you know, like you can tell if a person is a Chindian.

“He’s Chinese!”
“No lah, African!”
“No, no, maybe Hawaiian!”
“No, no, no!”

Silence.

“Then?”
“He’s an African but half a Chinese with ancestors from Hawaii who’s also African who married Chinese! Hah!”

Oh well.

And his hair, I can’t forget his hair. They were little blobs of really short curls, like when you had your garden newly planted with patches of grass. It was so cute.

I think I would like my children to have curls too. The boy would have… a dark chocolaty subdued afro-do, you know, like those yummy Spanish/Italian guys who grew up in California combing the beach; while the girls would be head full of ringlets, like Corinne Bailey Rae's. That’ll be so cool. Yes?

Sunday, January 21, 2007

A Crowning Problem

I recently chopped off my long, wavy hair to a little-under-shoulder length, straightened it, and spotting bangs now. I can’t exactly say I love it because I actually feel sassier and thought I looked better when my crown was a wavy perm. But I do love the fact that my head feels so much lighter to shoulder now!

Hair stylist after hair stylist never failed to be amazed with my hair; not that it’s all jet black, shiny, and water fall-like, rather it’s so thick and… well, thick, they could snip the scissors twice and the floor will be mounted with hair. It’s that scary (but fortunately too! I know!)! Contrary to during my baby days though, I had only three strands of hair above my forehead and that’s about it! Hehe.

When I was younger I did envy those with thinner hair and it seems so manageable although of course, I could hear them lamenting about how problematic thin hair is, and how they are trying all kinds of potions and shampoos to cure the problem. Ah well, human being human, whatever we have, we’d still complain eh! :)

However, I do strongly believe that if you have problem with thinning hairlines, over-the-counter shampoos and remedies will not work, so it’s a waste of money to spend on those. You reckon? Although I’m not too sure how effective it is if you were to spend thousands of moolah in hair restoration centers though because I don’t need it (yet? Oh God please, I definitely don’t need it!).

But this URL - fellermedical.com, sent over by my sponsor housed a whole range of before-and-after pictures of patients with thinning hairlines who underwent their surgical hair restoration procedure. And well, I gotta say, it’s quite convincing. They even put up videos of the procedures and offer “Lunchtime” procedures for those who are always on the run! Now that’s what I call going the extra mile in the customer service department. Heh.

Now the only sad news is, this surgical hair restoration specialist center is only available in New York. So for you who’s living in Big Apple and think you might need a consultation or two about your receding hairline, check them out, and let me know if they deliver well! :)


Saturday, January 20, 2007

The Reason Behind MIA

I know, I’ve been missing in action from my own blog for a week now. No thanks to the internet connection from my office. The technician was saying it’ll take a week to fix, now that a week’s gone and the up-time is still pathetically down! And our deadlines’ up!

So I spent most of my work time at my parents to well, write, initially. It’s always initially. Until, you get distracted! Oh there’s so much to be distracted with! Polly my baby girl, the coffee machine, the left over steamed sweet potatoes, my grandmother, karencheng.com.au, the bed (!!!), you name it, they are all there calling out your name! Hehe.

This evening was my cousin brother’s wedding, it was so sweet for Jason and I to relive those moments, you know – wearing wedding gowns, the glitz, the glamour, the hair, the makeup, the attention!

I still feel I had the bestest wedding, ever! (beating my cousin’s, hands down! Shhhhhh! :p). Everyone was so involved during our tea ceremony, so many came to support, my girl friends especially! My lovely ex tuition teacher and wife, Uncle Felix and Aunty Agnes who attended our wedding ceremony, although he had had a knee surgery days before, he’d still insisted to come! And Dewgem who uh… hardly know me but still came and accompanied me from the morning till evening! I was beyond words and honour! Yeah, it was a woah for me. And yes, if you let me to, I’ll continue to talk about my wedding till the cows come home. Hohoho! :D

Of course that’s not to say my cousin’s wedding was lousy, in fact far from it! Theirs’ only a tea ceremony and a wedding dinner but it was really sweet and lovely. My cousin brother was so excited and happy that his face actually spells the words! The bride was lovely in her mermaid-bustier gown. They’ve got 2 kick ass (free) emcees, and sweet presentations by the hotel, equally kick ass zhi-muis (who came out with so many weird and gross games and tricks for the groom and his wedding party) and heng-dais (who sportingly donned the underwear-worn-outside stunt, and downed some yucky concoction of banana, chili, bitter gourd, and some other… interesting stuff…). It was really joyful and memorable!

Well, here’s to the lovely couple, Tam & Irene, and a lifetime of happiness! (and my internet connection to be quickly restored!!!)

Friday, January 19, 2007

5 Things You Don't Know About Me

I got tagged. It’s been a realllll long while! Haha.

Well, so, in order to upkeep the blogger-spirit, I guess I’m going to continue the tag.

5 things that you don’t know about me? I guess that would be everything? :)

I was fat, like 62kg fat, during my pre-uni days. Oh and tall too, so that makes me a gigantore, to quote Owen Wilson.

I’m a totally introvert. I only look tough on the outside if you happened to see me braving the streets (or shopping malls!) alone! Self-protection mah! Gotta look and walk purposefully! Oops, now you know!

I can’t stand eating out alone.

My personality is always a borderline case / mixture of this-and-that. Companies want to hire me mainly because of that, because I am uh… well, this-and-that. Can be one-leg-kick.

If you don’t know yet, I’m an extreme case of ailurophobic! I’m scared of cats. So I don't eat-out at mamaks/roadside hawker stalls if there's any sign and trace of the feline family. So now you know, don't bring me to these places already! Or I'll embarass you with my shrieks and what with my sudden jumps, and constant look out for cats, a definite conversation-killer.

The next 3 person I’m gonna tag are:

Dewgem
Fay
Jonnie

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Ego Stroking

I think it’s a hoax. Or some sort of prank these crooked minded business people is pulling on us *ahem* innocent girls.

So I was approached by a female “talent scout” and asked to be model.

I laughed in her face so loud, I almost shook the ground of Mid Valley. And OF COURSE I proceeded to give her my… I mean, Jason’s number.

Tsk tskk! Such big ego!

By the way, I attended this event by L’oréal hair styling range, thank goodness I did my hair on Sunday (I straightened my hair, I now have bangs!!!), otherwise really men-siasui-kan; anyway the (male) model(s) and the stylist were so yummy and young, they made me feel pedophilic! O_o

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

THE AUTHORITIES OF MALAYSIA, CAN YOU PLEASE ANSWER WHY?

How many more of this picture we need to see for a change to take place? Zoe, a 9 year old dog went out of the house to relieve herself only to come back all slashed and stabbed for reason only those cold blooded stupid scums know.

Oh the best part? When lodging a police report, the dog owner was told that the police do not have control over what happened to her dog, and when told of suspicious men around her neighbourhood, she was told that she doesn’t need to make report for that.

O_o HAH???

So what then? We wait until ugly things happened then only we lodge report lah? Do they have brains or not in the first place?! Gee I’m never short of amazements what the government is doing with our tax money by hiring polices who couldn’t care less about the people’s security, let alone a harmless dog’s.

ARGHHHHHHH. I have it up till here! My blood is boiling with vulgarity now!!!!!!!!!!!

100 Posts Of Memories

This is my 100th post on letsbrewlove.

Just a hundred posts and we got through what felt like a lifetime of ups and downs:

1. We fought with my parents’ objection to our relationship for 2-3 years, 2006 being the climax because we started talking about getting married.


2. Jason followed my family on 2006 New Year’s day to my ancestors’ graveyard (as invited by my dad) to demolish the tombstones. It was dad’s decision as he feels being a small family with 3 daughters and 1 boy, eventually all of us will ditch going back to Pahang, his hometown, to clean the alters, so he hired help together with us all, dug out our great/grandparents ashes and scattered them down the Pahang river. Kinda like burning the bridge, especially for dad, because there’s no more reason for us or even him to go back there already. I’m not sure if it affected him, but the sentiments of it all makes me feel sad about it.


3. The second day of New Year, Jason and I went on to the bridal studio for our engagement picture-taking. I felt so pretty in those hand-picked gowns. I wore my first pair of fake eyelashes. And I felt like a million buck professional model as the whole shoot took only like 6 hours to complete as compare to a whole day for most couples. And hey, I get a variation of “Leishia you are very photogenic!” statements from A LOT of people! Hohoho! To that I say, of course! Whose genes izzit in the first place hah? :)


4. Had a(nother) serious discussion with my parents at my home. My parents were still hoping we won’t make it with the age-old reasons of racial and religion problems. But obviously, they’ve mellowed down a lot, and they showed obvious signs of acceptance. The day was Valentine's day eve. God is wonderful and merciful to both sides! The whole chat was so lively and vibrant; we had so much of laughing! My parents are amazing! (That explains why their daughter is amazing too :)


5. letsbrewlove was born. And hence the whole madness of preparing for a wedding started too. We didn’t have a lot of money to splurge on our wedding either, so a lot of times we both were torn between practicality and dream-atology, on top of that, being 2 different individuals, obviously we both have different tastes and opinions. Lots of laughter, tears, and quarrels took place. The amazing part? Along came hope and love too, not just between the 2 of us, but with our family too.


6. I quitted my previous company in the automotive line, a place where I’ve spent all of my "formative" years in. God is good; He really does have a whole life blue print for me even before I came to know Him. The day I attended my uni convocation, I was hired to work for the company. From contract based I became a permanent employee, from doing translation and intepretation I became an assistant to the director, from no one I became some one. There were of course, goods and bads, but I went through it all. And on top of that, made a handful of really great girl pals from the office who even after I’ve left the company for good, they continued to stay back after work to practice an Indian dance for my wedding. I was really speechless, up until today.


7. The wedding day came, and gone. Everything went so smoothly and so beautifully we can’t stop thanking God and all who supported and helped us through out. The attendance was overwhelming so much so there weren’t enough seats during the ceremony. Jason was handsome in the mandarin-collared suit my dad tailor made for him. My dad walked me down the aisle like a champ, and he’s my dad! (Damn, writing this line makes me want to cry! LoL). We were able to cover the hotel bills from the ang paus collection, and actually have extras to move on and we splurged a little by treating ourselves to the hotel’s buffet dinner at night after the wedding ended... OK, truth is, I was so overwhelmed with bottled up emotions and missing Polly and my family, I couldn’t stop crying, so in order to stop the tears, Jason stuffed me with food! (Anyway! :)) Oh, and I was transported around in my dream car on the wedding day! How cool is that?!


8. The following day, we rushed in packing and transporting all our belongings and gifts from the hotel to my parents’ place, and my dad, mom and sis sent us off to the airport for our honeymoon. They were so much more light-hearted during the journey, heck, they were in such high spirit even during the wedding dinner which they called for! I guess they felt finally a burden (that can’t be me now? -_-) has been lifted from their shoulders and all’s well, we are a family now.


9. I’ve, of course, moved to Bangi, where my hubby, Jason lives and works, and we started to build a family and a home of our own from scratch. It’s not all rosy, and the house is always in a mess because I’m such a lousy housekeeper but I believe we are enjoying it. And the most important thing is, it’s Jason who’s living in the mess with me and not anyone else!


10. After 3 months of resting (uh, more of procrastinating) God blessed me with a job, no, a career that I could only dream of in the past, in the most amazing way! I’m a writer now. I do creative writing. I go to cinema to watch movie for free before it’s released and test food from hotels and Bangsar-gy bistros and restaurants when you’re sulking over your boss at work (LOL I can’t help boasting this bit, whoo hoo! Oh forgive me dear Lord! Hahaha OKOK stop it, seriously!). I’ve got a friendly team to work with (basically that’s me, my editor and my designer). I’m given free hand to design and write whatever I want in my sections and I hardly get the cut! Seriously, I’d be lying if I tell you I don’t like to go to office now :D And you know what? The beginning of the month is always more relaxing because we’ve finished with the magazine for a typical month, and so, I have all the time and freedom to type this long ass post to torture you readers now!

Here’s to the 100th post of letsbrewlove, and many more 100s to come! And to you, like I always say, who made it this far too! Chin up! :)

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

My First Books

Yup, I’ve published a short poetry e-book!

I’ve been meaning to do some publishing work on my own but never gotten to it. So this New Year I reckon I should get my ass moving before I get too old and regret!

To kick start, what I did was I published some of my old pieces in the form of an e-book. Hopefully I’ll get my way around this whole self-publishing thing and produce more good works.

Surf on over to my host and lend me some support will ya? :)

P/s my first issue of magazine’s out too! You can pick up free copies from Starbucks Coffee, Coffee Bean, San Francisco Coffee, Domino’s, Shakey’s, Secret Recipe, Strudels Café, Haagen-Dazs, Dome Café, Red Box, MPH Bookstore, Kenny Rogers, Delifrance, Seed Café, Austin Café, Austin Chase Coffee, and BHP outlets.

P/s/s I hope you’ll enjoy reading the January issue and give me feedback for improvements. Thank you!

P/s/s/s advertising overload, I know! Hehe

Blogsvertise: Got A Blog? You'd Want Some Cash Too

Hailed 2 hours drive down south, miche, the lady who has the perpetual ability to sniff out the smell of greenback has introduced to her world of bloggers about blogsvertise.

The site allows you to talk about their listed advertisers and actually earn some cash from doing it. I thought it’s pretty neat so I jumped on the bandwagon too; I mean, hey, a girl’s gotta earn her living man! And if this pays her bill, she jolly well get it on! :)

So when they do approve my application, I guess I’ll be doing a little bit more reviewing here on top of the places and movies which is what I’m doing now; the only difference is, I’ll be hearing the kaching sound a little louder this time around! I hope this'll work out!

Check them out yourself and see if we can be fellow reviewers. Heh.

Monday, January 08, 2007

A Pleasant Surprise

No, no, the toll rate didn’t go down; my pay check is not raised, yet; I still have bills to feed; and my Adsense is generating me nil income!

Notice how everything is about money, money, and more money? Haiks… anyway the pleasant surprise came in the form of Joanna Siew Lian - a high-school-through-pre-U friend whom I’ve lost touched with many, many years ago. I was having dinner at a kopitiam I never thought I’d go to have it not been pouring like cats and dogs last Friday!

She’s a special girl, because she can’t speak, and she can’t hear. Through out her schooling days, she depended on her sheer will power to acquire knowledge and came out a champion.

She was also the one who taught me, along with a few other friends, the sign language. We learnt the ABC signs and a few other signs for basic words, and we would communicate by spelling out our conversations with our hand. It was interesting, and amazing, how relationships were bonded even though verbal communication was totally out of the picture!

I recognised her immediately from afar, and with a pumping heart, I approached her table. She was having dinner with her family. I was glad she remembered me, and I was even more glad I remember my signs as I tried to introduce myself!

It was really a sweet reunion even though brief. Oh this lazy bum, I shall be more in touch with my friends, and be reminded to keep in touch, even if its just through SMS. Now, that would be my first 2007 New Year Resolution.

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Blood Diamond: The Bloodied Soil Of Africa

It was a fantastic movie, to say the very least. The poverty, the need for survival, the smuggling of natural resources to fund wars, the civil wars between brothers, the rich country made poor, the father who never gave up on his son, the same old story line; only a different setting, a different cast, a different twist.

The year was late 1990s, set against the backdrop of civil war and chaos in Sierra Leone. Danny Archer, a South African mercenary; and Solomon Vandy, a Mende fisherman; are joined in a common quest to recover a rare pink diamond, for different intentions. With the help of Maddy Bowen, an American journalist whose idealism is tempered by a deepening connection with Archer, the two men embark on a trek through rebel territory - a journey that could save Solomon’s family and give Archer the freedom he thought he would never have.

I thought all 3 leads were great in their roles: DiCaprio with his Krio speaking tongue - a Sierra Leone Creole based on a mixture of Nigerian and English languages, and convincing acting (confirmed out of his post-Titanic heartthrob image!); Djimon Hounsou for his wonderful portrayal of a down to earth, family-loving African father who is tough yet humble (his body build is amazing! O_O hehe) and witty even! And the beautiful Jennifer Connelly who looks so good yet so real on-screen and she delivered a plausible acting as a hard cookie too.

I must say, the movie can be quite gory and disturbing what with the blood shedding and killing; young male children were shown being thrust with guns and brainwashed with drugs, and taught to kill. You see them holding weapons shooting away, all the while with colourful school bags hung to their back, and they were told that all this killing is being a man and that they were doing it for the country. Can you imagine that, can you imagine your young child being taught to operate guns and kill civilians? It was unsettling. But real.

A quick search on the net and you will find the movie was actually creating somewhat of an uproar in the diamond industry. The De Beers Corp expressed their reservations that the film will reduce public demand for diamonds. But fact remains that they were, indeed, precious lives mindlessly killed to feed the (diamond) hungry market. While watching the movie, I suddenly remembered a statement made by an ex colleague, who happens to be a she, that an engagement ring must be the equivalent of the proposer’s 3 month-salary (note the usage of “must”).

And I recalled during the period of preparing for my wedding, I did a lot of research on the net on wedding related websites, I noticed how almost every woman put so much of attention on the cuts and weights and prices of their wedding and engagement rings, it was sad. Of course at that time, my focus was more on let the ring be symbolic to the unity of a man and a woman instead of the value of the bling itself (and I was being ignored when I made that comment in their forums, like, totally. -_- Heh.)

But of course not the entire industry is filled with blood diamonds, or what we called, conflict diamonds. If you insist on diamond to prove your love for each other, the least you can do is find out and insist on the authenticity of the stone. Alternatively, you always have the choice of synthetic diamonds. It all depends on you, really. Its cliché, I know, but you as the consumer can really, really make a difference! So be wise.

Movie will be released on the 18th of January 2007, go catch it!

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Happy New Beginning!

My salary’s out! So cool! Me happy! The thought of being able to earn money is good. After 3 non-productive months, I think I'll lay off the idea of resigning for a long while now. Funny how time and extreme condition (hey, not being able to shop is an extreme condition!) can change one’s mind. Hehe.

I opened my bank account with my first pay check, yay! Treat dear hubby to a nice, filling dinner, and had really nice, fleshy durians!!! We bought 2 biji, ate one, another one left for tomorrow night.

Oh, and many thanks to Jonnie and Lenny who treated us to New Year’s lunch and bought us a nice gift. It was sweet catching up with you guys again. It has been so long!

Anyway, chubby is an “in” thing now... right? May the new year brings you loads of good food! :)