I know I've been quiet... with school holidays here... life is just so full. Not just 3 kids at home but 4... more personalities to juggle and defintiely more housework!
so here's a text based update... why no photos? well, because my darling new handphone (mentioned
here) is still at the service centre. This is its second trip in last than 2 months. Am I annoyed... most definitely. Will give it another month or so when it gets back and if it goes all weird again, am gonna raise hell with SE/M1 here. I don't know who's in charge but getting a new phone shouldn't be such a pain in the *ss...
Ok... so what has been going on...
a 3 day / 2 night road trip to Malacca. We left home at 4.30am. I know, I know... its a ridiculously early hour of the morning. But surprisingly the kids bounced up ready to change and go. I think they were so excited by the whole idea. We travelled in two vehicles. I drove one while my dad drove the other. It was my first time driving my cousin's 2 month old car and my first time driving in the dark...
trip to customs (via the 2nd link) went smoothly. hardly any traffic at that time of the day. joined the north/south highway and headed up at a nice 110km/h.
saw my dad's car swerve suddenly... couldn't figure out why.. then a B-U-M-P which jolted the sleepy heads up... and then horrors... felt the rear car tire pop... that's not quite the right word. It wasn't an explosion but it was a bang and a jerk. I stopped... really fast... and outta no where came this tow truck. I swear they were there even before I had time to move to the shoulder and stop.
my first thought was... where did they come from? my second was... how did they know so quickly? anyways, they helped us change the tire and we gave them a little something something in return...
then we proceeded to limp to Malacca at 80km/h... it made the whole trip so much longer and I was feeling totally horrid. New car and I go burst a tire.. it wasn't punctured... it had a tear in it!!! sigh...
to cut a long story short, we went to a mechanic (recommended by a friend) and had the tire changed.
meanwhile... we did manage to walk Jonker street twice (once in the day and once at night). I bought a new black pair of beaded sandals (will post pics soon of my hauls), a cute pair of heels, a new batik dress with two diff matching necklaces (my hubby chose those after making me try on 5 outfits) and some small toiletry items.
also bought chinese new year outfits for the two boys and did my christmas shopping as well.
Malaysia is a really fun place for a Singaporean to shop I think. For one thing, the FX rate is S$1/RM2.43... which basically means divide every price tag you see by 2! then there's the sales.... lots and lots of sales. The cute pair of heels was originally rm89.90. I got it for 70% less... which made it abt rm40+... change that to singapore dollars and you get S$20. How to argue with those kind of prices? the last thing to note is that their price tag numbers (dollar amounts) match the singapore price tag amounts. In other words, something that costs S$40 would probably have a RM40 price tag.
You see why when Singaporeans arrive in Malaysia they all sound like chicks? "cheep cheep cheep"
got back and tried to unpack.. and wrap Christmas prezzies... I hate wrapping presents... sigh.
also dealt with an increasingly messy house (ask Ann... she saw it at its absolute worst!.. am still wondering why I let her in the front door.. sigh) because my part time helper skipped a week due to our trip. I am honestly the world's worst housekeeper... thankfully I consider myself a full time mother not housewife :P
Grand Fantasia - got caught up with a new MMORPG game... can as usual spent/wasted many lovely hours exploring new worlds and meeting new/old friends
then.. the last two days... ah.. bliss... sure simple bliss... time together with my hubby with *no kids*. Important factor here... just time together doing stuff we like.
first day, we went into johor bahru (that's the nearest malaysian city to us... and its literally just across a strip of water). Encountered the wonderful M'sian causeway for the first time. My impressions can be summed up with 3As - amazed... annoyed... amused!
Amazed - impressive architecture.. huge huge building... high ceilings... but you have to take a road that snakes and curves around and around to get there... sure silliness
Annoyed - in order to get to the immigration counter... you have to walk from what felt like one end of a very long large building to the other and then to the middle where the counter actually is. My legs hurt. plain and simple. They didn't complain shopping and they didn't complain about standing on the bus. But boy did they complain about the hike we took to get our passports stamped. *roll eyes*
Amused - "m'sia boleh"... m'sians don't flame me please... but to me its a case of "anything you can do we can do better" gone horribly wrong. I see similiarities between the two immigration centres but whereas one has a smooth flow of both vehicles and pedistrains... the other has both going round in circles rather cluelessly. I have a strange sense of humour I know but this really really amused me.
I am now totally not surprised that the city and its shopping centres were relatively quiet even though its the school holidays (on our side). No one in their right mind would choose to take a long aimless walk just to enjoy the discounts across the border. And if I was crossing the border in a car, I'd take the 2nd link and head further away.
FOTD - Biore sunblock, my SilkNaturals powder blend (with extra silica/zinc), SN Climax blush
So what did I get this round... more toiletries... there was this uber cute little japanese toiletry place that I wandered into (no pics due to phone issues). Went down the aisle just throwing things into my basket. They were all so cheap! Just couldn't resist. Then I got two new shorts (I use my clothes til they're falling apart usually and my old 2 are doing exactly that now) from Parkson Grand.
Bought my hubby's chinese new year outfit plus some bermudas for him. Also got stationery for my kids for school. A barbie set for my girl and a barney set for my youngest boy. Some chinese readers for the two younger ones. Hopefully my hubby is diligent about going through the books with them. Plus rubbermaid water bottles at what I thought was totally affordable rates (rm19 for two bottles). Got 6... we've got alot of mouths in this house!
My best buy was two Revlon nail polishes... I haven't done my nails in ever so long but these were going at RM19 with a BOGO offer... all together now... let's chant... CHEAP! That's less than S$4 a bottle... who could resist. I actually got it on my third trip past the counter... LOL! The colors I chose was an old favourite,
Copper Glazed Platinum and a new fav (?) Blackberry.
by the time we were done, both our backpacks were stuffed full. We headed back through the a-maze-ing immigrations. Dropped by at AMK Hub for some snacks before heading to pick up the kids. While there, my very old, long suffering backpack decided to give up... at least the zipper did. Was so thankful that it happened only after we got back.. so hugged it tight (while on the bus/train) and got everything home without dropping.
At my parent's house, we were greeted with requests to stay the night... after much pleading... "por por, I wanna stay" Imagine a little boy with droopy eyes saying ever so sadly while gazing at you "grandmother.. i wanna stay... i wanna stay" How could my mom resist... so we left without them...
this morning, it was a luxury to wake up without worrying about whether the kids were awake or whether they were up to no good... a sheer luxury that a non-parent just won't understand. so today we (or I) decided to head to a new-ish shopping centre to watch James Cameron's Avatar in 3D. Not terribly impressed with the show although I have to say the graphics were gorgeous. After that we wandered around. Hubby (notice I say it was him not me!) found two new smaller backpacks for me... love them both... but honestly, they aren't replacements for the one that was spoilt. That one was a workhorse. It could take nonsense like being filled to the brim and hard treatment. The two new ones are for 'show'... nice to use... can't misuse. kwim? oh well, he's happy so I'm happy and he's happier that I'm happy so we're both happy. get it?
FOTD - Biore sunblock, my SN powder blend (this time with foundation mixed in), SN climax and babydoll mixed (wanted a little more pink), SilkyGirl eyeliner in violet (upper eyelid), LT's Ulta e/s in light purple (can't remember the name) all over the lid. Generous lashings of Marjolica Marjoca's lash extender mascara topped off with Maybelline's Volum' Express Turbo Boost mascara.
Will try and take pics and post asap... but with Christmas upon us.. don't hold your breath!
two kids home tonight... one is still travelling with my in laws. My heart is full, my pocket is rather empty but I'm happy.
Before I go... I wanna wish all my dear Vox friends a wonderful Christmas season. May all your prezzies be good ones and may you totally enjoy being with your family and friends. Thank you for being such a lovely lovely group of people!
*off to hang laundry and wash off the day... nite or should I say morning everyone - since its 12am*
