Keep Calm & Write It Down

About a couple of weeks before 2015 ended, I had dinner with Raema and Zayana. As we were catching up with each other's lives, I found myself in a situation where I got the timeline of all these events messed up.. 

Me: No way, the first time I heard about it being official was after my birthday celebration. 

Them: No... It was before!

Me: I swear it was after!!! Cause it was at Haagen Dazs 

Them: And Haagen Dazs was in July, before your birthday. 

Me: Cannot be, Haagen Dazs was in October! 

We never found out when Haagen Dazs happened, but two against one, so my timeline is wrong. 

Me: Well, I hardly blog these days! Even when I do, they're mostly throwback posts, so don't blame me my timeline are all wrong.. 

I know how pompous I sound saying that, but it is how I track when is what. I (used to) blog right after things happened, and use the date of the posts as reference of when these things happen. One time I was having a conversation with a colleague about wedding updo and she asked if I had a picture of my hairstylist's work for my hair updo, instantly my brain know to search for December 2013 posts so I can find the picture as I did not have them in my phone.

Like I said, my blog is a personal online diary.

Seeing how the new year just kicked in and after 2 weeks break, I just feel like work is gonna hit me so hard that I won't have time to do anything else but catch up on sleep. Hehe, I may over react, but that's what I am expecting for at least another couple of months. Therefore I decided to go old school; I got myself a hardcopy personal "journal".

It is actually the Duck planner.

See, at work I have this To-Do list notepad for me to write down all my To-Dos for each day; it gives me great pleasure when I tick it all off and if I don't, I'll have to carry forward it to the next day and repeat! At work, you also write "notes" when you go for meeting; sometimes you use it for the minutes you're supposed to write, others it's really just for your future reference. This way whenever your boss asks you stuff that happened at a meeting from a week ago, you just have to go to the date and it should be there (if you wrote it down). Even while I was studying I used to take time and make my own personal notes even though I wasted a lot of cartridges printing the lecturer's notes, because writing has always helped me to memorise.

So yeah, from now on, I shall write the highlights of my day in the journal (I refuse to call it a planner, cause it's more of a recap tool than a planning tool) and should I find the time to update my blog, I can always refer back to these "notes" ;) 

Also, if you're wondering why am I not using it as a planning tool, especially for balancing work and personal meetings.. Well there's always Outlook calendar and also my Secret Santa from office has gotten me  planner with "Keep Calm & Write It Down" on the cover.. He or she knows me so well!

Here's to a more productive (and organised) 2016!

Happy new year everybody!!

x, A.

You're Summoned

Moving forward to about a month later after my 23.3 birthday celebration..

See, I hate (and love - you know when I need someone to buy me something) having friends studying abroad. It is so hard to plan anything with everyone. So I have this tendency among my friends to actually book people weeks, sometimes even month(s) in advance. So they do not have a reason to say "I'm busy" to me. I allow emergencies, but it better be a damn good emergency (like your cat died, if you have stomach ache, we can always find a toilet nearby!) for me to be "okay" with you suddenly not showing up. 

So yes, I booked people a month in advance before my 23.4 birthday celebration..

Previous year it was "Your Majesty Summons You", :D

I love my friends because normally they just play along with whatever ridiculous title I put as the group's name, except a few of those *like Zayana, aherm* yang "hipster" a bit.

And then of course, it is only natural for me to project manage ("PMO") my own party. See I thought as much as I love having everybody under one roof at the same time, I also like having my private catch-up sessions with them because some of them, I've not seen in months. So rather than having another 5 rounds of "birthday celebration" just to see these kiddos, I decided to have a potluck party with different time allocated for each different group of friends since you know how certain group have their own inside jokes and chemistry etc..

Party Management Level: Aisya. *insert cool shades wearing emoji*

But of course, my friends being my friends...

-______________-

See because nobody adhered to the allocated slots (last minutely) and nobody confirmed the food they're bringing, we ended up with a lot of food! The kind of a lot that even Haikal and Zawir couldn't finish, hehe.

Basically these four were the only people that came the first half of the day, and the rest of the people only came at night..

(Which of course, everybody was too busy trying to finish up the food nobody remembered to take pictures ahaha #fattylifeforus)

After the party was over, Min, Zoe and I had our typical sleepover.

Where we stuffed our face with more food and watched The Conjuring right before bedtime.

23.3 Celebration

Continuing where we left off for my 23.1 & 23.2 birthday celebration.. 

I wanted to have dinner with Pisang, Shrimpy and Dani in conjunction of my birthday and also Dani's first time in Malaysia (we were talking about her coming to visit since Uni!).

Shrimpy unfortunately had a company dinner so had to pull out :( 

Anyways, Zayana said Zawir could come if he wants and that's when I started getting suspicious (Zawir and Zayana have this mutual dislike relationship with each other).. Why would she invite Zawir to a simple dinner? o.o

Days leading up to dinner was filled with where is it going to be. I suggested to go for a Ramadhan buffet so then Dani can get a whole range of Malaysian food and if nothing tickles her fancy, there's always a la carte, hehe.

Cik P suggested that we go to Seri Pacific, and I'm like it's nearby.. so okay!

As I was already running late the whole day (I had IKEA guys coming over to fix the most important part of my room makeover), I quickly changed and got ready for buka puasa.

Texted Pisang that I was going to be late and she said it's fine she's running late too..

About 15 minutes before buka I left home thinking I was super late because it's a Friday and traffic to KL would be terrible. Fortunately, less than 10 minutes later I found myself in the parking lot of the hotel and I think it was rezeki orang berpuasa, cause I masuk parking jer because it was full, the nice uncle who was manning the traffic allowed me to park right in front of the Lobby entrance!! Alhamdulillah!

As I walked to the restaurant I asked God to bless the uncle and murahkan his rezeki also, lol. Then I spotted Sarah (Dani's housemate during our student days) and Dani, who was carrying a bouquet of flowers. I tried to catch up to her but damn her long European legs! #asianproblems

At the reception, the receptionist asked if I had a reservation made. That's when I realised the smart me forgot to ask Zayana who's name was the reservation under! -___- #notsosmart

So I just bantai that it was under her name, and the girl said there's no table under Zayana.. Next I tried my name and even that wasn't on the list. Desperate, I even asked the girl if there's another restaurant at the hotel... *blush* She kindly allowed me to look at the reservation list and luckily I spotted Zayana brother's name and I said "yes! That's the reservation I'm under!" with confidence.. Padahal on the way up I prayed that I'd find Zayana before the waiter brings me to her brother and friends' table, hehehe.

Luckily I did find Zayana right as I went upstairs.. And Dani who was coming from the opposite direction holding a Baskin Robbins cake.. Which Zayana then quickly took from her and passed to the waiter while giving instructions in one breath probably.. Bahaha! So cute these people trying to hide things from me.

Zayana then pretended I saw nothing and nothing happened,

"How did you know to come up here?"

"So we're gonna pretend nothing happened?"

"I don't know what you're talking about"

"Okay.. The waiter said your brother's table is upstairs so I went up"

".. How did you know it was under my brother's name?"

"I said your name and they said there's no reservation under that name then I saw your brother's name"

".... You're quite smart..."

BARU TAHU?! pfffft

Anyways after that she led me to a room instead of a table and then I saw yellow balloons and Dada & her boyfriend, Akhimy screaming SURPRISEEEEEE!


Not bad these people.. Wasn't expecting anything grand, so they sorta managed to surprise me!


I feel like the real surprise was more of Dada & Akhimy - because I surely wasn't expecting them! But thank youuuuuuuuuuuu! Apparently since Zayana was busy at work, Dada & Akhimy had to do Zayana's biddings and get the balloons and what not ready. :')

They even got me a crown!!!!!!!


And it glowsssssssssss!!!

So fascinating!


Cousin It & I love it! Thank you Dada, love you!!

We had a full spread on the table ranging from soup gearbox, sushi and satay. That was courtesy of Zayana's brother. Non of us knew how to eat the soup gearbox, so we took our guesses on what to do with the straw on the table next to the bowl.

"I think it's for the drinks"

"I think we're supposed to bring our bowls outside for the ABC and this is for it" - me

"It's for you to sedut the soup in the tulang...." - Akhimy

He must think we're a bunch of bimbos and Dani & Sarah must think we Malaysians eat weird stuff, oops! Hehe

We stuffed our faces silly with the wide buffet range. I had nasi with lauk, then I had char kuey teow, and a bowl of pasta and ABC. Totally forgotting about the cake I spotted earlier on...

And then the cake came, and I swear if it wasn't for my name on it, I thought they served the wrong cake.

Why?

 Happy Father's Day?!?!?!

Bahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahaha! #icingonthecake #literally

Zayana: I told them to remove itttttt! Cause I said I wanted a cookies & cream cake and at first they said they don't have then they checked and said they have but it's with a "Happy Father's Day" sign on it and I asked them if they can removed it, they said can!

Me: Bahahaha, it's fine. At least that's one cake I know no one else would get for me, ever..

#mayanamakingmefeelspecial

Happily fed birthday girl :) #whatgluttonylookslike

 Thank you errbodeyh for the awesome mini get-together!! You guys keep doing you! Two claps for everybody!! xx

As you guys realise, Shrimpy isn't in the photo...  

 So we had to make it look like she attended the dinner..

Le tahdaaaaaaa! 

Everytime I look at this photo I feel so emotional..

Dani's like my first ever friend in Uni okay! Despite what everybody thinks (that I'm an outgoing person etc), I'm an introvert. I actually hate when I have to introduce myself to new people and I have to make new friends.. And Dani is just a super nice person that sat next to me during orientation and we kicked off being friends after that. And when I met Zayana, well actually when Zayana heard me, was when I was speaking to Dani. Then I properly met Zayana and introduced her to Dani.. Not long after we met Raema and then it's the 4 of us! :')

God knows when will I get to see her next but she definitely will have a flight ticket to Malaysia for my wedding at the very least :'(


Okay back to happy pictures..

See Shrimpy, you're always with us.. ;)

 Princess Poopyhead need to adjust her crown a bit, crown jatuh in the middle of the excitement..

 #youcantsitwithus #maybeyoucansitwithDani #shestoonicetosaynotoyou

#imfabulous #itsmybirthday #imallowedtomasukbakulangkatsendiri

Zayana wants my crown....

Tak dapat lah beb!

--

Since this is long enough as it is, I shall continue with 23.4 in another blog post!

xx, A

May The Force Be With You

After finally getting updated with the Star Wars movie episodes, I finally can say I've completed my "training". Hehehe. 

I am actually quite happy that I watched all the 6 movies before watching the 7th one today because I swear if anybody was watching at the same time as me, I was the girl that went "UUUUUUU its the Millenium Falcon!".. Sorry! And I can now talk Star Wars with Zawir, at one point he jokingly joked that he can't date me cause I don't know Star Wars.... 

On the way to the movie, I asked him,

Me: So can you date me now since I've watched Star Wars?

Him: No, you still haven't watched Lord of the Rings

Me: Ya Allah.... May God have mercy on my soul!

 After the movie I had to rush home as my family just arrived from completing their Umrah (need to get blessings so God have mercy on my soul and I don't have to watch LoTR you see :P I kid!), I got a Quiz Up invitation (something I've not gotten since like my 2nd/3rd year of Uni, while we were still on LDR, which I highly recommend for couples on LDR. It's one of the activities you can do together and makes you feel closer to each other)

#bringitonbuddy

And after 10 questions...

..

.....

.......

.....

...

Ada abang tuh tak puas hati.. :p Hehehe!

Of course I won the second round too *polish nails*

THE FORCE IS WITH ME Y'ALL!

Skywalkers

Guess who is finally up to date with the entire Star War episodes?! 

ME!

After almost 9 months(?) I finally finished all 6 episodes. Hehe. 

I finished the prequel trilogy while I was in Brighton visiting Zoe because of jet-lag. Today, because I've been so busy since Christmas Eve, I decided that this Sunday shall be pyjamas-Sunday (no-pants-Sunday is a bit too "descriptive" in my opinion).. So since I've got time to kill today, I've decided last night (before I slept) that I shall watch Episode 5 (first movie of the original trilogy) and see if I like it before committing to it. 

And I actually liked it. Though I am not going to lie that it was a bit slow for my liking, but you know, this movie was made ages before I was even born.. Things were much slower in those days I guess. 

It was actually intriguing cause now I know who is Darth Vader and I am so excited to see how he reveals himself to his son and what does he feel when he finally meets his son.. 

Fun Fact: I first knew about the great Star Wars spoilers thanks to Toy Story Two when (Emperor) Zurg told Buzz (Lightyear) that he was Buzz's father. Before that, Darth Vader who? 

Anyways, while I had to run quick errands today, I let Episode 5 and 6 download and once I was done with the errands, I stayed pun in my room til I was done with the other two movies and now I'm here! 

AND OMG.... So much feelssssssssss. 

Even after the 5th movie I was already feeling sad after Vader finally reveals himself :'( Haih, all this could've been avoided if Obi Wan didn't show up when Padme was coaxing Anakin. One simple misunderstanding and now the family is torn apart for years :'(

#FEELSOVERLOAD

And then Episode 6 ended and I basically teared guys. This supposedly "epic" Bollywood love story (Bajirao Mastani) couldn't even make me feel anything but Star Wars made me cry. 

*please be warned the next paragraphs contain spoilers for those who have no watched Star Wars yet, if any*

It's so unfortunate lah, Anakin was born without a father and was a slave child. Then he lost his mother and he thought his wife betrayed him when he only want to protect her from losing her life during childbirth, and then he basically lost most of his physical body function and has to wear some ugly metal armour with even uglier headgear, on top of all that he thinks he killed his wife and his unborn child (i.e did not know she had twins!)

Then come his children, born without a father or mother and basically stuck in a sand desert. He finally meets a girl who is actually his sister whom she had a crush one when they first met and kissed! Then he found out this entire time the person the entire universe is fighting against is actually his own father, not only that, just moments before he found out, his own father cut off his hand..

Nothing sad to go on about Leia because she basically grew up a princess and well she has all her original limbs, but still, must be sad to remember your own mother as someone who was always sad.. 

So unfortunate lah these Skywalkers! Haih

But so happy that finally Anakin gets to redeem himself and well, he's all handsome again! Hehe