Blog - Page 3 of 25

December 17, 2021

Drama/Home

Curbing my home ID enthusiasm. Not.

Unfortunately for J, I have been obsessed with interior design since 1995 when I discovered interior design mags in the UK. I would give my parents’ house a makeover every night like a sleep meditation exercise. I still remember walking through Ikea in One Utama for the first time in 1999 and feeling like my home planet had beamed me in. Magical magical place.

When we moved into this house, it was a fixer upper. Although it’d have been nice to have the perfect house from the start, I wouldn’t change anything cause the journey of getting our house just perfect is part of what I imagined for marriage? Like a lifelong project together.

We’ve added cabinetry, laminate flooring, porch tiles, porch roof and an auto gate as little year end treats to ourselves. I love it when J asks me or I ask J “Do you remember the cement porch?” or “Do you remember pre-auto gate life?”.

This year, I finally got a mirror for the dining area. I always wanted to get one for the dining table. 11 years ago, I just wanted to get the ubiquitous Ikea Toftbyn but some how kept postponing it cause it felt like such a splurge. #youngLApauperlife

It was good I waited cause I didn’t just get a mirror, I got a mirror wall. Haha. Poor J. I didn’t just get a mirror wall either. Haha. I got myself a sliding partition door so that the living and dining area can cool down faster and I got myself a proper grown up dining table with dining chairs!

For 11 years, we used an Ikea Bjursta. It was great cause it was so cheap, (RM699/799 only!) it was extendable, and our house isn’t huge. The only niggling issue was that the table legs didn’t expand with the tabletop. Ikea has fixed this design flaw now. Pre-Covid, we were hardly home and barely used it. After 2 years of intense lockdown usage (and as the 10 year warranty conveniently expired) the the laminate table top started to chip at the edges and bulge. Very annoying and gross looking.

Dining chairs are so expensive generally that we never bought proper ones to replace the plastic Ikea ones we got as placeholders.

I did get Eames knockoffs from Shopee last year but they were not much better than the Ikea plastic chairs. Haha. They creaked and their screws needed tightening all the time. Very annoying also.

TL:DR? Very pleased with my 2021 home improvement projects. Will I be doing some more projects in 2022? Why, yes, indeed. Haha.

November 30, 2021

Drama/Health/Kids

A splashquatch.

After many years of saying that I would send the children for swimming lessons, I finally signed them up with Swimin12 at PJ Palms Sport Centre.

Yesterday was the first of 12 paid lessons following which I am guaranteed that they would be able to swim. If they can’t, they will continue to receive free weekly lessons for up to a year. I am hopeful that by the end of 6 months they will be my little water babies. Knowing my kiasu kids, they will be able to at the end of 3 months.

Coach Sabrina said that they were comfortable, confident and able to do more than expected of first timers at their trial class. This is despite our very infrequent visits to a proper pool.

Anyway during their trial class, I decided to swim when they have classes as opposed to scrolling social media by the bench. So I brought my mom yesterday and we both popped into the pool for the swim.

The good thing is that I had energy to swim 1km, the bad thing is that it took me an hour to swim 1km. I can only do the breaststroke and evidently not well. My mom would start laps after me and overtake me! I seriously need to work on my technique because I’m icing my knees even as I blog. 😂

The struggle to lose weight continues, thus the title. I really felt like a wet Sasquatch in the water.

November 22, 2021

Movies

Die Hard? Good. Love Actually? Good. Love Hard? Good!

It’s really tempting to act all culturally superior and denounce Love Hard without even watching it.

After all, it completely comes across as another Netflix cheap shot at milking Christmas rom-com fans BUT this movie is actually good! Or should I say it’s good actually.

I’m not even a Nina Dobrev fan as I never got sucked into The Vampire Diaries. If you wish to indulge in some vampire screen time, your time is far better spent watching True Blood or What We Do In The Shadows.

It’s funny how I didn’t realise how much representation matters. When I first watched Black Panther, I didn’t understand the hype on how important it was to African Americans. Bingeing K-dramas, watching Shang Chi, and now Love Hard has changed that. I complete get now the comfort and reassurance it provides.

November 18, 2021

Drama/Kids

A piano of my own

On a car ride a few years ago, I asked my dad a random question in my usual habit.

“What is the one thing you wish you had learned but didn’t?” His answer was playing the piano.

The Gift.

He was unsurprisingly really happy when the neighbours gave him their Yamaha piano. It was left in their empty house for many years after they moved to a condo and their children migrated.

Seeing the piano, Felix wanted to learn to play. He asked me to download the SimplyPiano app for him. I subscribed for a year on the condition that he would practice whenever he is at Wai Gong and Wai Po’s place.

Felix didn’t break his promise and really impressed me with his progress. I have no idea where his musical gift come from as Jason and I aren’t exactly musically inclined.

The Second Gift.

Eventually, I realised Felix was the only one playing the piano and I asked my dad if I could have it so that Felix could practice more. My dad very sweetly agreed.

Once the piano was in my house, my own suppressed wish to learn the piano came out in full force. I created a profile on SimplyPiano too and starting playing. Every. Day. At least half an hour. I’d play even more if I didn’t live in a terrace house with neighbours I actually liked. Without Felix’s abilities, my lack of rhythm, hand eye coordination, tone deafness has meant slooooooow progress. I really can’t even begin to describe how much joy I feel when I play a song I like. Missed notes or beats be damned.

My joy was unfortunately curbed by the memory of my dad saying he wished had learned to play the piano. I didn’t like knowing my dad didn’t have to option to learn to play cause he gave the piano which was a gift to him to us.

Considering the cost, I couldn’t bring myself to ask Jason for, the ultimate fantasy, a black piano.

See what clear water turned into after the piano tuner was done vacuuming the interior.

The Third Gift.

I am undeniably blessed in many ways because one of my ex-colleagues turned bestest friend heard of my black piano fantasy, and decided to give me hers! A fancy Kawai black piano!

She hasn’t played it since secondary school and has migrated so she offered it to me!

The piano did need some TLC. Both piano tuner and I were shocked at the crud that had collected in there. Haha.

Anyway, my fantasy black piano now sits gloriously at our music area.

November 12, 2021

Drama

Sabar.

On our ROMniversary this year, my weekly cleaner broke the wedding cake topper that I keep as momento.

It was not the first time, so the damage was pretty bad.

Both bride and groom decapitated. Hands and arms broken on each.

Bad omen? I definitely wondered. However, putting it all together again with superglue felt strangely therapeutic.

A reminder that marriage takes work.

Anyway, good as new now.

November 5, 2021

Drama

My mind is a temple.

Well, at least now it is.

On Tuesday night, I had the craziest dream.

I dreamt I was having a face-to-face conversation with a beautiful Beyoncé looking tenant with a full afro. She was moving out and taunting me about not planning to clean the room she rented. I was super certain she had seriously trashed the room.

For some reason, in my dream, I had the guts to tell her to either clean it up or pay the bill for cleaners I would get. Anyone who knows me knows I do not have such guts in real life.

She then made some snarky remark, which I can’t recall now, but I got this huge wave of rage, and I lunged at her with both my hands to choke her neck and I did it IN REAL LIFE too!

So I ended up JABBING some part of Jason who was sleeping next to me!

He naturally “WTF?!”-ed me and I woke up.

I could actually feel my upper body lunging in real life and my nails digging into his flesh!

I apologised to Jason and told him it was a dream. I had to explain I wasn’t attacking him, but doing it to the dream person.

After Jason fell back asleep (really quickly, cause he’s chill like that), I checked the time and it was 2AM.

The terrible Hauntu night dream was about 2:30AM also.

I started to think about how the timing was so similar. Which led me to think that maybe I kena rasuk by an evil spirit out to kacau me, or Jason, or me via Jason since I love him. Let’s just say my mind is able to reach these levels of crazy, haha.

First thing I did on Wednesday morning was to WhatsApp my mom the entire incident hoping she will pray for me. This is why I call myself agnostic and not an atheist despite how often I declare religion is a bane to society.

Bless my mom because she told my dad and both of them called me before noon and offered to take me to temple.

We went all the way to Ampang temple for prayers. Brought flowers and amulets back home to mandi bunga also.

After I did all that, I felt soooooo relieved. The smell of the burnt amulets were soooooo comforting. 😂

I know all this is in my mind, so I’m glad I did all this. Haha.

I. AM. NEVER. VISITING. A. HAUNTED. HOUSE. AGAIN. EVER.

October 20, 2021

Drama

The price of an overactive imagination is fear.

Hauntu

Last Friday, we did a small firm event which was organised by the lawyers for fun.

The young’uns chose an immersive horror house experience at the Linc in KL called Hauntu, followed by dinner at De.Wan.

I naively thought that as I approach my 40s, I have matured enough to handle some “scary” stuff (I watched a few seasons of AHS recently OK, don’t mess 😂). So I did not become the spoilsport partner that vetoed or did a no-show for Hauntu.

I think I was semi-respectable during the visit (there were 8 of us after all) and only let out a scream or two. 😂 The creepy set itself was really well done in most places but the illusion was lost whenever fake bodies appeared. Their mannequins just couldn’t compete with the realism of wax figurines at Madame Tussauds which I’ve seen before. Hauntu should really consider dialling down on fake heads and introducing some dry ice smoke or fog effect instead.

I think the way I look with curly hair was more scary than the mannequin they used.

Hauntiu

Post-Hauntu, I really struggled to fall asleep cause each time I closed my eyes, I would picture myself alone back at the worse parts of the set. Like standing in the 50s bedroom or the metal caged utility closet area.

When I finally fell sleep, I dreamt I was back in the freaking set and it was one of those damn dreams where you can’t move your muscles or make a sound until you finally burst scream/cry aloud in real life. Jason had to shake me awake and say it’s just a dream. This was 2:30am. Jason promptly fell back asleep but I didn’t go back to sleep until 7am when it was brighter outside. I had to listen to my audiobook and a podcast to get through those 4.5 hours. 😅

Since the kids were sleeping over at my in-laws for 2 nights, we booked a one-night stay at Majestic KL on Saturday. This is before we learned that Hauntu was hotel themed. I refused to cancel because we’ve had 2 unsuccessful attempts at a staycation there (Covid-19 quarantine then fully booked)

Anyway, as we were checking in, I really needed to pee but the hotel doesn’t have a toilet in their lobby! Guests have to go to the second floor. Since Jason was still busy with the receptionist, I decided to go on my own, I walked to the lift, pressed the lift button, and walked straight back to the reception. Haha.

Apparently, Jason already knew when I walked off that I couldn’t heck it alone and would come back without peeing.

When we got to our room and had just shut our room door, I heard bells jingling in the corridor. Like a possessed woman, I damn loudly said “Why are there bells ringing?!”, aggressively swung the door back open to “scare” and “verify” whatever was outside…

It was a little toddler wearing sandals with light and sound effects and her father mid-unlocking their room door and staring at me with fear for his innocent offspring. 😂

October 9, 2021

Books/TV Shows

My mind’s Maid up.

Yeah, it’s actually not. I just needed to get this pun in here.

I’ve just finished bingeing Maid on Netflix, and I am in awe.

In awe of a couple of jaws.

Those are some freaking amazing jaw genes that Andie McDowell has passed on to her daughter, Margaret Qualley.

My favourite scene is definitely this one… cause it’s so GIF worthy and I made a meme of it already. Haha

Margaret Qualley in Maid, Netflix

It was quite frustrating watching Alex at times cause she made such stupid decisions but I guess if she weren’t stupid in the first place, there’d be no story to tell.

Definitely added to my to-read list.

October 6, 2021

Books/TV Shows

Normal People

Normal People by Sally Rooney
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It was so nice reading what Connell and Marianne were thinking as opposed to guessing what the bloody hell they were thinking when they said or did certain things. I had much more sympathy for both characters when I read the book compared to the tv series.

I enjoyed it especially when Rooney switched between Connell and Marianne’s reflections of the same conversation or events that had led to misunderstandings. Their perceptions at those points were so unfortunately coloured by negative thoughts of themselves and their respective emotional baggage. Felt very tragic every time.

Still gets 3 stars since I felt more optimistic for their future as a couple compared to the tv series and I always want a happy ending.

View all my reviews

September 27, 2021

TV Shows

Don’t be a sotong, watch Squid Game

I finished Squid Game yesterday. South Korean entertainment outdid itself again. So glad I got over my prejudices and gave K-dramas and K-pop a chance.

I’m sure all the nitpickers who say it isn’t that great because it is derivative of Battle Royale, Hunger Games etc. are right about it not being completely novel. Why should that stop it from being considered great though? Is the Mona Lisa less extraordinary because it isn’t the first ever portrait of a woman?

Whilst gripping, there were many times I couldn’t look at the screen. So much gore, and a sex-scene I was seriously not requesting for. The sets and costumes were exceptional. Netflix clearly doesn’t stinge.

The Goblin die hard had her eyes glued to the screen the couple of minutes Gong Yoo appeared. Haha. Someone told me that Gong Yoo looks like Kermit the Frog. There may be some truth in that but just call me Miss Piggy.

Jason and I did manage to predict both main plot twists. *Pats self for “mental superiority”*. Haha.

As it’s a Korean show, I reminded myself not to get attached to any of the characters and anticipated the saddest death for the nicest characters. *Pats self for not once bursting into tears àla Li Hoong watching My Girl or Jojo Rabbit*.

I still don’t understand the rules of Squid Game but rules don’t matter if knives can be used to win a game that’s supposed to be played without knives anyway.

I was also told I’d play like Sang-Woo if I were in Squid Game. This is firmly denied. I would be the wife who joined with her husband, ok. Haha.