Birthday Celebrations

I celebrated my MILESTONE birthday on 20th October 2012, ahead of my actual birthday which is on the 25th October.  I'll be celebrating my real birthday with PrincessBling in U S of A!  We've already booked us a Steak dinner at a steakhouse that is walking distance from her place, and coincidentally is on the same block as my old apartment!

Dinner was held at Toms Restaurant, which is one of the better Western Cafes in Kuching.. Dinner started at 7.00pm, with the last guest arriving at 7.30pm (fashionably late eh? :p) and the menu consisted of 
1) Appetizer - Cream of Asparagus Soup
2) Entree - Mushroom salad
3) Main course - Lamb chop, ribeye steak or grilled Salmon
4) Dessert - Chocolate LARVA cake (add an 'E' and that would be a rather interesting cake)

I got my hair done at Richard and Iris at The Spring and I totally love the perm that I got.. gave me awesome curls man.  Got home and started the painstaking process to prettify myself.. in other words.. GET MY PRETTY ON!  I decided to go with a Karen Millen dress which I wore for 2011 Chinese New Year.. which golly.. still fits!  A tiny bit snug though.. but it FITS!  Pair it with my red Stewart Weiztmen shoes with the bow and my outfit was complete.  Pile on the falsies and makeup.. and I am readay to partay!

Don't cha love the curls?

I decided on brown and gold eyeshadow, paired with pink lipstick (one of very FEW lipsticks that I have unfortunately) and painted my nails shimmery pink, which I totally love.. yay to SASA for last minute bargains!  Put on my brown/pink blush and drew my eyebrows and off I go.. I wanted to carry my gold clutch, but it was so small it wouldn't even fit my car keys, which I thought would be rather dangerous incase I lost it.. so I changed to my Louis Vuitton clutch bag.

I reached Toms at exactly 7pm, just before the rain came in.  The decoration of the place was awesome.. with 2 tables of 14 and 12 (26 guests) and there were draping on the ceiling (although I suspect that it's a permanent fixture there.. rather than just done for my party).. oh by the way, the party was held upstairs in Toms, private functions only!

Here's a few pictures of my friends who came to the party dressed in 'Cocktail' style
 

Sorry for the photo bombarding.. hahaha.. that's just all my friends who showed up at the party.  Dinner went without a hitch.. although I did wonder why everyone came with a Pandora gift for me.. it's a conspiracy!!!  HAHAHAHA.. but my darling friends all bought me a charm bracelet, with Phoebe and Sean buying me the bracelet to start the charms.. here's what I got:
1) Fleur De Lis
2) Fairy
3) Hedgehog
4) Crown
5) Dolphin
6) Suitcase
It was gorgeous.. thanks guys for them.

Love to my parents for having me (and paying for the party!).. I love them to bits and I'm forever grateful to them for everything that they've given me, and for loving me through the hell I've put them through - from angry teen to depressed adult.. 

Dinner was done at 9.30pm.. and we proceeded to KBox at the Spring for a night of karaoke fun!

Ahhh.. what a great way to usher in my birthday... thanks heap everyone for attending and making me feel special!
 

Baby Ashton Ting

At 9.27am on the 17th October 2012, we welcomed baby Ashton Ting into the world.  He came into the world peeing and crying (according to my sister)..

Isn't he adorable?  He looks just like a mix between Samantha and Tyler, with my dad's nose.. hahaha.. he inherited the Ling nose :P

He's a hefty one, weighing in at 3.62kgs, and he's opened his eyes by evening time, giving everyone there a suspicious look :)

This is my first encounter with a newborn baby.. I only saw Ashley when she was 4 months old, Samantha when she was one month old, and Tyler when he was one years old!  I came back from Sydney for his birthday, where a seriously cute Samantha (then 2 years old) came up to me and said "I have a present for you, but it's at home".. ahh.. her very first lie to me.  hahaha.. just kidding.. I'm surprise she even spoke to me.. having not seen me since she was one?  I certainly don't remember her as a child.. then again, I don't remember all of them as a baby.. ahhhh this memory of mine.  Too much alcohol I tell you :P

Anyway, don't think I'll dare carry Ashton because he's so tiny and fragile.. I'm afraid that I would make him uncomfortable and he'll squirm and drop out of my hands or something as drastic as that.. I hope to bond with this kid, and I'm sure I will not spoil him.. but I'm definitely going to be one of the best aunts out there :)

Congratulations Chia and Johnny.. welcome to baby no 4.. Ashton Ting.

Bitch and Moan...

I'm bored at work.. been a fruitful morning and I feel that I got my daily tasks done .. so I'm stuck here with nothing to do for now.. I could find something to do I guess..

But I'm gonna bitch here before I find other work to do.. hahaha.. I'm having trouble registering Activate as a business name... namely because the head Encik Iskander will not approve anything with the name 'Activate' in it.. so cross out Activate Lifestyle Corner as well.. frankly, I think he just wants to save the name for his own venture.. because they said "there's alot of Active out there already" (as in business names).. but google it dude.. there's NOTHING in Kuching.  Suspicious isn't it?

Anyway, I've engaged an accounting firm to help me with getting the license, and they are SLOW.. they send their office boy to be the runner and he goes out for the ENTIRE day.. so I don't get news on whether it's approved until end of the day, which by then I can't do anything until the next day.. which means another day is gone and wasted.. I KNOW from personal experience that it does NOT take that long to seek name approval.. in fact.. I did it myself yesterday and it took me 10 minutes!  I was so flustered when they didn't approve Activate that I blurted out "how about my name".. thinking I'll just register my name.. not knowing they registered it with "Lisa Ling Mei Sing Cafe".. sigh.. so I'm definitely not going to use that.. so I've relied back on the accounting firm to get it done.  I'm now looking to register Lisa and Company Trading and use Activate as my Trading Name.  

Why do I have to register a business?  So I can get suppliers to supply me things at wholesale rates!  And I would need a license to get Gatorade to put in fridge and supply me drink in my kiosk.. not to mention, it's illegal not to register the business.. hahaha

It's such a tedious process I'm finding.. first you have to find out if the name is registered, then after they approve your name, you need to get a chop with your address on it, the fill in the form, send it to them, they process it, and then you come and sign the business registration from and tadah..it's finally yours.. let's just say... 8 MORE DAYS TIL I LEAVE FOR USA!!! so it'll have to be done before so I can sign the sheet.. my partner is my sister and she'll be in confinement in 3 days, so no way will she be able to sign it.  

Calling the accountant every hour on the hour to see if their office boy is back.  The office closes at 3.30pm (slackers) so he definitely have to be back after that.. oh well, we'll see if the new name gets approved...
 

9 More Days to Go!!!

Yups, 9 more days to go til I fly off to San Francisco!  I'm so excited.. it hasn't actually dawned on me until the weekend that I'm flying off next week.. I thought I still had like 3 weeks to go or something.. I'm telling ya, time just flew by this year.. it's coming to the end of the year and next thing you know, it'll be 2013!!  And you know what's coming up soon?  MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!  ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.... I'm not going to write down my age though.. but lets just say it's the dawn of a new era.. sigh.. 

What will I be doing?  PrincessBling and I have discussed it and we've booked dinner for ourselves at a Steakhouse that's near to her place.. dinner will be intimate, just her, me and her hubby (I think).. but for my Kuching peeps who will not be there to celebrate the day with us, I've organized a sit down dinner at Toms followed by a night of Karaoke!   I've decided to come up with a set menu of:
1) Appetizer - Cream of Mushroom or Caesar Salad
2) Main Course - Fish, Lamb chop or Ribeye steak
3) Dessert - Chocolate Lava Cake
Accompanied by alcohol.. wine preferably.. as it's a fancy dinner.. I figured a quiet one would suit, and I don't feel like celebrating this milestone with a huge bang.. just quietly usher it in.. hahaha.. but then again, Karaoke will make it a night to remember.. 
Currently I have a list of 20 people who will be coming to dinner.  I'm wondering if I should give out goodie bags?

Here's the things that I have achieved this year:

1. .... can't think of anything

Well isn't that great? Hahaha.. actually, the biggest achievement this year that is still to come is the opening of Activate Lifestyle Corner on 1st December 2012 (tentatively).. the renovation works for the gym is delayed so I might just be in time for the opening of the gym!  Other things I've done this year (notice the switch from achieved to done...)

1. Went to America again and excelled at snowboarding with no fear
2. Went to Greece, which is a dream of mine
3. Went to Japan on a free trip
4. Ran 10km to complete the marathon in less than 2 hours without any practice or training prior
5. Ran 5km in the Spring Marathon
6. Attended the Tatler Ball
7. Appeared in Tatler Magazine 3 times!
8. Going back to America for the final time
9. Became gym-going after a 4 year self-imposed ban :)
10. Started a blog

Seems short, but a lifetime of memories :)
And now I'll be going on another 10km marathon on 2nd December in Singapore, in one of the biggest marathons organized yearly by Standard Chartered.  Boy am I looking forward to that.. will continue my training in San Francisco, with PrincessBling being my motivator...

I do not plan to put on anymore weight in San Francisco, so the gym is a must do.. no gym = no pig out.. that's all I can say :)

As for our Steak Dinner.. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes...

I can't wait to go!!!!!!!!!!!!  9 more days....

Arachnophobia....

The extreme fear of spiders... Yes, unfortunately, I have this intense fear of spiders.. they're gross..they're creepy crawlies and they look sinister, and one can have me dashing out of the room to find mosquito spray to zap them away.

I'm not going to be posting up any pictures of spiders on my blog.. as I don't want disgusting things to be featured on my blog.. and I'm definitely not going to scare myself sourcing for pictures of spiders.. and scare you readers into reading my blog!  But I have a tale to tell...

I was contemplating wearing a Zara dress for the wedding dinner I had to attend last night.  The dress was hanging at the back of my bathroom door since I last wore it to Keith's birthday party on the 21st September 2012.  The dress was inside out (yes, I am that slack) so turning it back to the right way, I notice a white mark (about the size of a 50 cent coin).. wondering what it was.. I took a closer look and realised that it was a spider's nest!  On even closer inspection, I realise that a spider was LIVING IN THERE... with what I can only describe as eggs/larvae.. because it was CRAWLING!! OMG OMG OMG.. I've never been so freaked out in my life.. I threw the dress into the sink and turn the water to maximum HOT.. and flushed out the spider.. watching with satisfaction as it went down the sink hole.. then I ran the eggs/larvae under the hot water and hopefully it died a painful death.. then I threw the dress on the floor and ran out the bathroom.. I don't think I ever want to wear that dress ever again!

I remember always having this fear of spiders.. when we were young.. PrincessBling, AlanHarperIsMyIdol, CryptKeeper and I used to play on tree tops (sorta like a mini tree house we built) and one day, we saw this TINY spider on the tree trunk and it sent us scrambling down the tree in 5 seconds.. needless to say, that was the last time we ever played on that tree.. 

There was also that time when we were watching the movie Arachnophobia.. yeah yeah.. why would I watch a movie about something so disgusting.. well..it was interesting.. haha.. and I totally recalled screaming out loud when the spider jumped on the girl who was taking a shower.. 

And then there was this newsarticle about a lady who had a spider living in her ear for 5 days before finally seeking treatment for 'itchiness'.. they took a picture of it in her ear.. and all I saw were the sinister looking 8 set of eyes.. (or was it four?) ANYWAY... it was DISGUSTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I hope to never be in that position EVER!

YUCKS... I hate spiders...

Sorry to all the spider lovers out there.. but my intense fear and hatred of them has prompted me to speak out! hahaha

Now What....

That's right.. now what?  Now that Tatler Ball is over, do I go back to over-indulging in food and laziness again?  After all, there is no more goal in sight.. no more dress that I need to fit in.. 

GASP.. of course it's not over with the gym.. there's many more goals to attain..  firstly.. how about to get that body of a Goddess?  I realise now that even though the weight loss is not reflected on the scale.. yes.. I still weigh myself twice a day.. it's reflected in the overall appearance.. for one.. you look extremely tone.. all the fats are turned to muscle and you are much much trimmer.. and never forget.. MUSCLE IS HEAVIER THAN FAT!   So I'm hoping that in the last month, I'm building muscle rather than losing fat.  Cos if it was just losing fat, it creeps back easily.. trust me.. I lost fat last year and it all came gushing back after a trip to USA and Japan!

I therefore, pledge to continue working out at the gym.. with an average loss of 600 Kcals per session.  I vow to continue gymming in USA with PrincessBling, as to not overindulge and put on tons of weight like I did at the beginning of the year.

As for now what... OMG.. so many things coming up!

I just had a meeting with Permanis Sandilands, the distributor of Pepsi products such as Gatorade, Bleu water, Revive Isotonic..  Basically, we set up a contract that has me commit my juice bar to his store and stock only his products.. (he wanted me to stock Twister fruit juices, until I told him that I'm doing fresh juices!).. and he provides me with a fridge and the drinks on a 30 day credit term.  This is so exciting.. it's all coming together.. 

Now I just have to get my business registered.. apparently, IRD (inland revenue department) feels that my name 'Activate!' doesn't make sense.  Must it make sense?  And besides, I thought it was totally fitting as a gym store.. hopefully they will come to their senses and approve the name.  I'm going to register a partnership with my sister.  From there, things will be moving fast.. as I now only have 15 days (2 weeks! Ekkk!) before I fly off to USA.. that means I need to get things sorted out NOW.. better get that fridge in and find out where the renovation is at and whether I can move in my stuff now.. 

Oh yeah.. and there's the coffee maker as well.. and the freezer..  so much to do.. so little time to do it..

Tatler Ball presents......

ME!  Hahaha yes.. the Tatler Ball had finally occurred.. and I had a Ball (no pun intended) at the Ball.. what I love most about the Ball is dressing up.. like it's a transformation from plain to wonderful.. in an instant.. you look gorgeous behind the thick wall of makeup (okay.. not being humble here.. but I needed little makeup :P)...

Let's start with the flight to KL.. my flight was at 4.05pm.. and at 3.30pm.. the heaviest downpour that I've seen lately decided to pay us a visit.. visibility was down to 0 meters and in the brief occasions where I could see through the rain.. I swear the runway was getting flooded.. all I could see were waves of water on the runway as the wind howled.. needless to say.. all flights were grounded.. time for take off went from 5.40pm to 5.50pm to 6.30pm til 7.50pm.. until we finally took off at 8.20pm.. yes.. I was stuck in the airport for 4 hours! Thank goodness for Golden Lounge (yay Gold Enrich membership card!) so I was able to sit comfortably on couches while waiting for the flight to take off.. why the huge delay? Well, the safety landing system got struck by lightning and was down for 2 and a half hours.. so all flights were diverted to Sibu as no planes could land in Kuching.. so when it's finally fixed, we had to wait for flights to come in from Sibu.  By the time I got to KL, I was looking washed out (and a zit decided to pop out on my chin!) and so exhausted that all thoughts of room service and pampering myself went out the window.. by the time I got to ShangriLa hotel, I was spent.. took a shower and went to bed .. which by that time was 12am already...

Woke up at 9am on Saturday (wow, how nice was it to sleep in!) and decided to treat myself to a RM76 buffet breakfast.  After paying and viewing the food selection, I was sorely disappointed.. I wanted the Western selection, but it was so focused on Asian (who eats roast duck for breakfast?) and Indian (vegetarian for breakfast??) that the only thing Western they had were sausages and bake beans, and a small amount of beef bacon.. I headed for the carbs section (bread bread bread galore) and pigged out on buns and croissants.. before realizing that I shouldn't binge and put on weight before the night as the dress just might not fit.. so I bet I ate like RM15 worth of breakfast only.. what a waste..

Then I jumped in a cab to MidValley to check out their Cuisinart selection (there were none.. stupid website lied) and decided to get an upper lip wax.. but had to wait 2 hours before my appointment, so I walked and walked and walked til my feet ached.. bought a new 2000 piece jigsaw puzzle though.. by the time I got back to the hotel, it was 2pm and I was sleepy (Again!) and hungry.. decided to take the nap first.. then woke up at 3pm when my sister arrived.. ordered room service (more carbs.. pizza!) and then Frederick the makeup Artist came at 4pm.. he was half an hour early.. I hadn't even showered yet!  So while he was putting on makeup for Jo, I hopped into the shower.. very mindful of not wetting my gorgeously permed hair... (you can never trust shower caps these days) and hopped out and waited for my turn...
 

Tadah!!!!

Here's the after picture of me with my falsies all done up.. my falsies are cool.. they're longer at the ends which totally spikes up and looks so long..  but love the whole cam whoring effect on my new camera.. 

And the side view....

Here's a side view of me.. looking all ready for the ball isn't it?  Don't you think my eyebrows are like super thick?  That's like the first thing I kept seeing.. eyebrows!

Photo Bomb!

This is a picture of Jo after she's done her makeup.. she had blue makeup on.. while I had pink makeup on to match my dress.. Jo brought along two dresses cos she just couldn't make up her mind.. in the end, she wore the gold dress that she had promised a friend that she would wear it.. (marketing and all)..

Frederick didn't want to go dark with my make up because my dress is so light in colour.. and we used this new product by Shu Umera that made our faces glow (although some might think it's just greasy) and no powder (to affect the glow).. 

I am an Angel sent from God... *Touched By An Angel*

Love the light effect on my hair.. but that's my look with my hair down.. I'm so glad AlanHarperIsMyIdol convinced me to perm my hair 2 weeks prior to the Tatler Ball.. cos it's looking awesomeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...

 This is the full length look with me posing in my dress... I can't believe all the hard work paid off and I could zip the dress again!

An upclose look on the jewellery I borrowed from my mother.. coincidentally, it's the same necklace that PrincessBling wore on her wedding day :)

That's my cousin Valery.. I took her as my date.. just to open up her eyes to new experiences.. she enjoyed herself :)

 
That's right... Malaysia Tatler!  Of course I had to pose infront of that picture.. hahaha.. sorry it's so far back that you can't really see my face...

That's Jo, Valery, myself and Jacqueline (Miss Malaysia 1995) - Yes.. she still brings that up quite often..  My mum saw this picture and was like 'who's that really pretty girl in light pink?' and I'm like 'mummy.. that's me' and she's like 'wahh.. so pretty'.. and then comes the inevitable 'so how come no boyfriend?' ROFL... right mummy... 

 And that's Olivia added to that picture..she's wearing a Farrah Khan dress that looked stunning on her.. although she likened herself to one of her aunties.. hahaha.. no sweetie.. we ain't that old...

We stood around for and hour and a half having cocktails before being brought into the dining room.. where the decoration was fabulous...wish I could say more on the food.. but I think this year they up the budget for decoration and lowered the budget for food...

1. First course = ceviche of prawn and scallop, with edamame soup and lobster
2. Second course = Tomato and Enoki Mushroom consume in Winter Melon bowl (tasted like water with tomato in it)
3. Third course = pumpkin sorbet (cleans the pallet)
4. Fourth course = veal with taru puff (too gamey.. and the puff was like.. what the?)
5. Fifth course = chocolate mousse cake with pistachio ice cream and apricot donut (yum!)

Sorry I don't have pictures of the food.. it wasn't very fascinating to look at.

The evening went on like normal.. we waited forever for the photo booth cos some aunty didn't think she look pretty in the picture (honey.. you ain't pretty in real life already.. rofl.. mean) and then there's this Eurasion girl just standing there waiting and doing the Gangnam dance.. man did I feel embarrassed for her.  She might think that she looked cool doing it.. but no one can look cool doing Gangnam.. Unfortunately, they only gave one picture.. so Valery took it as a keepsake for the night.

My feet were totally killing for standing so long.. the minute I sat.. I took off my shoes.. there was a slight wardrobe malfunction when Valery stepped on one of my tulle 'tails'..and ripped it halfway.. luckily it wasn't noticeable.. but we both froze when we heard the 'rippppppppppppppp'.. and the kepoh toilet lady came running and going 'aiyoh.. what happened?' and kept checking it out and saying 'cannot tell lah'.. like lady.. stop starring at my ass..

I was sorely disappointed that I didn't make it on the dance floor because of my feet.. but I certainly had fun that night.. 

I called at night at midnight (before I turn into a pumpkin) and walked barefoot back to my room a happy chap.. I love functions like this.. I just hope I'm invited for another round next year!
 

Countdown!!!

Many things to countdown to now..

1. Tatler Ball!
Hooray.. the day that I've been working so hard towards is finally dawning upon us.. yes.. the Tatler Ball is this Saturday, 6th October 2012.  I'm flying out to KL tomorrow afternoon, after doing my hair at Richard N Iris (@ The Spring Shopping Mall) - hahaha.. how's that for placement advertisement?  Anyway, gonna set my hair in curls and lots of hair spray so it doesn't deflate in like 30 minutes..  and then I'm heading out and arriving in KL at dinner time... I'm alone in KL so I'm not sure what I'll do with myself for dinner.. but I rather have a good nights sleep so I'm alive at the Ball, rather than fly in on the early morning flight on Saturday and be zombied during the ball.

I tried on my dress last night.. and it fits!  Hallelujah!!!  Well, I could only zip it halfway up, but then as I've mentioned, I'm no contortionist.. so I can't really zip it all the way up.. I'll get help for it tonight as I do my final dress fitting.

But Oooo... I'm so excited.. and I just can't hide it.. hahahaha.. 

2. The U. S. of A!!!!
It's no big secret that I'm heading back to USA at the end of this month to celebrate my birthday with PrincessBling.  We've decided on a steak dinner to celebrate the impending doom.. hahaha.. no offense to my friends born in my year who's already celebrated their birthday!  I'm counting down the days til I leave (3 weeks by the way) and I can't wait to see PrincessBling and her hubby again.  Can't wait to eat all the glorious food that I used to chow on when I was working in the States.. Crabs, Steak, buffets.. etc. etc. etc.  Oh I'm gonna get FAT again.. wait.. again?  I haven't even broken out of the 'fat threshold!'

Those are the two biggest things that I can think of at the moment :)

Been away at a seminar learning about minimum wage and minimum retirement age.. from what I learned in my 2 day seminar.. Malaysian politicians are STUPID.. they don't think about consequences.. they just wake up one day with a crazy idea in mind and decide to implement it.  Take for example, the minimum wage for Sarawak is now RM800 per month.  That's pretty high.. say if you're working tables at the restaurant.. usually you'll be paid like RM500 per month or something.. and if you're in a rural area.. it'll be even lower.. how then.. do rural businesses survive?  And what about long time employees who just hit the RM800 threshold?  How are they going to feel that a newbie will come in and be on the same income level as them?  It's not like you can give a pay rise for every single person in the office!  The way I see it, unemployment numbers are going to soar because 
1) Rural areas cannot afford to pay that much, so will limit number of employees
2) Companies will be more vigilant in their recruitment process as they don't want to do a wrong hire
3) People will be more fussy and spoilt for choice.. knowing they will get RM800 for doing NOTHING..

So Politicians.. great job you're doing eh?  

SURPRISE!!! *snicker snicker*