Music: None
Mood: Happy
Ten months into my wedding preparation, and I found my wedding gown today, in the unlikeliest of places.
I am so happy! Thank you, Father God, for getting me the best price ever!
Praise You!
Posted: October 5th, 2011 under euphoria, god's love, wedding preparations.
Comments: none
Music: Thomas Dvorak – The Bottom (Machinarium OST)
Mood: Jumpy
ZOMG! Only 9 days to go! Had a rewarding conversation with Ma yesterday.
For once, I didn’t feel miserable after discussing matters of the Engagement Day. For once, she is on my side. Pierre’s Ma has also spoken to my Ma. So all’s going smooth! God willing!
♥ Date Set, 27 February 2011
♥ Venue At my home in Penampang
♥ Time In the afternoon
♥ Colour Theme Any summer/autumn colour that makes you happy, light green is okay too!
♥ Attire Found! / Pierre’s found!
♥ Shoes Found! / Getting Pierre’s this weekend!
♥ Accessories Found!
♥ Make-up & Hair Artist My dear sister, DD – Booked!
Manicure & Pedicure A week before the engagement
Hand Bouquet Yet to decide on design
♥ Decors Curtains sent for sewing; will think of the rest as I go along
♥ Favours Decided!
♥ Food & Beverage Ordered and well-stocked
Pierre’s Gifts (to meh!) Decided – 1 down, 2 to go
♥ Invitation e-Card Sent Out – 10 friends of mine flying in from KL , yo! :D
♥ Photographer Booked (Phew!)
♥ Engagement Portrait Session Booked (Double Phew!)
Cake Got a design, found someone who could bake it, yet to get reply No one to bake yet!
♥ Pierre’s ring Bought!
♥ = Done
–
Starting to panic now. I HAVE NO ENGAGEMENT CAKE YET! *runs amok*
Posted: February 18th, 2011 under nathalea, oh-noes, wedding preparations.
Comments: 3
Music: Duck Sauce – Barbra Streisand *Playing in my head*
Mood: Stressed
I see many of my friends are going for a Valentine’s getaway today. So nice! Pierre’s taking me out for dinner tonight. Don’t know where yet, but that doesn’t matter.
I’ve always been clueless on what to do on this day.
This happens all the time. Everytime there’s a special occasion, I go clueless. It’s like “OH NO IT’S _______’s BIRTHDAY TODAY! *Grabs anything in sight ON THAT DAY ITSELF as a birthday present* Yes. Sadly, I do that.
But on normal days, I go the distance. I will plan stuffs out of the blue – I’d know where to go, what to do, what to buy.
But not for special occasions. Special occasions stress me out. I can’t help it. Sometimes I don’t even give anything, I just show up. You know, like “Your presence is a already a present”. Wahaha. Corny, I know. But even for myself, I don’t care much for presents. Just be there, give me a really nice card, and I’m already very happy!
I’m more for experiences than material things. I think that’s why I spend more money on good food than buying things for myself, because eating good food is an experience. You can take me for the best roti canai in town for all I care, and I’d still be happy :P
Truthfully, I’m thrilled enough that there is something planned out, I’m easily pleased like that :)
***
♥
Posted: February 14th, 2011 under oh-noes, special days.
Comments: 4
Music: Happy thoughts in my head
Mood: Happy
I remember Friday5 going on hiatus a long while back. But it could have been LJ’s the friday five. But that doesn’t matter :P
I know it’s not Friday, but I’m bored. So here goes:
Who’s not as funny as he or she thinks?
There was this person I met, who thought he was smooth — using pickup lines with the intention to amuse. But his pickup lines always failed. He even attempted to do a monologue in a completely different voice. Worst, he did it like he was rapping, and laughs at the end of it. ALONE.
What’s not as big a deal as everyone else seems to think?
Facebook closing down.
What’s something people aren’t concerned enough about?
Praying. We don’t have to be strong all the time. We ought to let go once in a while and see how God change situations and people. You may think He’s left you when you needed him the most, but that’s because when you think He went MIA, He was actually cleaning up the mess you left behind. Once he’s got that sorted out, He’ll come back, and you won’t be miserable anymore.
He’ll go like “Alright Tatiana, just hold on a little bit more. It’ll be worth it.” Then, after that miserable phase has passed, I’d go “Hey, that wasn’t so bad after all! I’m sure glad I held on tight :D” And I’m all happy again.
What’s something in the grocery store that’s underrated?
Nylon strings. Especially when you’ve got a truckload of things to pack into a box and your plane is leaving in 2 hours!
What do you pay too much attention to?
Pierre’s procrastinating-style towards almost everything I need him to do — it drives me nuts!
–
OK, your turn to answer!
Posted: February 9th, 2011 under daily, random.
Comments: 5
Music: Nay
Mood: Mmm
Crap! 19 days left!
The more the day approaches, the more I feel like, “There’s nothing much to prepare pun!” :P
The worrying part is just the cake. Got a special request on the design. Last resort: My sister bakes the cake, and I, attempt to carve a heart in the cake :P
And If all else fails, we shall bake it plain — Chocolate cake layered with Chocolate and Raspberry sauce and iced with white butter cream. All nice and tall :D
♥ Date Set, 27 February 2011
♥ Venue At my home in Penampang
♥ Time In the afternoon
♥ Colour Theme Either Crimson or Coral Red; or anything in lighter hues of Red Any warm colours that make you happy, light green is okay too!
♥ Attire Found! / Pierre’s not yet
♥ Shoes Found! / Pierre’s not yet
♥ Accessories Found!
♥ Make-up & Hair Artist My dear sister, DD - Booked!
Manicure & Pedicure A week before the engagement
Hand Bouquet Yet to decide on design
Decors Curtains found; the rest still pending
♥ Favours Decided!
♥ Food & Beverage Booked
Pierre’s Gifts (to meh!) Decided – 1 down, 2 to go
♥ Invitation e-Card Sent Out – 10 friends of mine flying in from KL , yo! :D
Photographer Booking in Progress
Engagement Portrait Session Booking in Progress
Cake Got a design, found someone who could bake it, yet to get reply
Pierre’s ring Getting it this week, and get my ring polished all nice and sparkly
♥ = Done
—
And it’s also a mournful day as a grand uncle of mine has just passed away of a heart attack yesterday. I heard he died a peaceful death, so I’m happy for that. He was a really cheerful old fellow – always wearing a toothy smile. I remember he was just at our house singing karaoke last Christmas. He was always in the mood to cheer up my dad, even brought him Karaoke CDs, according my sister. Nevermind that he kept singing the same set of songs, he had a nice voice. Come to think of it, all his siblings can sing very well and they’re always the ones entertaining everyone at weddings and special occasions. And I’d already listed him and his wife in my engagement guest list, and can even imagine him singing at my wedding. But then God decided that my grand uncle has better things to do in Heaven :(
Dear Grand Uncle, you’re sorely missed :( May you find eternal rest in Heaven.
Posted: February 8th, 2011 under bad days, daily, god's love, wedding preparations.
Comments: 2
Music: True Worshippers – I Will Burn for You
Mood: On auto-pilot
It’s funny when someone (after discovering that I’m officially getting engaged next month) asks me, “So when do you plan on getting married?”
And before I can answer, reality hits me and my heart races like crazy. Momentarily I become stunned, thinking that it’s not 2010 anymore.
But quickly, I gather my emotions before finally saying,”Next year”.
DID I SAY NEXT ‘NEXT YEAR’?! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!
That means, this year will be my last Christmas as ‘Miss Tatiana’. Not that anyone calls me by that, but yeah, I’ll be a Mrs! Eww!
And I have to get used to bringing Pierre home for family occasions. Gah!
Haha, talk about cold feet. But I have been looking forward to tying the knot. I know 10 years waiting, is a long time. But suddenly time feels really short.
And just the other day when I was back in KK, my sister asked when I would come back to Sabah for good. And I pondered and said, “Probably when I have kids”.
“And when would that be?” asked she.
“In two or three years’ time,” I answered.
“Ohh! That’s fast!” came back her reply.
In two or three years, I’d be close to 30! I think I will want to have kids by then. And yes I will want to raise my kids in KK. I cherish the lively and expressive Sabahan accent to bits. And besides, I think KK is complete now. Anything you want to find for in KL, you can get it in KK–good food, nice clothes, chill-out areas, etcetera–plus the warmth of the people there.
But I reckon it will feel darn weird having to live in another house, when my family house is just around the corner. Would my heart ache to go ‘home’ home instead? I think I would visit my parents every single day. Yep, that will need some getting used to.
Oops okay, time to get some sleep. Long day tomorrow.
* * *
Oh and before I forget, me would like to wish my mommy a very happy birthday.
Posted: January 25th, 2011 under daily, euphoria, god's love, nathalea, oh-noes.
Comments: none
Music: Nay
Mood: Content
With my Engagement Day being about a month away, I’ve been googling on decor and theme ideas. One of the things, are using bottles creatively. Here are some inspirations. :D
Posted: January 21st, 2011 under nathalea, wedding preparations.
Comments: none
I managed to squeeze an engagement date out of Pierre after much waiting. Our official engagement day will be on 27 February 2011, roughly 3 1/2 months away. I reckon it’s about time to get my engagement plans rolling, hence my pathetic checklist (HAHA) below:
♥ Date Set, 27 February 2011
♥ Venue At my home in Penampang
♥ Time In the afternoon
♥ Colour Theme Either Crimson or Coral Red; or anything in lighter hues of Red Any warm colours that make you happy, light green is okay too!
♥ Attire Found!
Shoes Still Searching
♥ Accessories Found!
♥ Make-up & Hair Artist Booked
Manicure & Pedicure A week before the engagement
Hand Bouquet Yet to decide on design
Decors Curtains found; the rest still pending
♥ Favours Decided!
♥ Food & Beverage Booked
Pierre’s Gifts (to meh!) Yet to decide
♥ Invitation e-Card Sent Out
Photographer Need to shortlist
Engagement Portrait Session Need to book
Cake Got a design, yet to find someone to bake it
Pierre’s ring Buying it a few weeks before the engagement
♥ = Done
I hope this is all? Need to finalise everything by Christmas! :O
- Updated as of 10 January 2011
Posted: November 14th, 2010 under euphoria, nathalea, oh-noes, special days, wedding preparations.
Comments: 5
Music: Nay
Mood: Pleasant
I left home for work about half an hour early today. The only traffic jam I got to beat was the one in front of my apartment. There was no difference in the jam on the way to the office — it’s still as bad as ever — or probably because it is a Monday.
Praying hard for a empty parking space, I was thinking of the worse, like finding no vacant parking space at all and having to park at the nearest shopping centre instead! 7.40am is already considered rather late, as I have colleagues arriving as early as 6.40am. But thank God I found myself a parking space a few blocks away from the office, and I was tremendously grateful for that. It’s a colleague’s turn to use the department’s reserved parking space today, so she was really nice to fetch me to the office. Thank you, PK! :D I was in the office by 7.50am, hurrah!
I’m occasionally punctually challenged. Not that I am proud of it, but I’m just saying. It was an accomplishment, indeed! Ngee!
It’s been a pretty quiet Monday so far at the office. Sharmi’s on sick leave. So is another colleague of mine. And it’s barely been 3 hours since office hours started, gah! I’m aching to listen to some jazz tunes.
Speaking of which, I bought myself a WOW Jazz CD from Rock Corner on Saturday. And I was pleasantly surprised when Pierre didn’t switch to a radio station when we took a drive after a lunch. He actually scanned through the playlist and listened to a few full tracks. I don’t know if he gets a kick out of asking me about who the singer is whenever a nice song comes on. But that day I failed miserably again when I said ‘Michael Bublé’ when it was really George Michael singing I Can’t Make You Love Me. I played the same song again this morning as soon as he got into the car, and he increased the volume. So that was a good sign. It’s to make up for making him wake up at 6.15am (or an ungodly hour as he puts it) so that I could reach the office early. He starts work at 9am; I start at 8.15am. Poor baby, I’m sorry you have to put up with this :(
To show my gratitude, I’ll better be less bitchy from now on :P
**
Shites! Lapar! I wonder where we’re going for lunch. I think I’m getting gastric. *Quickly munches on a Cadbury Froggy chocolate from a colleague’s Australian trip*
Posted: October 18th, 2010 under daily, nathalea, oh-noes.
Comments: none
Music: Nay
Mood: Pissed
Kids who don’t want to continue their studies after high school, think twice. Tertiary education is important for your future, whether you wish to work or not, and especially if you’re a female. Don’t give me crap saying the most successful people are college dropouts, yes of course they are, that’s because they’re smart people. But are you? You can put away your Degree far away in your drawers after that, or you can use it. It’s important for your everyday life. It’s important for your relationship with other people.
Yes, you need that Diploma or Degree. You need to mingle with other people. You need to learn to work with other people. You need to learn how to hold your tongue, or when to lash out. You need to learn when to hold on and when to let go. You need to learn not to dwell on the matters of other people’s life. You need to learn not to take every thing to heart. You need to learn that not everything is about you. You need to learn to communicate effectively, hang out with good company, and don’t get into trouble. You need to learn how to make and keep friends. You need to open your mind. You need to learn to make good decisions. You need to get out of your house, if possible, out of your city and out of your state.
Then you will learn not to dwell in gossips and create unfounded conflicts that break up families.
YOU NEED TO GO TO COLLEGE.
Don’t come up with stupid reasons, saying doing tertiary studies is expensive. We have study loans everywhere, and if you’re smart, you might get a scholarship.
There are so many different people in the world who are yet to get on your nerves. Whatever you are facing NOW is just a tip of what’s going to happen to you. You need that experience, so that you will learn to care or don’t give a bloody shit. Then you will learn what it means to feel inner peace.
And when you grow up, you will know better than to live in hypocrisy. And when you have kids of your own, make sure they get tertiary education. So your kids don’t go dissing other people because it’s NOT nice.
Posted: September 28th, 2010 under bad days.
Comments: none
Music: Nay
Mood: Melancholic
My Sony Ericsson C510 had decided that it was time to kick the bucket!
Dearest SE phone, despite all the desperate times when I needed you the most and you lagged on me, you have served me well.
And all the times that I wanted to break you in two, you didn’t budge at all. You’re one tough cookie! Threats didn’t scare you one bit.
Even so, I’m sorry you succumbed to your last accident on the paved road.
May you rest in peace :(
Posted: September 20th, 2010 under daily, oh-noes.
Comments: none
Music: Nay
Mood: Stunned
Yosh! I’m finally free! My quarterly magazine is done, and it’s early again — for the 3rd time in a row. This will definitely look good on my KPI sheet :P
Better late than never, Happy Malaysia Day! 16th September 1963 was when Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore joined Malaya to form Malaysia. And I’m from Sabah, wee! The country may not be perfect, but at least we can still go about our daily errands in peace and harmony. And one can say that we’re reasonably safe.
Speaking of safe, yesterday someone stole the padlock to my apartment’s front door grill! And that thief left the front door grill wide open. He/she managed to break the padlock and the grill lock. THANK GOD to the ultimate degree that the thief didn’t break past our main door. And we gathered that it happened sometime in the late morning, because the same thing happened to another apartment at our block. And my housemate who was helping out at the store downstairs found out from the storekeeper that there’ve been break-ins and stolen cars inside our compound for the past few weeks. It’s so scary! And these people are smart, they attempted to break in during the day on a public holiday, thinking that we’d be out of the house.
But seriously, none of these ever happened at my dodgy old apartment before. The only troublemakers we had were the 3-floor-high-climbing monkeys! Though I come to think that probably these people actually lived around my dodgy old apartment. The horror!
And if you asked me if I were more terrified of ghosts or criminals, I’d choose the latter. I mean ghosts can’t touch me, the most they can probably do is make me jump out of my skin and make my heart run a mile; whereas criminals can do unimaginable things to a person.
Tonight Pierre and I are going to buy the best of the padlocks we can find that is within our budget, and install an interior hotel-style security lock. It’s so ironic, my old apartment didn’t even have a security gate and nothing ever happened. We even had Alphards, Toyota Civics, Honda Citys parked everywhere and the luxurious cars were still there every single day. And now where there is a security gate which allows only cars with access passes to enter, all sorts of people still walk in to target houses to break in and find cars to steal.
Last night we pushed a chair to the main door to prevent it from opening from the outside, or if it did open, then we could hear whether someone was breaking in. Is there a mini home security alarm system out there? You know, just something that goes off sounding like a siren just to scare troublemakers off?
–
Hmm… there’s always something new to learn everyday, huh, God? :P
But I guess as a famous saying (similar to 1 Corinthians 10:13) goes :
“The will of God will never take you
where the grace of God will not protect you.”
So, protect us from harm and evil, dear God. Amen! :D
Posted: September 17th, 2010 under bad days, god's love, oh-noes.
Comments: none
Music: Nay
Mood: Content
We finally cleared out my old place in Kota Perdana on Saturday afternoon. My sister and I had so much junk! Running up and down the 3rd floor, Pierre, my sister and myself threw out more than 5 big black bags of rubbish. I never expected we could clear everything out before we handed over the house keys to the agent at 2pm. I was near tears thinking how to clean the place up. The same day also we called the electricians to uninstall the water heater and transfer it to my current apartment. What a stressful day! I had to make sure the floors were swept, although not perfectly, but everything must look tidy. We left some things behind, like TV cabinets, curtains from Jusco, cupboards and such.
Despite so, now I have a whole room full of things that I brought from the old place. Hope to order a bedroom set before Hari Raya, because the price goes quite low prior to the festive season. I then can store and camouflage my junk in the wardrobe or under the bed, instead of hogging a whole single room. I tortured Pierre by carrying my junk to the current apartment, now he calls me a hoarder :P
But I kinda miss the old place. It was a small and cosy 2-bedroom apartment. The only dreadful part was walking up and down 3 floors everyday, monkeys visiting the laundry area (they left hand and footprints and it freaked the crap out of me, I thought we had toyols in the house, which of course turned out to be monkeys climbing up the water pipes and stealing foodstuff from our kitchen!), and greeting cat’s pee outside our front door every morning. Other than that, it was my home for 2 years. Aww, the nostalgia. I hope and expect to move only 1 more time after this. I don’t really want to go through the pain of moving again.
Oh and since Pierre and I came back from KK to meet the parents, I’ve been trying to get Pierre to set a date for the official engagement but it’s so hard! I don’t want to be the one setting the date and planning everything, and make him look like a prop for the engagement. So how do you get a guy to set a date without forcing him? I asked him by when would he start deciding, he said in October. Sheeesh! I need to make plans, man! I need a freaking date! HELPZ!
Posted: September 6th, 2010 under nathalea, oh-noes, special days.
Comments: 2
Music: Michael Jackson – The Girl is Mine
Mood: Euphoric
Pa accepted Pierre’s proposal for my hand! Ya, so that was the important mission that happened at high tea yesterday.
A relieved Pierre going 'Phew! That's done!'.
I was waiting for the right time to tell the whole world when Pierre proposed in June. I was really happy! Only told a small group of friends :) Eventhough I was proposed to in the unlikeliest place ever, but the ambiance was just right. Beats not getting proposed to at all! :P I didn’t think it’d be official until my family formally accepted him too. I mean, they do know that we’ve been going out for ages now. But I just think that their accepting him also matters.
When Pierre and his parents arrived yesterday, Pa started to ask a bunch of questions. It was really funny, as Pierre literally had a “Oh shit!” on his face when his dad told him to talk to my Pa. When Pierre started with “My purpose of coming here is to ask your permission to be engaged to your daughter”,
(Wow, so formal!)
my dad wittily asked back, “Which one of my daughters do you want? I have 3 daughters here.” To which Pierre answered “Haha, to Tatiana!” whilst pointing at me.
It’s one of the Kadazan customs for the boy to come to the girl’s house to ask for permission to marry? So we did just that.
We’ve yet to set the exact date for the engagement, but here we are, at this stage, finally! :D
Posted: August 29th, 2010 under daily, euphoria, nathalea, special days.
Comments: 4
Music: The Ronettes – Be My Baby (Dirty Dancing OST)
Mood: Excited
I am in beautiful Kota Kinabalu! :D
Pierre and I arrived at 12am. Mighty thankful we didn’t opt to check in our bags – have always loathed waiting for bags. Pierre and I went separate ways – I went with my sisters, he went with one of his best friend from high school. It was quite a trial getting to LCCT earlier on, but we managed to pull through. So, it’s home sweet home for 5 days!
Happy to see my ma and pa. Pa looks healthy! His PD prescription is down to 2 types of medication now since he went to see a neurologist from KL. Before this, he had to take 4 types. Ma is looking radiant as ever too!
And to date, we have 1 mother cat, 2 cats from the 2nd generation and 4 kittens from the 3rd generation. In total, we have 7 felines!
As for dogs, we’ve got 4 newborn puppies, and more than 5 adult dogs. It’s as if as our home is a domestic farm!
I r back cos I r on important mission. I’ll furnish the details later. Please pray everything will go well.
Thank you and have an awesome Friday everyone! :*
Posted: August 27th, 2010 under euphoria, nathalea.
Comments: none
Music: Wanted OST
Mood: Restless
It’s so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life. – Rita Rudner
Hehehehe!
The day finally came! Pierre and I attended the joyous occasion at Sri Raja Rajeswary Temple, Ampang on Sunday evening where Ram and Sharmi officially got engaged! :D It was a really long journey there, I was utterly thankful and relieved that Pierre was with me as I drove all the way there. He was my navigator, along with his sidekick, Googlemaps on his iPhone. I think I would have driven all the way to Genting if I were alone :O
It was a colourful occasion, and it was my very first time witnessing an Indian engagement ceremony. So it was definitely an exciting experience! :D
You two looked absolutely gorgeous that evening!
Sharmi, I’m so happy for you both! May your new life together be filled with lots of love, patience and happiness – always remember to laugh together okay :P
Posted: August 24th, 2010 under euphoria, special days.
Comments: 4
Music: Nay
Mood: Thankful
I want to thank God for taking care of my friends and family. I want to thank God for comforting the sad and lonely. I want to thank God for giving people another chance. I want to thank God for the existence of money. I want to thank God for helping me out of temptation. I want to thank God for keeping us safe from bad weather. I want to thank God for helping to pick up the broken pieces. I want to thank God for feeding the hungry. I want to thank God for providing for the poor. I want to thank God that I have people that I love and love me back. I want to thank God for breaking big accidents into few small ones. I want to thank God for granting us serenity and wisdom. I want to thank God for the beautiful skies every sunrise and sunset. I want to thank God that I have great colleagues who look out for me. I want to thank God that I have a stable job. I want to thank God that I have a car to drive. I want to thank God that I live in a secured area. I want to thank God for blessing me with a great guy who wants to spend the rest of his life with me. I want to thank God for letting me choose. I want to thank God that I’m free, safe and alive.
Posted: August 20th, 2010 under bad days, euphoria, god's love.
Comments: none
Music: New Life Worship – Endlessly
Mood: Accepting
Today, apart from the 3 hours finishing up the corrections for a newsletter, I spent the whole day stoning at my desk. My CPU is still being held captive by the IT Department due to an Autorun.inf Trojan infection :P It’s been a day and half now. They said they’ll return it tomorrow morning, but I doubt it because today they said it’d be ready by lunchtime. But when my HOD called them up (after my numerous attempts trying to call the dude who took away my CPU), they said it’ll only be ready tomorrow morning. So I’ll be bringing my own laptop to the office. At least I won’t have to flip the pages of the same magazines over and over again whilst dozing off – been doing that for 2 days now since last Friday.
I visited IKEA with Pierre, Kathlyn, my sister Julia and my brother Rayner over the weekend. I’d never really paid attention to the IKEA showrooms. And it’s pretty amazing how a 650sqft apartment can look so nice and homey! I think apartments developers in Malaysia should allow their buyers to create their own partitions in their apartments, instead of adhering to a fixed floor plan. Either that, or be more creative in their floor plans. Most apartments look alike nowadays. Only the exteriors set them apart.
Even a 260sqft apartment looks really nifty!
I so want a place of my own, so I can paint the walls and install wall shelves, mirrors, lights, etcetera. I’ve always wanted to make full use of the walls but the landlords would never allow. So it’d be really neat to finally be able to drill the walls and fill it up with nice things. I would love to have dark wooden floors too. And I wouldn’t even mind a tiny place for now. In fact, I like compact apartments. Everything’s in reach.
So please, please, God, help me save money so I can buy a nice place of my own. Thank you! Amen :D
Posted: August 16th, 2010 under daily, god's love, oh-noes, work.
Comments: none
