Brrrr...

Winter is here! Whoo hooo!

Yeah, some ppl might think its weird that I am celebrating the start of the cold season but I do like the colder months .. serious!

Winter to me means :

1. Fabulous winter fashions - knee high boots, coats etc
2. Stockings
3. Snow and snowboarding
4. Hot chocolate

It has been a slow start as March recorded some of the hottest days this period but a mere week and got us down to high's of 20' rather than the usual 32'.

Time to dig out winter clothes from the back of the cupboard now.. yeaaa!

The hunt for the"perfect" ring

So BF and I started on the whole wedding prep by looking for the appropriate wedding bands this weekend. Fortunately, BF is not so fussy with the rest of the arrangements (he is leaving it up to me and my wedding planner aka mum), but he has in his mind very definite ideas on what the wedding bands should look like. We have also decided that we would not mind spending a little bit more on the rings which is fine by me as we are going to be using it for the rest of our life (touch wood - esp as we both are very anti-divorce).

Well, taking advantage of the long weekend holidays, we went around the Mel Little Collins area in the CBD and started on our research.

The aim - Wedding bands

Budget - Up to $5000 for 2 (around RM 14000)

Outlets visited - George Jensen, Tiffany & Co, Canturi

BF has taken a fancy on the Canturi "Comfort Band". The prob now is, my engagement ring is a solitaire and being a single stone, the wedding band has to be equally complimenting. I personally do not fancy a plain wedding band esp if one is paying quite a bit for it. I did try and liked their white gold "Upswift Band".

Next stop - Tiffany & Co. We immediately fell in love with their "Sheamerice" white gold band for him and it does come with a female version. However, the feminine version was overshadowed by my current band and we started looking around. The "Channel" 2mm complimented mine precisely (oh the sparkle!) but decided to head up to Georg Jensen ... but not before I eyed this gorgeous diamond 0.1 pendant which is on my "wish list" for the mo. ;)

At Georg Jensen .. we both liked the "Fusion" collection. BF doesn't want any diamonds on his, I am still contemplating my options but the 3 tone effect looks good on him whilst the 2 tone effect (yellow and white gold) suit me better as I have (and I say this without sounding like a vain pot but all of the sales ppl say it), long delicate fingers.

Heading to Chaddy tmr to look at more rings. Rather we do the research early than be stuck later on. Furthermore, it gives us more time to budget!

p/s: Yeah, BF and I are engaged. We got engaged over new yrs. He asked my dad for permission first. Its a good thing that he did too.. as apparently my dad was going to have a 1-on-1 if he didn't.. so he got brownie points for that.

Proposal venue - At my parents - His original plan was to do the whole she-bang thing back here but as he wanted to show them the ring, the wasn't any hoopla on it. :)

The ring - Platinum set, "Love Diamond" single solitaire from the C-Club (formerly Carat Club), Pavilion - KL

Melbourne Comedy Festival 2008

The annual Melbourne Comedy Festival is in town.. *whoo hooo*. I try to make it to at least a few shows each yr, and lets be honest - rather than pissing the $$ on drinks or even a movie, I rather catch a good act - be it a play, ballet, symphony and most definitely a live act.

I managed to get tix for Russell Peters again this yr; and might I say I was laughing from start to end at Russell's - he IS much better in person and being that this yr is my 2nd time catching him "live", he is and much to my enjoyment in his own words "First Class!" (and say that with a very VERY strong Indian accent) ;)

Ross Noble is on this Sun - and an added bonus is us having this nice long weekend. I hear he is quite good and I am looking fwd in simply not doing anything and hopefully some "Ha-Ha's" long the way! I did go to some less than stellar acts last yr - supporting the up-and-coming comedians but perhaps it is the lack of experience, not being able to read the crowd or simply because the just weren't that good - some of these acts were rather disappointing. This time around I am going for the more established comedians.. so fingers crossed!

Work whinge pt1

Let me tell you this, travelling on a Sun ESPECIALLY when it is not for a holiday is NOT fun. Business travel that eats into your personal weekend time is a pet peeve and I am definitely looking forward to the end of the project and when life gets to back to some resemblance of normalcy. BF has fortunately been supportive; but it is more sooner rather than later when he is going to be whinging of the fact that I am more away than around. After all 80% of my time this month has been spent AWAY from Mel and 1 day (2 nights) in Mel this week and off I go to Queensland this time around.

There is 1 silver lining to all this travel tho; it has taken me away from the extreme heats currently hitting Victoria. Sydney only experienced at most the highs to 30' last week and Brisbane is currently at a mild 27' - and when it has been all around min's of 30-32' all of last week (high's up to 40') in Mel - I am not complaining (as much).

Well, am taking advantage of the good services of the Qantas Club whilst I await my connecting to Rockhampton (aka Cattle capital of Australia). Plenty of others also waiting for their flights away. I am filled with some envy at those exotic names such as Nadi (Fiji), Noumea or Port Vila (Vanuatu) and if time permits, I am already thinking of taking a long weekend getaway for a bout of snowboarding later on this few months ( I am not really a beach bunny).

Time for happy thoughts .. a mere few weeks...that's all there is... a mere few weeks to bliss ..*or here's to hoping*

The ppl have spoken. Malaysia elections 2008

I really did not want to do a post about the Malaysian election as I was disheartened and discontent. One of the key reasons? Malaysian citizens not residing in the country are lawfully not allowed to exercise their rights. Yes, I checked. As soon as I heard that it was elections time again, I checked at the embassy and later from Wisma Putra

In short,

***********
REGISTRATION OF VOTERS

Registration of voters for Malaysians abroad is divided into two categories:

• Postal Voters / Absent Voters consisting of:·

Armed forces that are in service.·

Government Personnel (Federal Government, States Service or local authorities) who are in service abroad.·

Individuals studying full time abroad (only if they are sponsored by the Government).· Spouses to the list above.

• Normal Voters·

Comprising of Malaysian Citizen other than sated above.

Registeration of voters for Malaysians abroad is divided. When the time comes for election, normal voters need to return to Malaysia to cates their votes based on the area they are registered in.

*****************************

What Bullsh!t. Is this democracy? Yet another strategy to manipulate the outcome. Typical Govt propaganda -afraid of loosing power as Malaysians abroad (unless they are Govt officials or students (unless Govt sponsored, not private students) are deemed to susceptible to "outside" influences or are indebted to the Govt.

Don't get me wrong here now though. I DID exercise my rights during the last election as I was fortunately in the country and I did vote for the BN coalition. But seeing how the country is going to the dogs and the injustices and corruption all over, one but feels somewhat defeated esp as Malaysians have always had this lackadaisical "Tidak Apa" attitude when it comes to anything political. More "We'll let the other person do the work" than the "My vote sends a message".

Why am I *finally* putting up a post election blog? My daily reads of the Malaysian dailies and the results are in. No 2/3 majority and a massive 4 state control loss + 1 retain control win. Some of the major "stalwarts" in politics have been defeated by freshfaces. Some of the biggest heads has rolled.

The ppl are speaking in volumes.

A *belated* Valentines post 2008

A month later is not too late to blog about Valentine's Day is it? Both BF (more on him in some other post) and I are extremely practical ppl. And even though it is nice to be "surprised" at work with flowers/chocs etc, personally, I rather we keep the money and use it for something else! Or be surprised on some other non related occasion.

Anyways, this yrs Valentine's was not even celebrated as I was away on yet another work trip. We did do the gift thing *surprisingly* this yr tho.

Anyways - this is what I got BF (to replace his XBox 360 that he was tiring off)

And this is what I got ....

Yeah, it is good to be practical sometimes! :)

Suprises!

There is nothing nicer than coming back home and being greeted by these :)

My life thus far..

Lol.. I am on a roll aren't I..*not!* 3 post in 3 months does not a blog make.

Well, lets start with the lil things..its now March...eeeks! How quickly do the days fly by. Oh dear... It has been a constant stream of flying, meetings, collateral updates and then some.

Basically, my trips for this past few weeks were or are looking like this:

• 27 - 29 Feb (Syd)
• 11 - 14 March (Syd)
• 16-19 March (Brisbane/Rockhampton)
• 20 March (Syd)
• 25 - 16 March (Syd)

Am starting to detest the airport now. Furthermore April is likely to have some trips to Perth. Oh well.

There has been several new developments on the social and work front for me. It is all looking rather positive and 2008 has been good to me so far. Mind you - my hol back home over new yrs all seem like a distant memory now. Not to mention this absolutely fab fab trip to Tokyo in Jan ...

Yeah, its been good.. thus far...