We are engaged!

I have way more important/productive things to do (such as unpacking my luggage and clearing up the mess in my room) than to blog but if I don't do this now I think I will definitely forget the details. 

So Wk and I were back in Malaysia for 2 weeks early January. The main reason I was back was to attend Maggie's wedding. 

Will post more pictures of the wedding when the professional pictures are up for stealing in her Facebook heheh. 

So the wedding was on Saturday. On Sunday, Wk decided to drop by and visit our old secondary school.

Don't know if I've mentioned this but Wk and I were both from the same secondary school. During Form 3 we were actually in the same class, but we only got to know each other more in Form 4 through ICQ (if you know what this is, ^5).

Anyway, it wasn't like a random spur of the moment thing that he wanted to go back to the school. He was driving his younger brother to/from school one day (the same school we went to)  and he casually mentioned  that he'd like to go back and have a look when we both are free. At that time the idea didn't sound weird to me because it seemed quite normal to want to go back to your old school and reminisce the old days.

I only started to smell something fishy when one day we were on the phone, he was being very firm that we would go back to school in the morning of Sunday, go shopping after and then Troika at night. I asked him what's Troika. He told me what it was but I forgot wtf lol. I think it was something to do with architecture or whatever. All I know is it's a commercial building with restaurants/bars and whatnot and he said he wanted to go have a look and even mentioned "There's fine dining there". 

Here's the thing, I'm not really a fine dining type of person unless there's a special occasion, no other person would know this better but him. Plus he was being quite determined about going back to school when I on the other hand was a little not keen because I wasn't bothered to hahaha. Haiyah school only maaaa.

Usually he would go with however I feel about a plan. If I was not interested, he would not press me into it and if he really wanted to do it, he'd do it by himself. In short, I'm da boss wtf. This time he was really firm that he wanted to go back to school and he wanted ME to go with him.

Damn fishy lor!

I was taking a shower that morning and was thinking to myself, is he gonna freaking propose to me in school? Wtf. I brushed the thought away eventually because I couldn't figure out when he actually had time to buy the ring. We're together almost every single day, every single time... or so I thought.

So anyway when he came to pick me, I told him we sure cannot get into the school wan even though it's a Sunday and there's no students there. The guards sure won't let us in. When we arrived, he spoke to the guards and surprise surprise, they let us in. LOL. 

Oh when he came to pick me and I got into the car, I saw his brother's dslr camera bag. Previously he specifically reminded me to bring my dslr (I don't have a bag for it), a few times some more! I asked him what the bag was for and he said it's to keep the camera inside in case the guards won't let us in when they see us holding a dslr (like media or something). I didn't think of anything and said oh ok. Now thinking back, isn't it Captain Obvious that it's a dslr in a dslr bag??? LOL.

So we walked around everywhere, looked for our classrooms. We tried to get inside but most of them were locked. Luckily there was one block that wasn't locked, so we managed to get inside our old Form 3 class. He asked me where I sat last time and told me to sit down, and started talking about the past for about 10 minutes. 

I got bored and stood up when he said "SIT DOWN" Hahahahahahaha.

Ok... so I sat down. Fishy level x10000000 can.

And then he started asking me, "It's been more than 11 years now. Have you regretted ah?" and etc.

Yes, more than 11 years. I sometimes, ok maybe many many times... tell him "I'm going to be a 'lou gu po' (spinster) already". Yes I know sounds like I damn 'han gah' (eager to be married) but isn't it about damn time already?? Lol. Everytime I say that he will tell me I won't be and to be patient if I want to be surprised. What can I say, right??

Ok so back to the classroom. He was talking about how long it has been and yadda yadda and how he would look at me from his seat like a secret admirer and all that geli stuff hahahaha. In my mind I was like "Haha yah whatever" LOL cos I was bored wtf. At that point I completely forgot about the fishiness of the situation and was actually thinking of what I needed to buy when we go shopping later wtf.

And I don't know when, he took out and presented me a dark blue box, opened, with a diamond ring sitting inside and said to me,

"Don't be lou gu po la, be my lou po (wife) la"

And my first reaction was "Are you seriously doing this here???" 

I know it's quite a stupid reaction but my mind still couldn't register what was happening. After it did, I said "Ok!" wtf lol.

THE END!

When we were in the class just moments before he took the ring out a Malay lady who works in the school actually came into the class to check who we were and why we were there. Imagine she come up when he was in the middle of proposing! Damn awkward maximus!!!

So the camera bag was there to hide the ring box :) I think even if I were to carry that bag that day I wouldn't know the ring box was inside hahahahah.

If there's an award for being blur, I think there would only be one nominee and one winner wtf.

He actually got the ring on the Monday we flew back to Malaysia!!! That morning we both went out to the city to run errands of our own so we were doing our own thing. He said he needed to get back to office to get some things done (it happens all the time, having to go back to office even on a holiday/weekend) so obviously I didn't suspect anything, and that was when he went and got the ring. When we met before going back home together he was carrying a shopping bag and I did ask him what was that and he said some office documents, which again, I did not suspect! The ring was of course inside. 

When we got home after packing our luggage, we had some free time so I wanted to go out for a run. He said he can't run as long as I can so he'd join me 15 minutes later. I knew he's memang lousy like that so again I didn't suspect anything and said ok. While I was running, he packed the ring into a little pouch so he could carry it in his pocket so when we were out to the airport, in the plane, on the way to our homes in Malaysia, the ring was in his pocket ALL THE TIME. 

The ring box was in a white paper bag, which was in one of his carry-on luggage, which I OPENED ONCE to put my perfume inside but I completely overlooked it. Even I'm amazed by my ignorance.

What surprised me most was how he has planned to get this ring since early 2013, and he has been to the jeweler many many times and has all these catalogs, quotations and booklets of engagement ring designs sitting inside his bedside table's drawer ALL THESE WHILE and I had absolutely no clue about it.

In December I started looking at engagement rings (yes to mildly pressure him lol) and told him what I like and even tried to 'educate' him about engagement rings from my brief research. By then he was actually secretly an engagement ring expert already from all the visits he's paid to the jeweler and researches he's done! Once, I even unknowingly mispronounced the term "Paved" which he knew my pronunciation was wrong but he couldn't correct me at that time because he had to act like an engagement ring idiot hahahaha. FYI, it's pronounced as PAH-VAY. Not PEI-VD.

So I was the engagement ring idiot!

Anyway, if you've read up until here, COME I CLAP FOR YOU!

Seriously you must have nothing better to do to read through the entire thing. But thank you for reading :D

Ok now here is the ring for all you kaypoh people. A proposal post wouldn't be a proposal post without a picture of the ring, ok? If I was reading someone's proposal post for the past 10 minutes I would be damn pissed off la if there's no pictures. 

So the plan to go to Troika was a back up plan just in case we couldn't get into the school haha. I'm glad we did get into the school because personally I very much preferred it happening in school than in some fine dining restaurant. It's where I grew up, it's where I met some of the most important people in my life including the one I'm going to be spending my life with. I can't think of a better place for it to happen.

It wasn't a romantic proposal or anything. No flowers or balloons, he didn't even get down on one knee! But I really like how intimately it happened. There was no one else but us, back where we first started. No awkward stares or hoo haa from strangers. Just an old place which holds lots of memories. It was quiet and peaceful, as though the time stood still for us.

And you know what's the funniest moment? On Saturday (the day before) when Maggie did her bouquet toss, I GOT IT!!!

I hope in her pictures I won't look like some crazy woman trying to snatch the bouquet from all the other ladies lol. Apparently I literally RAN for the bouquet hahahah. To be honest I have no intention of 'running' after it wan lor, when the bouquet was in the air in that split second moment I could see all the other girls just stood still like a tree and somehow I had this feeling that the bouquet will land on the floor if they continued to stand still! So I stepped up and tried to reach for it lah you know, make the first move so the others will follow ma.

See see it landed in my hands =.= 

My first and most precious Tiffany, not just the ring but the gift box as well. So pretty! But this wasn't the ring's box, this was the box for the ring's box wtf do I make sense. The ring box is a dark blue velvet material, and it's packed in their Tiffany Blue box. Actually quite mafan la so many boxes, I understand la this blue gift box is sort of their signature but they should have made the ring box in the Tiffany Blue colour. Who the hell gives engagement ring in a gift box right??

I look like crap here but never mind because I was/still am over the moon :D

So yes, we are finally engaged after over 11.5 years. To all of you who congratulated us, a very heartfelt thank you. Now, let's plan a wedding!

   

The Birthday Post

Hd selfie ftw! Lol. 

I haven't actually worn eyeshadow in months! The last time I had eyeshadow was probably in June when we were out for a fancy dinner for our anniversary. Mmm not bad I haven't forgotten my skills wtf.

So on the day before my birthday I booked for a night's stay at the Langham Hotel, the hotel where the spa I work at is located. I got a complimentary night+breakfast as a reward for working hard :) 

Upon checking in we were greeted with this:

A welcoming message on the tv, how appropriate!

More pictures of the room later. We dropped our stuff and headed straight to Nobu for dinner. 

For drinks I had a mocktail which is so insignificant it's not in their website menu haha. 

I don't like alcohol but for the sake of something fancy to celebrate the night I ordered this. Can't remember the name, it's the first one on the mocktail list and it's got lime, lychee and... that's all I remember. Tastes pretty good.

We started off with 3 cold dishes.

Yellowtail Sashimi with Jalapeno

 Scallop Tiradito

The name of this scampi dish isn't the one that's in their website and I don't remember what it's called but this was really delicious. It's our favourite out of all 3 cold dishes but generally, all cold dishes were really good. The seafood were really fresh, presentation and flavour were spot on.

Then came the 2 hot dishes.

 Black Cod Miso

This is one of Nobu's signature dish and it is SO. GODDAMN. GOOD period. Oh that spear thingie is pickled ginger shoot I believe. 

The moment we took our first bite we literally looked up at each other in complete awe I'm not joking. Hahah ok I may have exaggerated but this was easily our favourite dish. We kind of regretted not ordering 1 each, instead of sharing. I would definitely go back to Nobu for this. 

Again, this isn't in their website's menu. It's a dish with duck breast. It was alright, nothing to shout about.

Towards the end we thought since they're pretty well-known for their sushi we might as well try it too. This was their maki with spicy toro filling. Quite delicious. The maki is rolled with a thin sheet of daikon, talk about crazy knife skills. 

Then it was time for dessert.

 Nobu tasting plate

These were basically miniature versions of the desserts they had on that day. We were told to start eating from the bun (far right) and move our way towards the palate cleanser (far left). I found it odd at first to be actually directed the way to eat a dessert platter (usually people just dig in!) but it totally made sense! You start with the heavy chocolatey goodness, followed by a light cake, slowly move your way to a more refreshing fruity mix and finish with a palate cleanser (in a spoon) to end the meal. So clever! 

Oops sorry I forgot to rotate this photo. I saw there was a white sesame panna cotta in the menu and I was hoping that it would be included in the tasting plate (I love sesame if you didn't already know) but it wasn't. So of course I had to order it.

Let's just say if I could turn back time I wouldn't have done it lol. The tasting plate itself was a really good end to the meal and this panna cotta isn't the best thing in the world so it sort of ruined the experience a little. 

Haih who ask me so tamjiak lol.

Ok now back to the hotel.

Hee :)

OPI Langham Pink  

I was forbidden to post his handsome face lol. He was checking his teeth in the mirror and was sort of cleaning it and umm... it's not the most attractive expression hahahaha. 

The bathroom/toilet is probably my favourite part of the room, so lavish! The entire area has marble finish, feels so atas man lol. 

If I knew there was going to be a bathtub I would have bought some bath bombs T_T such a waste! 

MASSIVE mirror by the sink.

 MASSIVE mirror by the bath tub. 

Full length mirror by the door.

Mirrors everywhere! Every girl's best toilet seriously. 

There's also a mirror by the mini bar area (left). And the mini bar is so damn well stocked. There's more alcohol than anything. They even have condoms and tampons wtf.

 We got upgraded to a river-view room because it wasn't really busy.

 "Melbourne is renowned for experiencing four seasons in one day. Delight in our city of surprises."

Word.

 Can you tell I was trying really hard not to laugh while I posed for this photo?? Hahahaha

To be honest I was really pleasantly surprised. I didn't expect to get such a nice room since it's complimentary. And maybe I haven't stayed in a 5 star hotel for a long time that's why so suaku lol.

There's a pretty good selection of food for the breakfast spread. Not shown here are the cereal, muesli, dried fruits and nuts, juice, milk, toast and spreads. There's also bacon, baked eggs, baked tomatoes, croissant, yogurt etc.

You can ask for your eggs to be cooked however you like. I saw some hollandaise sauce and decided to make eggs Benedict!

Natural honey, anyone? The honey from this supposedly natural honeycomb is sweet (duh), super thick and sticky. The honeycomb tastes like wax wtf.

While this may seem really fancy, who on earth has chocolate fondue and ice cream for breakfast?? NO, no kids should be allowed all these for breakfast because they go freaking crazy from all the sugar.

Last picture before we headed to the spa!

So we went to the spa (where I work at) for a massage for myself (from my lovely colleague) and a facial for Wk. Hahahaha I know, facial for Wk, sounds silly but he'd rather have that than massage. 

Going organic

I have concluded that organic raspberries/blackberries are hands down the MOST expensive fruit in the world. To me anyway. At $9.90, you only get 1 cup of raspberries which will be done in 2 servings. That's almost $5 a pop, which is enough to buy you a decent serving meal. 

Sigh. Why is eating healthy so expensive.

Finally the stone fruits are in season. Peaches and nectarines are my favourite. And yes, those are organic too. There are certain fruits and veggies that you should eat organic, according to sources I read online. Not sure of its credibility but if there are a million websites saying so, then I guess it's somewhat true. Which makes sense anyway. If you eat the peel of the fruit, wouldn't you want to make sure you're not eating pesticide residue? And let's be real, even if you rinse your fruit you won't know what's left behind.

So stone fruits, berries and apples are some of the things which are recommended to be eaten organic. If it comes with thick skin which you will remove and throw away (eg. avocado, banana, grapefruit), you don't have to go organic. You can, if you're feeling rich. Hahah.

That being said, eating fruits (organic or not) is better than eating none. It's not as though you'll die the next day if you eat a non-organic apple anyway.

Random post because I wanted to post this picture taken with my new camera heheh. Loving how I didn't have to edit the picture at all apart from reducing its file size. Colour and exposure are spot on.

Recent favourites

How's the Christmas prep coming?

This picture was taken 5 minutes before the tree toppled over the stools wtf. It has since been placed on the floor where it's most stable, but it makes the tree look really stunted hahaa.

Not that Wk and I celebrate Christmas, but one day I casually mentioned "Hey, let's have a Christmas tree this year!" without even actually having an intention to buy one. And we were at Big W when we saw this little tree for only $27. And Wk went, "Omg it has fiber optics. Let's get it."

I didn't even know what fiber optics were lol but since he made it sound like it's a cool thing I thought, yeah why not.

As of now the tree is still naked, we haven't gotten any accessories. Couldn't decide on the theme to go with yet. 

Mandatory selfie.

This is my work makeup when I am bothered to put on eyeliner and mascara. Haha. I've recently found this liquid eyeliner from Maybelline which is really good. Look at how precise the line is! Of course, it's the skills too *shameless.

Made Vietnamese Chicken Salad the other day and concluded that if there's a salad I can eat everyday, this is it. I don't know how everyone eats salad with the conventional vinaigrette/olive oil dressing everyday. It sucks. This is different. But I gotta say fish sauce is an acquired taste. If you love belacan (shrimp paste), you'll love fish sauce. If you find either one or both smelly, then I'm sorry you're missing out.

I had one of the most awesome Saturday ever.

I usually work on Saturdays but last week a colleague swapped with me so I had the Saturday off and worked on Sunday. It's been a while since I had Saturday off so the day was extra special haha.

We started off with having dim sum (or Aussies like to call it Yumcha) at Gold Leaf. I tell you the amount I ate was ridiculous, insane and unacceptable all at once. It was enough to last me the ENTIRE day. I didn't eat lunch or dinner. The only thing I had few hours after was a small cup of coffee.

Would I do that again? Hell yes LOL. There's nothing quite like stuffing food in your face, let alone dim sum. Every Asian loves their dim sum ok.

And then, we went to check out cameras. Wk and I have been meaning to get ourselves a DSLR for some time now. We first dropped by JB Hifi and found some pretty good deals (15% off plus $150 cashback!) and after comparing it to Myer, we decided JB Hifi would be the place to get it. Before that we went for coffee.

On our way to JB Hifi we passed by this little camera shop called Digi Direct and saw that they offer a very similar deal to JB Hifi but $50 more, on top of that it comes with a backpack and a monopod, while JB Hifi's offer doesn't come with anything. And I should also add that the salesperson we spoke to at JB Hifi was quite cocky, which was quite a turn off but this wasn't the first time we've had negative sales service at JB Hifi anyway so it was not surprising.

We didn't find the backpack or the monopod useful so we went in to bargain and see if they could take out the extra gifts and drop the price for us. They said they could only take out $25 and they offer to swap the gifts to anything else we might want such as an SD card. Talk about flexibility! And the guy who attended to us was really pleasant too.

Which we thought was a much better option because if we do get the camera we need an SD card anyway. As for the monopod, I decided to swap it with a mini tripod so I can selfie easier HAHAHA.

Since JB Hifi wouldn't package it with gifts for us, at Digi Direct for an extra $25 we get a 32GB SD (which is usually $50) and a tripod, what do we do next?

SWIPE THAT SHINYPLASTIC OF COURSE! Lol.

And you know what made the Saturday freaking awesome?

WK BOUGHT IT FOR ME FOR MY BIRTHDAY THIS YEAR AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

So we got the Canon EOS 700D (also known as Rebel T5i), which come in a pack of 2 lenses. You can get it with one lens but it's only $50 more for a twin lens package so only an idiot would pass on it. You can't get a lens for $50 anywhere.

And THIS is like frosting on the cupcake.

I made an order with Asos some time back and because my order was so big, it was split into two packages. 1 package arrived and the other didn't. And in the live-tracking website that other parcel seems to be "In Transit" still, 4 days after my 1st package arrived which didn't make sense at all since both packages were dispatched at the same time. I contacted Asos and they told me my package has been lost. They said they would replace all the items I haven't received or they would refund me.

The thing is, I DON'T WANT A REFUND, I WANT MY CLOTHES!

I got these clothes only because there was a 30% discount and I got them because I needed new clothes!

I looked at the clothes individually after that and most of them were out of my size! I replied them saying I want them replaced, crossing my fingers that everything is still available. It's really frustrating when you're expecting something and then you get told it's no longer available.

After replying them on Wednesday, I haven't heard from them. On Friday, I received a card from a local post office to collect a package. Yes, it's my Asos package -___-

I'm guessing Asos knew my package has found its way to me and that's why they're not responding to me anymore, which to be honest annoys me a little because yes I know problem solved but the least they could do is tell me rather than ignore me? I don't know. Maybe I'm just being a bitchy, whiny customer who can't wait to get her new clothes hahaha.

So anyway. On Saturday Wk picked up the massive package for me from the post office and it was like a war zone on my bed. Best part is everything fits perfectly :D

Ok last picture before I run some errands.

I've been really liking Bircher Muesli for my breakfast lately. It's basically soaked muesli (plain or with fruits and nuts) or rolled oats in water/milk/juice to soften them (30 minutes or overnight), then you eat them with grated apple and yogurt. Cinnamon and honey for extra flavour. The honey is really optional as apple itself is sweet already. Seeds and nuts can be added for more crunch.

It takes more time to prepare but it's something different than the usual toast or cereal. It's packed with macronutrients, and it fills me up too.

Ok time to start my day.