23 and counting

It has been three quick months since I started my career. Yes, career. Not a part-time job at a cafe or a bookstore. Not a casual tutor at uni teaching marketing to first year students (though that paid my very very well, much more (per hour) than what I am earning now. Though at uni, I only work seven hours a week including an hour for consultation where students are meant to come and ask for help if they've got any problems with the subject or keeping up with what I'm teaching in class.

With my job now, I pay much more tax (shitloads), I get paid once a month (instead of every fortnight) which makes me budget my expenses better BUT I enjoy it because everyday is different and I'm constantly faced with new tasks and troubles. With that said, I still LOVE my weekends and count the days before the next one comes around!

With the job, comes the rewards. It's good because I get paid at the end of every month. I no longer have to worry about semester holidays or any other holidays where I don't teach at uni. I have more to spend now than before and I'm not so worried about the bills and rent every month. I've also managed to start saving up and still have some leftover to spend on things that I like. I've recently bought Mary Poppins The Musical tickets and I cannot wait until September. It was all sold out and the best tickets I could get were for a Sunday evening one.


How can you forget Julie Andrews with her umbrella singing "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"!


or the Banks children who seem so fascinated by everything



Also, it has been a while since I've had time for this blog and birthday wishes.

Judy turns 23 tomorrow. Happy Birthday dear! Have an awesome one! Hope you enjoyed your trip to India



Just before I go, here's my favourite lines from my favourite TV series.

How you doing?
"Joey Tribbiani- Friends"

Legendary!
"Barney Stinson- How I Met Your Mother"

and my absolute favourite.....


Abso-fucking-lutely!!!
"Mr Big- Sex and The City"


Till the next one,
Watch an episode of Friends for some laughter!

I think I'm F-A-*...oh, nevermind

Winter is never nice to me. She (definitely more like a bitch than an ass) is like this enemy waiting to strike at the right times. She pulls my hair, she claws my face and she throws dessert straight at my mouth, forcing me to open and swallow. She's like the high school bitch that you're afraid off but there's nothing you can do about it. She makes the rules and you just have to play by it. No questions asked.

Apart from the fact that it is very very cold in winter here, Melbourne's cold temperatures have done me no good whatsoever. My hair becomes terribly dry (at the ends) and I have to resort to using better shampoo and conditioner. I've got to apply leave-in conditioner before I blowdry my hair and use a serum thereafter. A lot of work. Don't even get me started on how bad my heels are, how dry my skin has become and how sickening it is to have blemishes on my face!! But all that ramblings are meant for another post.

This is my third year here in Melbourne and during this time of the year (May-September), I won't fit my jeans. Yes, I put on weight even though it doesn't seem like I do. I'm human too okay. Somehow, in some magical way, I get hungry very (and I mean VERY) quickly after my meals and tend to eat more often and larger portions each time. I think it is the cold weather that makes me hungry quickly. Or maybe it's just that time of the year. Whatever it is, it makes me one hell of a hungry person. My colleagues at office thinks that I eat the most food in the entire company.

When I first arrived in Melbourne, I could barely finish a serve of anything. If I ordered a plate of fried rice, I'd only manage to eat half of it and have to pack the other half to bring home for lunch the next day. There was no way I'd be able to finish the food. After sufficient training, I've managed to 'level-up' and now I can say that I eat SO MUCH MORE than before. I could barely finish a small size of Vietnamese beef noodles in March 2008 but during winter, I order a medium! Enough said.

Since the boys are away, I've just been cooking for myself and I can finally measure how much food I consume. I realised that 3 cups of rice lasts for four meals. I don't know if that's what an average person eats, but DAMN I think that's A LOT for one person.

Unfortunately, I "don't have any right to complain about my weight/size" since I'm relatively smaller and thinner than most people at my office, or most people in general. I've got light bones and obviously a smaller built compared to other people but that does not mean that I can't put on weight or get fatter based on the proportion of my body. Based on my Body Mass Index, I'm a little underweight for my height. I blame the bones. But then again, I've been like that since primary school or as far as I can remember. I don't stick my finger down my throat after meals because I honestly like the feeling of having food in my tummy. It makes me happy. I indulge in the occasional treat; ice-cream, chips, waffles and chocolates but I feel guilty after that, much more; now that I've gone back to dancing.




I'm just a normal girl (I think) and I love food. As much as I think I need to make sure I eat enough so I don't faint during the day or so the Melbourne winds don't blow me away; I think I need to cut down on my food portions. Probably eat more during lunch and have a smaller meal over dinner. Have more fruits during the day so I get the vitamins and at least I snack on something healthy. Most importantly, I think I need to cut down on ice-creams. I just bought two boxes of ice-creams on the way back from work today because I finished my previous box over the weekend. If my ballet teacher found out that I'm eating an ice-cream a day, I doubt she'll be keeping her comments to herself when I can't stand on my demi-point or balance when do my ballet steps.

Did I mention that I'm in lurrrrveeeee with the maccas ORGE PREMIUM CHICKEN BURGER? For a limited time only, it comes with chicken, salads and red onion rings and my fav, pesto mayo!! The meal comes with a Frozen Fanta Ogre Freeze in Green Apple Flavour and the World's Favourite Fries!



Oh well, one can only try.

Till the next one,
Have an ice-cream; it'll put a smile on your face!

he loves me. he loves me not

I was on the way back from work on Friday when it hit me. This is how it is and this is how it will always be. Flowers are meant to make women happy. Seriously. You might be telling yourself right now, "I'm not the flower-kind-of girl" or "I don't need flowers to make me happy. My boyfriend never gets me flowers and I'm totally fine with that". I used to tell myself that all the time too. I am not the kind of girl who demands flowers. Heck, sometimes I even think that flowers are a waste of money. You spend so much on them, they make you happy for now and after a week, they whitter and die. You either hang them to dry or chuck them into your bin and throw them out the next day. I'd rather get a gift that will last me months.

If you see a guy with flowers back home in Malaysia, you'd stare at him, thinking that he's so cheesy, getting his girlfriend flowers for their special date or something (and obviously if you're a guy, wonder where his balls went). At the same time, you'd feel jealous, because somewhere in the world, a girl is going to be very very happy when she see him and the flowers. She's sure to say "The flowers are beautiful, thanks, but you didn't have to get me flowers, you know that right?". They always say that BUT they ALWAYS want the flowers.
TRUST ME.

Over the past week, on the way back from work, I've seen so many men (I'd like to call them men because they're such gentlemen) with flowers. I've only received flowers (I'm counting right now) five times in my life (i think) and each time, they've made me really happy. The smell of the flowers when I walk in the front door makes the day so much better. So every time I see a guy with flowers, it brings a smile to my face, knowing that whether he's doing it because he screwed up before, or just because he wants to get her flowers, he's going to make someone else smile too.

Things that have been making me smile? Lately? Shopping. And I haven't even been buying clothes, just make-up and other stuff. There was a 20% discount at Pulse Pharmacy a few weeks ago because of the end of financial year and that specific Pulse near my office sold the L'Occitane range. I took advantage of it and just bought stuff.
Here's what I got:

Since the weather is so dry here, my heels have gone from bad to worse. I don't wear shoes much (closed shoes with socks I mean) and that makes my heels crack terribly. Now that I've gone back to dancing and ballet, I need to make sure that my heels are not dry as cracked heels hurt, making it harder to dance. I use this after my shower, when the hot water has soften the skin on my heels. I exfoliate in a circular motion and rinse off after. I put my Body Shop foot lotion to lock in the moisture immediately after showering and wear socks to keep it in. I've seen an improvement and I'm not saying that the L'Occitane product works like magic. It's the whole process; exfoliating, scrubbing and remembering to put the lotion right after.
Ee introduced me to this product last year. When she came to visit me in Melbourne, she gave me a bar and told me to try it. She said it clears pimples on the back. After I tried it, I fell in love with it. It feels so gentle and it does help the pimples. You can see the difference within days. However, since I have very very dry skin and I'm in Melbourne, I try not to use this soap everyday. I also have to put a lot of body lotion after showering.

I also got myself hand cream. I do a lot of housework here. Sad ain't it? I have to cook and at times, do the dishes. I wash my hands in warm water during winter and they dry up so easily. I think a good hand cream is really important. You don't want to have ugly, dry looking skin at such a young age, do you? Invest in a hand cream that's good. Trust me.

If that's not enough stuff, I also got more Dermalogica products for my face. I started using dermalogica a year ago. They're all fragrance free and I have to say, they're quite the stuff! Ever since I came to Melbourne, the weather has not been good to my face. I have better complexion back home but when I'm here, I get red blemishes. Dermalogica helped me clear the blemishes and improve my skin. It's still not perfect and I get the pimples and blemishes back at times, but it's been better than the others that I've tried.

Here's what I bought last week from ZIPT on Collins Street,Melbourne.
Now that I'm working full time, I use makeup on a daily basis. Obviously after a long day, removing the make-up off your face is very important. You don't want to go to sleep with makeup still clogging your pores and destroying your skin. Most cleansers now work as both a makeup remover and a cleanser. I don't believe in that. I don't think that washing your face with your cleanser twice will get rid of all the product you put on your face in the morning plus the dust and dirt that comes together on it during the day. I've always believed in using a good makeup remover and after I finished my previous Clinique 'Take The Day Off Cleansing Milk", I decided to buy the Dermalogica Precleanse. I've tried samples of it before and it works wonders in removing makeup. It's a lightweight Olive and Apricot Kernel-based cleansing oil and you only need 3-4 drops for your entire face. On a dry face, massage it over the face and eyes to dissolve the surface oil and dirt. After that, wet your fingertips and continue to massage your face. The oil will turn into a milky white emulsion and you can also see the colour of your makeup come off with it. Rinse with warm water after and follow with your cleanser.
This is a daily microfoliant. It's a Rice-based enzyme powder that can be used daily, as stated. However, after previous experience, I've never used exfoliants on a daily basis. I think our face needs a rest and we can't put too much pressure on it. The skin layers on my face are very thin and because of that I'm supposed to very gentle. Using only a little bit and a few drops of water, it becomes a creamy paste and you can massage it onto your face and rinse off later.

It is only the 10th of July and I've been spending so much money on face, body and makeup. I really need to start saving more and spending less, but sometimes, beauty buys are a MUST for girls. I've also been inspired by Yvonne's blog, Belle Demoiselle. I met her in Melbourne three years back and she and a friend set up this beauty blog to write about things that make girls happy, makeup, skincare and everything beautiful. Honestly, reading about makeup and beauty buys make you want to go to your nearest departmental store to check out the product.

Till the next one,
Stay beautiful and buy a bunch of flowers for your room!

Subway = BAD

I had subway for dinner tonight and I have to say that I haven't had a sub in a long time.
I got off the train from Flinders Station, crossed the road towards the tram stop. Just as I was crossing, the lights caught my eye. SUBWAY! My brains started to tell me stories "meatball with marinara sauce, red onions.." can someone spell Y-U-M-M-Y??

Nothings wrong with eating a sub. Actually, it's much healthier than having a quarter pounder from maccas or 2-minute instant maggie noodles. They advertise Subway extensively; freshly baked bread daily, fresh salads, bla bla bla.

But honestly, I love having my sub with meatball marinara but having it straight after my class is such a BAD BAD BAD idea. I just started dance classes again. After six-long years. Ballet Class to be exact and let me tell you, I'm lousy at it now. I can point and stuff, but my french vocabulary, terrible. I can barely remember the French terms anymore. On the first class, I had to look around before I could do the barre steps. Seriously, you can't just stop after six years and expect things to be good. It's like a relationship. You have to invest heavily in it, put in alot (and I mean ALOT) of effort, be discipline, watch your diet (probably avoiding fast food of any kind) and practice practice practice.

I loved my ballet. I still love it so very much. After six years, I long to dance as I used to before. Every single time I watch a dance movie, a musical or "So You Think You Can Dance" on TV, I miss it. I miss the graceful steps. I miss my technique. I miss the way I feel when I dance. I was good at it, much better than I am now.

So I decided to take up ballet classes once again. I searched online for a school and I found Elance Adult Ballet School. It's a 15-20 minute walk from my office. I went to buy ballet attire. My ballet shoes, leotard and pink thighs. I was ready. Mentally but after my first class, not physically obviously. But I'm determined to get back to ballet for good. I've signed up for a term (12 weeks) and PAID shit loads for it. I'm ready to get my body back in shape (which means not having an ice-cream every night after dinner, probably try to cut down to twice a week), do some stomach exercises at home a couple times a week and do some stretching every other day, to hopefully be more flexible again.

It's not easy and trust me, it's effing frustrating to be in a class knowing that you were much better before and really suck right now, but I'm determined to be a better dance by the end of this term. Fingers crossed.

Till the next one,
Stay healthy, eat your fruits and get some exercise!

Picture Perfect

Pictures paint a thousand words.
You see how happy or sad a person is. Whether they force a smile for the camera or a wide smile while saying 'cheeseee', you can tell with just a mere photograph.

Just before my long weekend ends, I shall recap what happened over the past few days.
I've been at home, without many plans other than to get well and recover. Had a sore throat on Thursday but I'm all better now *fingers crossed*
I get back to work again tomorrow, for what I'm glad to say, a very short week. Tuesday to Friday and the weekend would be here again!

I went for a walk in the city just this afternoon, just for some fresh air. It's winter now and the air's as fresh and cold as it can get. I eventually ended up at Big W (a Tesco/Giant-like place that sells everything for a good price) and started looking around at the books section. It's EOFYS now (End-of-financial-year-sale) and EVERYTHING is on sale. Books, clothes, electrical goods, you name it, it's on sale. Wandering around, I noticed that most of the books were on a 35% sale. Whoo-pee-dee-dooo! I started picking some up and after about 15 minutes, ended up at the checkout with four books and $68 dollars poorer.

I walked to the State Library, hoping to be able to start reading my book inside, came to realize that the library was closed, thanks to the public holiday. Sitting outside the library in the 14degree weather, I pulled out the book from the bag and started reading. It would have been the perfect evening had it not gotten dark so early. After about an hour, I left the park and went to Woolworths to get groceries for dinner. Got a bunch of flowers and grabbed a Free* copy of some cookbook at the counter after paying the guy at the cashier. I thought it was the free monthly magazine that Woolies did. But when I came back and flipped through the book, I realized the cover wrote "Free when you buy participating magazines, RRP $4.45". Shit. I have the cookbook thing with me but I didn't buy any other participating magazines. Did I STEAL the mini-cookbook??? But thinking back, when I took that book off the counter, the guy didn't even say anything. He just smiled at me and asked me to have a nice day! He probably thought it was a freebie too. So not entirely my fault.

oh well, just before I wrap it all up, here are some photos that should have been up ages ago. It's taking ages to upload the photos, so here's just a few of them. Will work on it another day.




I miss my mom and sister so much already.

Till the next one,
Give your loved ones a call to say hie and that you love them!

Long weekend

Winter is obviously here in Melbourne. With a minimum of 3-4degrees and a maximum of 15, you know you'd need a jumper or two when you leave the house. If you don't have the heater on inside, you'd need a jumper and might I suggest, sweatpants to keep you comfy?

I'm not a huge fan of the cold. I don't mind it, but I don't particularly love it. The worse part about winter is having to wake up early in the morning and heading to work. Seriously, its freezing cold at 6.30 in the morning and the only thing that makes it better is the crazy hot shower I jump into. Walking to the tram stop to get to work sucks when the wind is blowing directly at your face and all you breathe out is fog fog and fog.

The WORST part of winter is the flu season. Everyone gets sick over winter. I don't know if it's the cold or if the germs have nowhere to run to. People start coughing, sneezing and some even cough their lungs out on the train. Imagine the germs. Some have a rating of 6 cps (coughs per second) and 6 is a big number.

Talking about getting sick, majority of the people in my office is, do I even need to say it? SICK. Some have been coughing for weeks, some sneezing every other minute and some are just plain sick. We all got a flu jab about a month ago, when we all got our health check. But that didn't stop the germs from attacking them. I've been trying to stay healthy. Getting sick over the winter sucks. And the cold obviously makes it worse. But as of Thursday, my body gave in. I fell sick. Had a bad bad bad sore throat, so bad that I woke up at night, having difficulty sleeping. I went to work on Thursday feeling like crap. Sore throat got worse. Started to get a sniffy nose. Shit. I'm officially sick. And being at the office doesn't help with all the germs circulating the entire place. I obviously needed a break. So I decided to take Friday off, to rest at home and to get better. I obviously needed the day off, considering the fact that I slept for 13 hours that night, from 8.30pm to 9.30 the next morning. Talk about catching up on sleep.

The best part of all is that Melbourne has a long weekend. Monday's a public holiday because it's the Queen's Birthday. So since I took Friday off to rest, I've got an uber-long weekend to rest. Four days to be exact. I'm getting better, been getting tons of sleep during the day AND night. Fingers crossed that I've managed to build up enough immunity to fight away the germs at the office.

Till the next one,
Rest up and try not to fall sick in winter!