Meet the King of Fruits

It has been a while (loooooonnngggg time) since we last went to pasar malam (aka the night food festival). I guess it was about 7-8 years ago. We visited pasar malam yesterday at SS2 and the place was soooo crowded. They sell almost anything, food, jewelleries, bags, cakes and so forth at a bargained prices.

Of course, the guys didn't waste any time in getting their hands dirty on the king of fruits, Durian.




According to them, they bought the D24 durian aka the bestest Durian - from Pahang. Unlucky me didn't really enjoy the Durian or else I will be enjoying them myself too....wahaha.....not sure why but I would vomit whenever I taste it. Now the whole car, room and everyone's mouth except AJ and me are full of Durian smell. The smell gonna lasts for days I bet. Even chewing gum won't help. =.=

On a completeeely unrelated note, ever wonder how my beloved sis-in-law, Alice and Mr Wong sleep? Here's the answer of your puzzle.



Ciao...Marge

Home sweet home...

Apologies everyone. I haven't been able to update you guys of my well-being so far even reassuring you guys that we've arrived to our homeland at last. Reason being we're busy doing the chores and settling here at the same time and I hardly touched Alice's computer.

Anyway, we're back home...woohoo

We were totally 200% exhausted...very very exhausted. We took the train on Thursday morning last week to go to London from Plymouth and it took us 5 hours to reach London. Fortunately AJ took his nap while in the train giving us some peaceful time. When he was up, he was nearly incontrollable for he, just like any other children of same age, loves to explore and go anywhere when he's mobile. Fortunately, it only happened when we nearly arrived at London.

We had a lot of luggages to bring with us. 2 too over huge to check-in then 3 by hand carry. Poor hubby had to carry the luggage by himself. Thankfully the Paddington station has the left luggage section allowing us to temporarily leave our luggages guarded at a small fee. Then we headed to the China town to feed our extremely desirious stomach. Misato, yes! I had my favorite, the pork ginger bento while hubby had his chicken bento. It's lovely as ever...aww....
with Teck Young at the Plymouth railway station. See you back in Malaysia, Teck Young!
in the train....singing to AJ
obviously he hates it. I have a lousy voice
then he suggested that I should be keep quiet =.=
the ocean view I always enjoyed when I travelled to London via train
some quiet time myself...ahhh
hubby playing nintendo game
AJ poking from behind
in the tube, he had to hold on to the train pole as well. =="
at the covent garden...AJ didn't look very pleased
Around 5-ish, we went to the airport using the Heathrow express, 15 minutes journey from London Paddington. Very convenient indeed especially when we have so many luggages with us. We checked in early with no complications but only to find out that our trouble started the moment we boarded into the plane.
T.G.I. Fridays in the Heathrow airport
hubby: don't piss with me mate
the only family photo in Heathrow

The plane was so packed and AJ was crying every few hours due to the over-small-size basinet he had to squeeze in sleeping like a prawn and he couldn't turn around freely he used to be on the bed. He was really tired, really uncomfy and sleepy but couldn't go to sleep so he only had a few hours sleep. I couldn't either T.T I think I only managed to sleep for about 3 hours in total. T.T

I was extremely relieved to find out that our plane landed early. The end of the torture. haih.....finally!!!

Anyway, it's good to be home at last but it's extremely HOT HOT HOT HOT here. No jokes. Really hot I tell you. We were sweating all over. AJ's only wearing singlet just nappy no pant during the day. But it's really good to be home at last with families (Mr Wong, Alice) & friends around in KL.

Home sweet home...at last



Ciao...Marge

Last Wednesday in Plymouth

This is my last post for the "Last". 7 post in a row for a week. I felt quite OK to be honest but I need to be free enough to allocate time to blog. Sometimes I felt I have nothing to blog about. But anyway, I did it successfully on the account of I'm not working having some spare time to blog. Hope you're not too bored, everyone...

Hubby and I are soooo addicted with the Nintendo DS Brain Training game lately. We're competing against each other indirectly! and guess what? I managed to sharpen my brain into 28 years which is good while hubby deteriotes to 40. muahaha...but I think you have to be sharp to play the game in order to get good result. It's a good brain training though. I enjoyed the maths part & Sudoku. I can imagine that we'll be rowing over the DS in the plane tomorrow.

Yeap tonight is my last night in Plymouth. To be honest, I thought I would be settling here in Plymouth for good. It never came across to my mind that I’ll be moving back home. I first came here with hubby in 2003 as a student and I had to learn English from the beginning as the accent here is different. Now, not only 2 but 3 of us are moving back to Malaysia starting fresh.

Anyway, there’s one last thing I want to do before leaving UK. A delicious meal in Misato yum yum...the renowned Japanese restaurant in London China Town. The meals there are always very lovely and there are always long queues at peak hours. We would never miss it whenever we go to London. And we’re going to go there for a late lunch before heading to the airport tomorrow. Yipee!!!

Then to Convent Garden which I always missed at each London visits. I heard that it is famous with funny performances all day and I’m looking forward to watching it myself. with AJ and hubby.

T____T

Bye bye friends

Bye bye WMS

Bye bye Plymouth

Bye bye London

Bye bye England

I miss you all and hope to see you soon....

Malaysia here I come! Here we come. The new challenging risky yet exciting life begins...

First a long haul flight. T.T


Ciao...Marge

Last Tuesday in Plymouth

Hello again....I hope you guys are not bored with my every day "Last" posts since Thursday last week talking about what have I been doing that day. Are you? Don't worry if it is for it will be stop by tomorrow. I was wondering how much can I blog if I do it everyday. I'll tell you the summary on the last "last" entry, which is due on tomorrow. At the mo, feel free to leave your comments on the 7 continous last "Last" entries, even if it is not good.

Well, as mentioned from previous entry, I went to my company with AJ. AJ was very naughty and he kept lying down on the carpet for no reason at all. Prolly he likes green eh? He was shy at first meeting my colleagues but within the next few minutes he was running around like it is his playground! Imagine that there's a person less than 1 metre tall running around shouting, sneaking under the table, climbing up the chair and stealing whatever he can steal. =.= I had to run around catching him. Gosh...

3 of us were due to meet Ritchie near to his flat and we're passing by Rudy's car and I was surprised to hear Rudy's car engine was on! I thought, OMG is that a thief trying to steal Rudy's car. I quickly nudged hubby to be prepared just in case. Rest assured it was just Ritchie warming up the car to prevent it getting rusty. He was waving from inside. Phew....

We had lunch again at Weatherspoon, not the same one we had few days ago. This time it's in Barbican. I had the beef burger Gourmet...wah...it was so delicious. Even better than BK, McD or KFC. I love the cheese. Love it! Love it! I believe this should be available at most Weatherspoon and I believe you should give it a try if you happened to come across.

I know it's the annual Britain firework championship tonight and tomorrow and it has just started right at this moment. I had to missed it. What else? Packing. Why this packing never ends? T.T I had to weigh the luggage to check how much it was overweight then unzip the luggage taking the heaving stuff / clothes out and redo the same thing again. T.T It's too heavy and I don't understand where is the weight coming from. I hate packing coz I need to make sure it's not too heavy to prevent extra charges and also complaints from hubby. Hubby would go bleh bleh bleh..neh neh neh...da da da...unstop like my nana.

Anyway, I managed to get it balance now by taking most of my clothes & shoes out. I need to get new clothes & shoes once I reach KL or wear Alice's temporarily. Hopefully I can fit in her clothes well without breaking them. Plus, my clothes are quite old already so it's probably a good time for me to get new ones in. It's on hubby anyway..muahaha *evil grin*

Oh yeah, we saw some lovely cakes from a new cake shop in the town today. Mr Buns. It sounds like a Chinese bun shop but it's not. I saw lots of people coming in and out so I thought I might as well give it a try. The cakes looks soo lovely.
One word. Ptuik! AJ didn't enjoy it as well. He totally rejects it after the first bite. Same goes to Hubby. In the bin they go. It's toooooo sugary...like having zillions sweets at the same time.



Here're some of the photos taken today & yesterday....
AJ found this way very comfy
boss?!?!
with Ritchie

p.s. 2 days left


Ciao...Marge

Last Monday in Plymouth & Pre-Tuesday

Morning :0) & Sorry T.T I was too tired to blog what I did yesterday. Was busy packing packing and packing and tidying up things while taking care of AJ.

Boefre I continue, please allow me to take a few moments to pass on my message to my beloved friends below (in no particular order)...

Eunice Lau - my ex-housemate in KL

Joy Yii - my school friend's sister

Mr Wong - my sister-in-law's bf

Kayianna Jess Hung - a friend we knew here in university

Josephine Lee - my college friend

Girls and 1 guy, I wish you all blessed with many many happy return. Happy Birthday! I miss you all a lots......and we shall meet again soon.

***

Right, what did we do yesterday? We went out to celebrate Brandon, Ken's son who turned 3 yesterday. We had the birthday lunch at Noddles lounge and the meals were very nice. Thanks Ken! We returned to his house for the birthday cake. The cake is lovely too. Unfortunately, the photos are all in Cheryl's (Ken's wife) camera. But that's not the important thing. The important thing is I wish you, Brandon many many happiness and wish you all your dream come true. I see you back soon. Love you guys lotsa.

Then we headed home for more packing. And oh oh oh, we watched Ponyo, a Japanese animated cartoon movie. It's full of magical fantasy loveeeeeee story and I love the ending. I love the ponyo name. It really is a cute name. You should watch it too.

AJ is watching the Bolt 3D animated movie while I'm writing this post and AJ found it very funny. He was laughing on some of the cute actions when I don't think it's funny. But I think it's the cute actions that the animals (Bolt the dog and the hamster) made AJ non-stop laughing. Cute AJ~~~ I shall let AJ watch it to keep him entertain.

Next...out to see my ex-colleagues and lunch with Richie (Rudy's bro, Rudy our friend not Rudy the croco-nasour in Ice-Age4). Later...

p.s. 2 days left. oh....getting very excited...

Ciao...Marge

Last Sunday in Plymouth

Today, yet another sunny and lovely family day. We went out to Seafood and Pasta Bar, the famous seafood meals with Teck Young. The restaurant is located in Barbican and we know it tends to be full house on peak hours especially on sunny & dry day. Thumbs up on the food and service.

hubby's steak with seafood
my seafood basket
Teck Young's famous Spanish rice

At home, camwhoring with my prince on
Black & White
Sephia
Both of them are nice and I can't decide which one is better. What do you think?

p..s 4 days left

Ciao...Marge

Last Saturday in Plymouth

I did some packing preparing for our one-way trip back to Malaysia in OMG can't believe it, it's not far now or in other words very near now...haha...i'm just being annoying...in 5 days. Woot! I'm looking forward to it but feeling sad at the same time to leave Plymouth which I have been living for the past 6 years and WMS which I have been working with for the past 3 years. T.T This is the place where I graduated, secured my first job and gave birth to AJ. T_____T

Yes, where was I? packing..ahhh....I did some packing ok..I am not going to repeat the purpose of the packing anymore else I'll be repeating the same paragraph over and over again. =.= and I found a nintendo hubby bought for me last Christmas in the luggage. It's the nintendo DS lite limited edition with guitar hero version. So, I took it out and I thought it should be made to full use not collecting dust. I haven't touch it since after my CNY holiday. Since I'm so free apart from the need to care AJ full time, I could play the nintendo game at my free time.

So, I had it charged yesterday before I went to bed and started playing the brain training game this morning. Last time I checked when I first played the brain training was about 4-5 months ago, my brain age was 80. =.= I remembered that time my response was so slow that hubby laughed at me at the result. ==" I know you're laughing as well. Don't deny it! I started playing it again this morning and guess what...woot! 46! My brain age is now 46. At least it's better than 80.

Hubby took a test as well and his brain age is 54. wahaha...at least i'm better. muahaha....Now I need to train more to exercise my brain to be 27 or less!! Whoosh!

We stayed at home today. It's another good day just like yesterday. But we're taking a break. Oh, don't get me wrong. We live not far away from the town but it requires a lot of effort to push AJ's pushchair climbing up the hill...it's very tiring I admit. I had to catch up my breath whenever we reach to the top. It's not easy you know. I'm getting old already. =.= So we took a good rest at home today apart from taking AJ out for a short walk around where we lived this morning.

Oh yeah, Ken and his family came over today. His daughter already can crawl and stand up on supports and she's only 8 months old! Amazing isn't it? AJ only started to crawl at around 9 months but I heard that girls tend to pick up things faster than boys. She's a cutie and I'm sooo jealous of her really fair skin...Brandon the eldest child is turning 3 on the coming Monday and we're going out to celebrate. It's gonna be fun! I'm looking forward to it!

p.s. 5 days left.

Ciao...Marge

Last Friday in Plymouth

Yeap, another sunny day today. We didn't do much but went down to town again. hehe...

Lunch: I had 8oz sirloin steak at Weatherspoon while hubby had the gammon steak. AJ had lunch at home before we went out so he had a few peas and potatoes. My steak was well done alright but too stiff. My teeth hurt a bit after the meal. T.T Hubby's steak was too salty. Not a really good meal.

While waiting for food, we took some pictures. AJ just woke up and still a bit blur in the photos.
pardon my plain-no-make-up face
family photo
look at mummy opps... the camera!
one...two...
three
AJ sure loves this sofa

Went back home after lunch and collecting the free photo from Debenhams since we don't have anything else to do.

Dinner: Home-cooked meals. Rice with 2 meat dishes and a plate of pak choi. Didn't finish them as I cooked too much. Bad estimation. =.=

Supper: Vanilla ice-cream...yum yum.

Oh dear, from just looking at the photos and by just reading what I've just typed, I am not eating healthily, am I? Not to forget, I will be eating like a pig when I get back home. I need to watch out my eating else I will just get back to my post-pregnancy body again. T.T But I'll enjoy first....haha

Anyway, it's again another lovely day today. Been packing little by little at home.

Not sure what to do tomorrow but if the day is good, I'll probably go to the playground in Central Park, not the one in Beaumont Park although I prefer the Beaumont Park. Update you guys our tomorrow's activities.

And oh oh oh, here are some photos taken yesterday and the day before.
that's the purpose of bebe
AJ's sweetest smile of the day
playing with the see-saw. Look at my round face

p.s. 6 days left. Woot....


Ciao...Marge

Last Thursday in Plymouth

Weeks of raining had left us, the Plymouthian, feeling odd. It was supposed to be hot & sunny August, not raining August. =.= However, our prayers have been answered. After weeks of waiting to see Mr. Sun, he finally came out. Actually it arrives at the right time. Just the day after my last working day. At least we get to spend the last few days in Plymouth with sunny & warm weather leaving us memorable days.

We hit to the town today. Hubby carried a really heavy speaker system (5 speakers and 1 one subwoofer) with the hope to be able to sell it at the second hand shop down the town. We bought it online at offer price £35. I expect for £5 only considering the fact that it's 4 years old already. and guess what? We got it for £10! £10! £10!

Not much but at least we got something back to buy something else. haha...happy happy.

Then we went to Drake Circus for lunch and shopping. Beaumont park next where Alice, AJ and I went there around this time last year. It has a kid playground and AJ loved it there so much that he played everything there - the slide, swing, see-saw and trampoline. It's much more fun there compared to Central Park. He loves the trampoline especially and would run back for a jump or more.

Because the Beaumont park is located quite far away from where we live plus the walk around the town up and down spent beforehand, I had to take a short nap when we reach home. No stamina already after jumping on the trampoline with AJ. And oh oh oh, to my surprise, AJ sleep early today. He must have used all his energy at the playground today.

What a lovely day.

p.s. 7 days to go. Woot!!!


Ciao...Marge

To you, for you, In favour of WMS

Allow me to dedicate this post to WMS.

Dear WMS,

To all my adored colleagues and beloved company Western Mortgage Services (WMS) I would like to take this opportunity to express my greatest appreciation to you.

Right, I joined WMS on 26/05/2006, I have learned a lot be it from working experience or social life. I was the only Malaysian and Chinese in WMS and because of that everyone in the company knows me. And still is. =.=

Let me describe my experience at the interview time with WMS. It was a few weeks before my final year exam and I was excited but I considered myself lucky to be short listed for being a foreigner in UK. The interview went quite well. I brought the certificates and transcripts along with me on that day but I forgot to show the documents to them! How forgetful I was! The file was brought there with me and left unopened until I reach home. I thought “I’m dead. No hope this time. Not a single chance!”. But surprisingly, I received a call the next few days and YES! I’ve been offered. Whoosh! I’m so proud of myself for being able to secure a job before I graduate.

I still remembered I was pretty nervous on my first day. I went to the HR department and had some introduction with Health and Safety training, working policy, IT policy, bla bla bla. Then I met my then manager who interviewed me previously. The meeting took place in a small meeting room. And when I tried to stand up to follow him to the IT department, the table suddenly fell down! The legs came off from the table surface and off it went down. OMG, I was sooooo embarrassed you know. I didn’t expect something like this happened. On my first day wor.

Anyway, I had to learn a new development tool called Magic, which WMS acquired since 1999 from day one and which I don’t have a clue about it from my university education! It’s not a programming language but it’s a tool (something similar to Microsoft Access) with a mixture of programming concept which WMS use for in-house systems. It was pretty difficult at first but with the help of Gary, my then mentor now my team leader, I took it quite well. Whoosh!

I don’t like to be sitting in the office doing nothing so I always came up to Gary asking for more jobs. Haha For a period, I think Gary got really scared of me whenever he saw me coming. I was known to him and the other team leaders from the same department as Maggs the machine. T.T Because I completed the assigned tasks so quickly that these really amazed them and Gary knew that he had to find a new project for me not long after he gave me one. I didn’t realised that myself until they told me a few months ago.

So within months I was able to get involved with more challenging projects, which I admit a lot of experience gained from there. Personally I enjoyed working with WMS. I didn’t felt that I was discriminated or bullied and mix well with the colleague at work. The most important thing of all I think my English has improved working with WMS. I went from only speak out only on project related stuff to jokes with my colleagues. Sometimes they do tease me for not speaking English properly, but I don’t really take note of it because nah…I can’t be bothered.

Seriously, WMS is a good company to work for. I enjoyed the benefits provided from WMS. 26 paid annual leave, compressed working hours from five days to four days a week, 9 months paid maternity leave, paid sick leave and a small funding over getting a new spectacles and lots more, what else can I ask for? I would certainly recommend anyone to work with WMS. It's the best company I enjoyed. If not, I won't stay there for 3 years!

However due to family reasons, hubby and me along with the support from AJ, we decided to move back for Malaysia starting fresh so that we could be together as one whole real family. At least we are not separated too far away compared to thousand miles away in UK which can be reachable, huggable, touchable after 13 hours flight from London to KL plus the 4 hours train to Plymouth, 1 hour drive from SIbu airport to Sarikei also not mentioning the waiting hours in between in the airports. T.T

Today is my last day and to my surprise, they even decorate my table today and giving me farewell gifts. They are so lovely, weren’t they? I was so emo when they gave me the pressies and cried. *sob sob* They made me sad to leave. Anyway, we had the leaving buffet lunch at the Buffet city restaurant which was good.
My new badge - wore it for 2 days
Sophie was frustrated with KFI stuff. Oh no, I think she's going to hate me for leaving KFI to her
What is she doing there so close with me posing with that wicked smile?
Meet Beaks
Two lovely ladies from the team
Meet the systems team

Tom Fisher sat next to me...love his company lots!!!
Sophie posing again =.=
Stacey Clare and Paul Davison from the New Business team who I work very closely with at my service with WMS
my desk
Sophie again. She loves posing in the camera...bless~~~
The hand gesture....still trying to figure what are they doing
Pressies I got from the team...thanks guys
The WMS badge which you only get it for your 5 / 10 years service but I only served just 3. Really appreciate it!
AJ reading the card
and playing with the big card

last but not least, flowers.....

T___________________T

T___________T


I know I’ll be missing you forever. I know I’ll be missing walking from my home to the building every morning. I love you people! I love you WMS! I love systems department! I love you lots. Muacks! Muacks! Muacks!

p.s. 9 days left. Can’t believe it! We’re flying next Thursday.


Ciao...Marge