Breaking spell

Remember the Sentosa Island visit? We had to forget it due to time-consuming shopping.
Remember my husband’s best man duty? I ironed his pants and sampin but left them at home.

What do all of the above have in common? They are the plans that I announce to the world before but fail to accomplish. I admit that half of them were my own fault but I blame it on the too much excitement I got from the idea of pursuing them.

This is one of my pet peeves. Actually, I already realized it since I was younger. Back in the university, if my girlfriends and I got too excited planning to go out and have fun, things could end up the other way around if not ugly. In short, we did not have the expected fun!

There is a certain kind of jinx to announcing plans. I should have never ever told anyone about any plan until it is realized. I kind of believe this and my own wedding is evident enough to prove it. My husband and I agreed that we must not tell anybody that we were engaged thus getting married. By keeping low, we hoped that our preparation would run effortlessly. Of course my husband did it for other reasons too, like to give everybody a pleasant surprise! So after working hard in creating a memorable event and with God’s will for sure, we managed to pull it off.

Now coming back to my plan announcing habit, I really think it has got to stop. Maybe I wish so hard for things to happen that they do not come true. The thing is I am not very upset that I could die if these so-called plans failed. I believe that God has better plans for me that I should just let go of plans that God wants me to pass. It is the people who are affected by my loud mouth that I am worried about. I cannot go on hurting my husband, family and friends anymore.

So I guess it is safer that I announce less about anything here from now onwards. Maybe I will keep on sharing past and present news but need to reveal less of my future hopes and dreams. Anyway, life is too short to waste and worry. I refuse to live it in haste and hurry. I will take one step at a go. My new motto to live by shall be: show and then tell but never tell when cannot show.

Shopping weekend

Funny thing happened at the office today. Two female colleagues from different other departments asked if I am pregnant. Their reason: I look chubby (a nicer way of saying that I am fat!). Yes, I think I put on weight (the nicest way of revealing the fact that I am fat!) and I blame it on the food I consumed last weekend in Singapore.

When I was there for two nights, I recalled having eaten fish fillet burger, nasi lemak, penyet chicken rice, roti canai, chicken nuggets, and almost everything from a Korean steamboat buffet spread. Oh, I also did not forget the in-between snacks like apples, char kwai and green tea ice-cream. You could say that I am a serious eater and believe me I did not just end there.

While on my way back to KL with my cousin and her friend, we stopped at the Gelang Patah R & R area. I ate fried rice for breakfast. I had two cut guavas, one sun melon slice and tambun biscuits as travel snack.

We dropped by Salak Tinggi to pick up my cousin’s son at her sister’s place and guess what? I had white rice with fried bean sprout, oxtail soup and sambal anchovy for lunch! They send me back home fully loaded and I wonder why I was so sleepy that I had to catch a nap.

One weekend is all it takes for me to gain this much but I need longer time than that to shove the fat out from my spare tires. So now I have a mission: must go check out that swimming pool back at the apartment by today. Even if I do not make it into the water, at least I know the access to that facility.

By the way, all I got from the Great Singapore Sale were just bags due to time constraint; in which my husband would not agree because he managed to finish a book while we girls shopped. I bought a sweet pink canvas with white polka dots tote bag. Because my husband and I go everywhere, I should pack all our short travel essentials in there.

I also purchased myself a hot chocolate corduroy shoulder bag from Charles & Keith. The space is large enough that could put in everything from documents to even spare clothes if I want to. I bring this one to the office and I think it looks alright on me.

Anyway, fret not for I will be back to Singapore before the sale event is over. Well Abi, you better think of another book to buy.

Good morning!

Alright I admit it: work is very boring nowadays. This is because my job is of project basis that for this round I had already completed it some months ago. Since then I have been coming into the office not knowing what to do. Please God, do not let my boss read this.

Which is why I am in Singapore now! I could use some retail therapy for having worked so hard this year. I heard (thank you for the useful information, Abi) the Great Singapore Sale started last month and will be going on until end of July. Maybe I could look for things that I have always wanted to own. See if they are worth buying now than they were a few months back. I have a list, you know.

I arrived early this morning. As usual, Abi fetch me at the terminal in a cab. We dropped by McDonald’s to get me pre breakfast at 4am just in time to witness France losing to the Netherlands in EURO 2008. There goes another favorite team of mine.

My husband is sleeping at the moment. I just let him since he had cleaned the house until late last night. Am I a lucky wife or what? I wonder if other husbands fetch, feed or clean their wives like he does (why do I sound like I am a cat?). Although I already had fillet o’ fish (oh no, I do sound like I am a cat!), we are still going out for breakfast in a bit.

By the way, my cousin whose husband stays in Bahrain because of work; is also coming but she will reach here around noon today. She is bringing her long time friend. When three women get together, you could guess what is going to happen. There will be much gossiping, some shopping and maybe cooking. Yes, we will be like a bunch of girls having so much fun!

However today, we will only have time to go window shopping if not shopping shopping. My cousin requests us to bring her to Sentosa Island in which we have never been to, too. I think we can do that tomorrow morning when we are a lot fresher. I hope my husband would bear with us this weekend.

So I am going shopping. I wish to pay nothing. My husband buys everything. Do I hear “ka ching?” I see his head shaking; about to be aching. Do not worry darling. You know I love teasing.

Shut up people, I am happy!

Travel together?

So my husband had been coming back to KL for five weekends in a row now. Last two weekends he was here to attend a friend’s wedding in Shah Alam. Actually Abi could never turn down many invitations from our families and friends simply because he is a courteous gentleman. Besides, other people do expect us to show up at their special events and we kind of enjoy turning up especially when there is good food involved.

Next weekend, another school mate is tying the knot and my husband has been given the honor to be the bestman. This means that I get to play dress up with my husband, yay! Although Abi would normally wear anything I put on him, these invitations do help bring us together as a married couple somehow. Hey, if he does not complaint about his costume at all, I feel loved already and our marriage is far from over definitely.

My question being is there really a point for me to go stay with my husband in Singapore now? You see, Abi is always coming back home to me! What I am trying to say is if we were to move over there, we both would still have to travel back to KL attending these events.

Although it is good say, for us coming back to KL as we could do some grocery and furniture shopping, it is all so darn exhausting! It breaks my heart to watch my husband sleeps flat tired on weekend nights. Poor baby! In fact we sleep at every chance we get even during the day after running around getting stuffs for our house.

Once, a friend suggested if the couple is away together, other people would be more considerate thus the obligation to fulfill their invitations is not as much as before. Well I have to try it first to see if it works, right? What if it does not? Has anyone else tried this?

As for me, I guess it is better things stay the way they are, for now. If we take turn traveling, one could stay alert and cheery while the other is tired and cranky. There is a complement in that. Like the other weekend, I drove the car and Abi took a nap on our way to Port Dickson attending some family matters. We are still together but we just need to help balance each other.

Anyhow, I cannot accept the idea of us both traveling back and forth yet. We might just kill each other along the journeys out of boredom and fatigue.

New lesson

Recently I learnt something new from a meeting at work. At least it is to me and proves that my brain still runs well though it shuts down most of the time. So, have you ever experienced that when you buy a technical product only to feel that it is not user-friendly? I have encountered such products so many times and it sucks.

My husband would say the reason I was feeling like that is because I have not got use to the product yet. Of course, I also believe that practice makes perfect but I do not think that it is always the cause for feeling such. By the way, Abi is a by-the-book person while I am a spontaneous kind of a person. He would normally study the instruction manual while I would well, spontaneously operate a technical product. You know how stressful it is to operate everything just by trial and error. This is why I always treasure user-friendly products.

Let me share with you the ugly truth about technical products especially the nonuser-friendly ones. Actually, nonuser-friendly products are an effect of cost down activities. Ever wonder why when many hand phone brands are flooding the market but their prices become cheaper and cheaper?

When competition gets tougher, manufacturers are pressured to cut down their production cost to win market share. With cost of materials increasing over time, how do they manage to sell cheaper? Well, cheapskate companies would buy low-priced materials they result in products with yucky appearance and sucky performance and they still sell as cheap. However, renowned companies are smarter; they would purchase the same or slightly low-priced materials and delete some of the features (and call it improvement) but they get to sell as expensive.

For example, I remember a hand phone feature that recorded your every call’s duration and time but now it just records time. Get it? They make you believe that they have improved the feature but the truth is they simply delete it.

The product usage learning cost is in fact born by the end consumers, you. Yes, you pay for a nonuser-friendly product and have no other choice but start practicing until you get use to it. See, practice does make perfect!

So if you find that a product is nonuser-friendly, then it is an effect of cost down activities by the company producing it. You just do not realize it until it is already too late. Do not blame yourself for not being a technology savvy person. A good technological product should adapt to and help ease your life, not make you adapt to it and stress your own life. Moreover, earning decent money to pay for the product is already time consuming, therefore mastering the product usage should not be.