Grocery shopping vs. Apartment buying

I am We are so excited!!! We just placed a deposit to purchase an apartment!!

We didn't intend to do so. Yesterday, after lunch, we just planned to go for grocery shopping. But Jay said why not go "apartment looking" again (lately, "apartment looking" has been one of our hobby for the weekend, we will go to open houses to see the old apartment, and also new developers to see the showroom). We didnt' held up high hopes to get anything, but well, it is a hobby, so why not. So far we have seen many apartments, either the location is great, but prices is way beyond our budget. Or within budget, but the apartment is a crappy one. Or within budget, but the developer offers yucky appliances quality. It was very depressing everytime we go "apartment looking", because by then we realized how poor we are. The money we have in KL and Shanghai worth like peanuts over here after the conversion rate. Sigh.

Anyway, so we went to see these apartment, new developing. Phase 3. I like developers that is not building phase 1, because by going through Phase 1, all the possible mistakes you would have made, would be made and you would have learnt from your mistake and do a better job in next phases.

Out of 10 scores, this is how this property scores (in my view lah):
Location: 7.5
Price: 8.5
Appliances quality: 9
Sales person's service and attitude: 9.5
Techi-ness of the house: 9
neighborhood: 8.5
size: 5 (1 bedroom with a den)

So, of course we like it so much! We went back home to grab the cheque to pay as deposit right away.

Then, when we finally made it to buy grocery, we were so excited and  yet tired... Hubby said, "what happened just now? Didn't we just wanted to buy some vege and fruits only?? Look at what we have done!" hahahhaa....

I hope we made a good choice. It is estimated to be completed in Summer 2012. One year to go... The apartment is only 1 bedroom (that's all we can afford now). Baby is not in picture... or like hubby said, "if it comes, it will have to share room with us for first 1-2 years. Don't care liao." hahahaha....

Hope the loan part is no issue lah:) Will update soon. Very excited and nervous.

sei guai loh

My office has a sei guai loh (SGL).

SGL "Hi D, I am going to pick up my dog, and come back within 2 hours."
D is me lah...
D "OK"... (as if I care?? as if I am your boss??? Go tell boss lah!)

SGL "Hi D. It's me. I am now at dentist, I will be back before 3pm"
D "OK"... (@#$%!)

SGL "Hi D. Can you do me a favor? Go over to my place, log in my computer, and look under folder A, get the picture xyz, and send to Mr.J. I am showing my house to a potential buyer, will be back late."
D "sure"...(@#$%!!!!!!! TIU U!!!!!!!!!)

SGL "Hi D, can you help me call up this lady, her number is on an email I just sent u before I go out bring my sons see doctor. Ask her if we pay today, will we get a copy of the award?"
His sons.. both are in high school.. what kind of sickness need the parent to bring BOTH see doctor together?
D "OK"

SGL "Hi D, sorry to bother you. When the cheque is ready, can you help me bring it over to the law firm, which is just 3-4 blocks away?"
D, "I will call courier service"
SGL "No... er... what about Jon, is he in office? Can he walk there for me?"
D "Jon not in office. I am not sure"
SGL ".... ok... I will bring it over tomorrow morning"
D "OK" (of course you bring lah!! takkan I bring for u??? Are you blind? outside so cold and raining and got strong wind warning, and I am not very well. I just changed my contact lense brand today! I feel so uneasy!!! I want to slap u, can ah???? I WON"T DO ANYTHING FOR U!!!!"

This SGL really gets on my nerve. And yet, for goodwill reason, I have to put up a nice smile and face him. So pek chek!!!!

SGL, u so lazy!!!!!!! always use office hour do own stuff!!!!!! I hope our boss finds out soon and fire u! Blardy hell u!

RBC

I complaint about RBC before right? Well, that was branch A.

Near my office, there are two RBC branches, the one nearest is branch A, and it gives me the shits to the very core. I was skeptical to try branch B, which is nearby too. Branch B seems smaller in size, and since I don't have many choices (as if I can choose which bank my boss bank with??), I have decided to take a risk, try banking with branch B. I can take no more from branch A, they gave me chances of heart-attack. And hooooray.... I have discovered that, the way banks shit you, depends on who is serving you, be it with a brainless teller, or a teller with brain and with good manner.

This teller at branch B, he only sees me once before today, and today is the second time I bank with branch B, and coincidently, he is serving me again.

He, "well well well.. is he overpaying it again?"
Me, thinking.. "aiyah, on the statement it says it is $xyz amount already, and the cheque is $xyz, where got overpay wor.. u cannot read ah?"... but of course that was only playing in my mind. I put up a nice smile, reply, "no, he is not this time. He is just paying the exact amount on the statement."
He, "OK."
Me, thinking... "you sure ask me for my ID ge lah... OK, I give you!" So, I took my driving license out and pass to him (over here, driving license is an important ID, is like our IC in Malaysia).
He, "that's ok. I remember you. I don't need your ID."
Me, so flattered!!!!!! I bank with HSBC at least once in a week every week, that idiot also never remember me and always asked me the same question every time "are you the signee of the account?", and this guy only served me twice over the past 4 weeks and he can remember me??? Wah..... I see sunlights in rainy day!!! I see rainbow at night!!! I see bikini in winter!!! (ok... too much liao)

I finally realized, there are "people" in this city, instead of robots behind the counter! Hoooray!!!!

Mr. Branch-B-Teller, you've made my day. Thank you!!

林俊杰《会有那么一天》

Lately have been bong chan itu itune buy some songs. One of the old songs I bought is 林俊杰《会有那么一天》. The lyrics is so beautifully sang... and without fail, everytime I listen to this song, my eyes will wet with tears at the end.

一九四三 世界大战 阿嬷年轻的时候
爷爷爱他那么多 他们感情很深 但是爷爷
身负重任 就在离乡的那夜给了阿嬷一个吻
轻声说到 我要离去 别再哭泣 不要伤心
请你相信我 要等待 我的爱 陪你永不离开
因为会有那么一天 我们牵着手在草原
听鸟儿歌唱的声音 听我说声 我爱你
夕阳西下 鸟儿回家 阿嬷躺 在病床上
呼吸有一点散漫 眼神却很温柔 看着爷爷
湿透的眼 握着他粗糙的手 阿嬷的泪水开始流 轻声说道
我要离去 别再哭泣 不要伤心
请你相信我 要等待 我的爱 陪你永不离开
因为会有那么一天 我们牵着手在草原
听鸟儿歌唱的声音 听我说声 我爱你

I always think, if my dad was come to concious before he passed away 2.5 years ago, he would have said the same thing to my mom. Writing til here, my eyes are filled with tears again...

I wish the lyrics here, that says "I have to go now, don't cry and don't be sad. We will meet one day, and we will hand in hand walk on the grass field listening to birds singing. I love you." won't get sang by one lover to another lover in this world again because it is so sad... and yet the promised future that they will meet again is so soothing and calming.

LOVE

Happy Valentine's Day!

I sent an ecard to Jay this morning. He said he read already feel like crying... aiyoh... i only say, "I love you til the day my eyes are closed for good".

Anyway, for me, everyday is a Valentine's Day if you cherish every moment you spent with your love ones, be it family members, lovers, friends:)

We have no plan to eat out today. Jay said he will make me 水蛋 to eat tonight, my favorite!!!! hehehe...:) We also went out to shop for a ring for my index finger because I suddenly "ada angin" so very wanted a special index ring (eh-hem... not diamond lah... i want something i can wear daily and look special and yet not too fancy and not too dull), but then at the end, found the ring, but need to send it to resize (my fingers very small, sigh) and guai lou as usual, do things so slow, have to take 3 weeks!... sometimes really feel like slapping them. OK, 3 weeks then!

I baked a sponge cake yesterday. 1st time. Too sweet, and I miss the final step, of terbalik the pan after u remove it from oven. I dont know why this step is important, but apparently it has some effect because I don't follow this step, my spongecake at first took out from oven looks very high, after cool down is very short... so... hmmm.... i want to try again! Next time i will add one more egg, and cut the sugar by 1/3. ;)

TGIF

This week, I wasn't very in good mood. I don't know why lah, maybe got one day I didn't bangsai in the morning, or my period is coming but not here yet, and I am addicted to eating M&M at night, which makes me feel very sick in the morning, scolding myself "WTF u doing?? Quit that M&M! It is making you fat!"

Anyway, my main reason I don't feel good in this past week is, I dealt with too many stupid guai lou here. Yes, they are more stupid than any other race on earth.  Last time I always think the local chinese are very 奇怪, they are stubborn, and they do things irrational, well, say that again here. Things that people do here are even more weird, more stubborn, and more backward.

First of all, my company has a $15,000 monthly take home salary guai lou, he always do nothing but goyang kaki at office. He come office late and go home early and always call and report his "fake" whereabout to me which I find it very annoying. You go tell the boss directly la, u tell me for what. Expect me to cover your ass when boss asked about you?

This morning, this si guai lou, I entered office with bag still on hand, jacket still on me, he signalled me to go to his room (and yes, today he was early). Then I thought si mi dai ji, her asked, "I am helping my son to print out his assignment, but it is in apple format. The printer in office says can't recognize the format and won't print, can you fix this?" I was like "..................." Aiyoh, you also know is different format lah, download the converter lah.. And by right you should not always use office printer for your personal stuff. Always print color photos, color documents, and now printing son's assignment? aiyoh!!!!!!! Damn sian. Earn so much, go buy your own personal printer lah so cheap, I earn so little also have a printer at home! Get a life!!!!

Damn gek hei.

Then, yesterday, I went do banking. I asked the teller, what's the procedure if one of our company wants to close the bank account? Does the signee need to come to the branch? Great, the robotic responce immediately got turned on, some more eyes not look at me, "For any business account related question, please direct it to your bank business account manager." It is his attitude and the way he answered so robotically that annoyed me to the max. HSBC, you failed me again! Don't you have a class to train your staff to look at the client's eyes directly when the client asked a questions and expects an answer from a human instead of from a robot? Really kanasai!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HMMMPH!!!!

I am so sick at them!!!!!!! Help me~~~~~~~~~~ I sometimes really have the urge to leave this place. Why on earth I want to come here for:( People here are so not smart, so want to wan bun, and soooo irritating. I rather deal with spitting chinese people and walk on a crowded street in China that it is impossible to not touch anybody or being touched (i hated these 2 things most when i was in china).

H-E-L-P !

sei guai lou!

some guai lou is so fake and insincere and yet they try to sound sincere or act like one. Well, I guess you are a bad actor.

Sei Guai Lou!!!!!!!! Stupid ass!!!

Nothing is impossible

The more I deal with banking in this country, the more I have a funny feeling. The bank here is so "flexible"... Do you know that if someone wrote you a cheque here, say your name is Jessica Liu, and your sister name is Jenny Liu, and your enemy name is Joanne Liu, if the cheque is payable to "J. Liu", all of you can cash the cheque. Soooo freaking flexible!  And even sometimes there's spelling mistake on the payee name, the cheque can still be cleared, without any question.

However, sometimes things are very none sense. They will get freaked out over something that we malaysian or china bank won't even ticked a bit. For instance, if you try to bank in a cheque for another person, say you are Jason, and I Elizebeth try to bank in a cheque for you at your bank. The cheque is your name. The freaking bank will kiah-si and asked you provide your ID for them to key into the system, for security reason. WTF? I cannot understand this. And if you try to bank in a cheque for soemone else using ATM, you think also don't need to think. IT IS NOT DO-ABLE! Period.

And then, sometimes different bank will tell you different rules. Like here, Coast Capital Savings Bank will say, all wiring funds need the actual person to sign on the paper at the branch. While HSBC Bank will just fax over a form, and you can sign it, and email it back. No need to go to branch. Simple. So, different bank, different standard.

One more incident, this Royal Bank of Canada, very sibeh chuen. Got one time, my boss because tam the rebate feature that the credit card has, so, he wanted to make a big donation via his credit card, to earn points mah. The problem is, his card credit limit, let's say is 30,000. However, he has used up 10,000 limit as of that particular day, and the donation is 30,000. Meaning he will go over his limit loh. So, instead of go over limit, what he did is he wrote a cheque of 20,000, asked me go bank it in for him, and only after the cheque went through, we only do the donation transaction. I went to the bank, got ready my ID because they sure ask my ID because the account is not mine (see? give them money also like sibeh difficult), and they look see look see, wasted my 20 minutes, check with their boss, and came back to me, "sorry, we cannot accept this cheque at the moment." I haven't even ask a single question, she continues, "I cannot tell you the reason.". I was damn angry that time. And I swear, even if I have few millions next time, I won't deposit a single cent into RBC! Anyway, to make the story more funny, I went back to office, boss told me they called him and told him why, it is because he only used up 10,000 limit that time, and it was before the credit card statement due date, that's why he cannot bank in a 20,000 cheque more than what he has spent (which is 10,000) to clear the balance. THE BANK HERE IS SO SI-KAP-PANG! (si-kap-pang, is a teow cheow phrase that my hubby taught me to use, means "square", in this context, means stubborn, no brain)

I think I can be a bank guru and write a book about banking services in Canada. Muahahahaha....

OK, ngam ngam chum chum whole post... forgot the objective me want to blog today. 恭喜发财！！！兔年行大运！！！身体健康！！！青春常驻！！！:))

Health

I remember last time when I was in my 20-s, I totally have no pressure going to the routine body check up (that time, only do body check up when change job, as required by new company, instead of now, do religiously yearly).

Now if I go for check up, I need to have preparation. I will cheat myself, let's say next week body check up, this week i will drink lots of water... no eat heaty food.. no eat fried stuff.... hoping this will yield a good result, of course deep down my heart i know this last minute good girl thing won't help at all.

We went for body check up here last week. Over here, if signed by your family doctor, the check up is free of charge, absorb by government. (we every month pay medical service fees to government gah...). The medical center for body check up was so full of people!!!!!! and only 3 counters are opened. We waited 2 hours to get it down. Simple check up only, no x-ray, no eye-check. Just take blood and urine. That's it.

Today, received a call from nurse, asking for Jay (no ask me). It got me so anxious. Asked the nurse what's wrong, she won't say. She says only the doctor can comment. At first we made appointment to see doc this Saturday. Today is Thursday. I know me... if wait til Saturday, i can't sleep, can't eat between now til Saturday. I will be anxious. So I think Jay knows me well, he said why don't he go today after lunch. I said yah, u go ahead. That was at 11.45am.

from 11.45 - 2pm, I was really restless... I kept thinking what's wrong with Jay's report. What if something happened to him?? What am I supposed to do?? All the negative thoughts just swamp in. The last I had experience this kind of feeling, was 2+ years ago, when mom told me dad has to go hospital to check up something. It was mentally torture for me. I don't want to go through this again. 

Turns out that, his cholesterol is higher than the normal range of 5. His is at 6. So have to watch out diet. Jay goes to gym routinely twice a week one... dunno why like that also can have high cholesterol. We didn't eat unhealthily also... I even controlled him only one trip to KFC for every quarter (3 months). But he alwasy break the rules by going there once a month. So, now I have to strictly enforce the rule, one KFC for every 12 months only!!!!! That's it. F*** u KFC.

Any recommendation on how to bring down the cholesterol effectively? Would really like to know...

Uncommon occupation for women

I think my whole life is very "library" oriented. Why I said so? Uni time, my house live right in front of a library, but I seldom go there. This is what chinese called 身在福中不知福. Right now, my house is also very near library. And then, my office is just right at the intersection of a cross road, where the vancouver central library is located! it is like the HQ of all the libraries. Ngo men nei sei mei!

Anyway, compared to last time when I still uni schooling, I cherish the library more nowadays. I guess because I am now more poor than uni time, so, better rent books to read as oppose to buy new one, although I really love the new book smell, and I have this weird habit of liking new stuff.... new cover... unfolded books.... I am weird I know. Even if I go supermarket buy juice or milk or anything, I always take the 3rd one on display, instead of the first one. I very silai too. hahaha...

Recently I am reading this book, the name very long, but anyway, it is about this girl who become a cab driver in New York. It is a very interesting book. It talks about the behavior of some passengers, and even traffic control officer. And she also gave an insights how to apply and go through the test to become a cab driver in New York. haha... It is not easy on her, because this job, in New York, is seldom applied by white people, and some more she is white, female.

Then it got me thinking... I once have a dream to become a plumber too. But my hubby and my good friend laughed at me, "You??? Please lah..... uh P-L-E-A-S-E!!! You say only.... you can't do it one!"... what's wrong with being a plumber wor....btw, the reason why I want to become a plumber is, I think the most annoying thing at home, to me, is whenever water is leaking, or something wrong to do with water. I don't like to rely on people one. So, if I am a plumber and I can do the job, how fantastic it will be, right??

My hubby said, "you no energy one.. how can you fasten a knob or tube? and you so afraid of dirty thing, how can you stand fixing the toilet bowl? Yo will faint!".... wah.... i never thought of that wor.... i only thought of fixing water temperature kind of thing, and changing pipe... i never thought of have to touch or see the si-si niu-niu leh...

Can I be a plumber with an exclusion clause - no deal with toilet bowl, and no deal with dirty stuff? hahahahhaa.... sigh.....

Maybe my hubby and my good friend is right..... I cannot one.... :(

credit card

Today chi xin already, posted 2 entries. haha...

As I am on the phone calling a credit card company in Malaysia to use my points to offset the blardy the $50 government fees (how can such policy be passed at the first place??? this is money sucker), my heart has a funny feelings... Just last week I was transferring money to pay my China credit card (the card is occassionally used for some other purpose, even though we not in China). And then 2 days ago, I was settling my canadian credit card bill online. It got me thinking, is it true that when you live at certain country for certain time, even though you not living there anymore, it feels so hard to disconnect yourself from the stuff you have had there, especially credit card. I keep having the thoughts that " keep it first... who knows wor... later I might have to move back to KL or China... if that time only come to apply credit card, how inconvenient?". So, there you go, I have credit cards in three countries now.

I wonder how long will I keep them for. Until when in my life will I have a certain answer "YES, I am staying here and ain't going anywhere else. I can LOUD LOUD say I want to cancel credit card country A, and credit card country B!"

But before I can LOUD LOUD say it out, I had better have a clear sense of each credit card's due date. Sigh... and thanks to the government fees, now I have one more thing to remember. This government fees is really getting on my nerves... I still don't understand what kind of service we receive from government on credit card that deserves this $50 pay out to government. Anybody knows this answer?? 很郁闷！

25-ish

In our office, we have a staff, he is 25 years old.

He is very good at talking, very socialable, in almost every restaurant he stepped into, he will sure know a person or two there. This I salute to him very much. In some sense, he is amiable. 人见人爱.

However, he do things, can make you puke blood. It is like, he do things is very chin chai, and don't care whether it gets done or not. And as a result, he either does things either too slowly and delay the schedule, or he does things incorrectly and at the end, we spent more time undo the wrong. Hmm....

What to do leh? He is one of the boss's son. So you know lah... sometimes even though I know the mistake was done by him, I have to hide my own heart and tell the boss, it was  the vendor's mistake, they didn't follow instruction that's why is wrong. bla bla bla.. sometimes I also feel I am good damn big liar, because of him!

So, it made me think, what was I when I was 25 years old??

When I was 25 years old, according to my resume, (haha), I was at my 3rd job already. It was a research analyst job. I think I am the type of responsible person from day 1, regardless whether I am 20 or 30 or later on 50. I don't simply do work... I don't delay the schedule... I do follow up so the project won't get delayed... everything I do, I do whole heartedly. I think I didn't give anybody shit at that time... I hoped so.. haha...

Then I have another 25-ish year old person, who thinks that it is 肤浅 for parents to ask for pocket money from their children. I was shocked. Too shocked to comment for few days. And this word  肤浅, is actually from his gf's mouth. Meaning, they both agree it is 肤浅 to give pocket money to their parents. Sigh... I cannot understand the logic. As I understood, most parents don't even 稀罕 the children's pocket month, they accept it because it is a token of appreciation from their children, for all the hard work the parents put in to the shape the children of where they are today. And the pocket money don't even need to be huge. Just give whatever you can. The figure $$ means nothing, it is the action that shows your appreciation. So how can it be 肤浅?? I really cannot comprehend. And I nearly choked when I saw this comment. Seriosuly, nearly choked. I guess I am a very traditional person, I beleive in respecting elderly people, especially our own parents. They most probably do not even need our pocket money, but to let them hear we think they are 肤浅 to accept pocket money from their children, I think will seriously hurt their fragile heart. These 25-ish people should understand that as parents grow old, their heart grows fragile too. Any mean word will paralized them for sometime, and whatever is done, is difficult to undo. Anyway, I think back to when I was 25-ish, I feel so proud to give pocket money to my parents every month. I never missed. And to see their contented look on the face, makes me proud too. So again, why is my 25-ish so different from the 25-ish people nowadays?? I really do not understand. Some more, the particular 25-ish person, when he was completing his phD (it takes 10 years to complete the whole process instead of just do a Bachelor degree), his dad, frequently send him money in USD. His dad sent so much until this 25-ish person has a $40K surplus at his bank account before he graduate. This kind of unconditional love, why can't he remember when he blurted out the word 肤浅??

I hope my readers are with me. It is nothing to feel shallow to give your parents pocket money, or to receive pocket money from your children. There, I said it! :)

p/s: after posted this post, only realized i made a mistake. The person I think he was 25-ish, is actually 30 years old this year. Wholly... 30 years old already still so childish in thinking???!!! lagi puke blood!

Car

In KL, We need to have a car, because our public transportation (if there is any??) sucks big time. I don't want to go into details.... but we all Malaysian, so we should understand what I am saying here. In KL, no car means no leg. No car means you won't be able to get a gf also. One household, how many people working (n), then the number of car is n+1. Why plus 1? Mama also needs a car to go pasar leh, right? If not we all go work, how mama get around??

So, I moved to Shanghai for 4 years+. No car. Reasons why we never think of buying car are: we don't have an F1 driver skill, so better not have car in Shanghai (all taxi drivers in Shanghai deserves a title of F1 driver); and also their subway (we called "ditie") is so so so so so advanced. Linking one place to another. When we reached Shanghai in 2006, we only have 3 lines I think... by the time we left Shanghai last year, it was I think more than 10 lines. Wholly Cow!!!! Go where also can I tell you. The only time I told Jay I wished we had a car in Shanghai was when it was pouring with rain after office hour and getting a cab is as difficult as winning lottery. Even hou choi let you sported one cab, you won't be able to win it over from the locals. The local ladies, if they want a cab, they can run even with high heel shoes. I always wonder where these cab drivers go whenever it rains... how can it  be so little cab on the road when it is raining leh??? 不解.

Anyway, now I am in Vancouver. With a car. But today I damn bored, i go and layout the scenario what if we don't have a car. I think we still ok wor.. first of all, we stay near a big mall, so, post office, grocery, cinema, banks, bookstore, food court, restaurants all no problem to get within walking distance. I also take skytrain go to work, not driving even though I have free carpark. The only time I think we need a car is when we go out play, like summer time go hiking, go short vacation, go Seattle. I think we can do ok by renting cars if we need to do that?

How leh.... shall we sell our car?? Help~~~

So busy

oiii... so busy lah~~~~~~~~~~

on the other hand, facebook has allowed me to "blog" bits by bits, that is why I seldom come back here to do a serious blog. hehehe...

We are going away during christmas time, to San Francisco! Yay~~~ hope everything is smooth lah. Will update soon.

公主嫁到

I have recently been watching this HK drama series 公主嫁到. So funny I tell you!!!! The jokes they tell inside the story is so funny~~~~~ Just one thing i cannot tahan, is they clap hands and make slogan. Whenever they do that, my hair on my hand will stand up. Really beh tahan.

It's has now just 大结局, finale~~~ Sob... I will miss this drama~

Speaking of HK drama, there's another one also very funny, it is just 20 minutes an episode, it's called 天天天晴. Damn funny too:) I am now on Episode 77, I heard total was 150 something... Hehehe...

So, besides sleep, yoga, cook, clean house, play iphone, another one of my favorite hobby here is watch HK series drama. ;)

September month 2010

I didn't blog much in September, because I have so much things going on at the same time.

First, I am all pumped up to go yoga at least 3-4 times a week. It started out fine. Then one day, on the way walking home passing through the stores in the mall, I saw a tea store, hiring a sales for 1 month. Why 1 month? because they are moving the store out of the mall to another location at the end of September. I like to drink tea very much, learnt from Jay. Jay likes to drink long jing, tie guan yin, jasmine tea, pu erh a lot in China. I actually can differentiate the types of tea by just smelling the tea nowadays. So, I came home from yoga class, took a shower, sat down and printed out my resume, and I grabbed Jay to go with me to the mall to apply the job. Inside the mall, I made Jay to go into the store to have a look, see if it is a "good" store, what kind of stuff they sell, etc. Jay came back and told me, "they sell ok stuff, not bad. Go do it babe.". So I went. The store manager is a Korean guy. He interviewed me at a cafe shop nearby, some more belanja me an orange juice tim, hehe... anyway, the point is, I got the job! I was so happy. The store is not a bad store, it sells 210 types of tea, from black tea, green tea, white tea, oolong tea, Roibos tea, to herbal tea, and fruit tea. And as a worker there, if the shop is not busy, we will brew tea and drink. I have tasted so many kinds of tea in the store in the past few weeks, and I have to say, I still like green tea and fruit tea the best. I really don't like black tea and roibos. And I have learnt lots of tea knowledge in the past few weeks, thanks to my 2 canadian colleagues, and my korean boss. They are so brilliant in tea knowledge. One guy, his name is Jer, (he looks like a Santa Clause to me, seriously), he can talk and talk and talk about tea for long time. He can be a good lecturer.

The tea shop closed up already few days ago. It's kind of sad. It made me also realized that retail job is very tiring, and the time is very inflexible. I am so glad this is just a one month assignment. They are moving to another place, my boss wanted me to move too, but I told him is too far. Actually, it is not far by subway, but I just don't feel like doing this anymore. And, opportunity arise, my friend's friend know a friend's company hiring in downtown, I went to apply, and I got the job! Monday is my first day of work:) It's a property development company. I will be doing something different from my professional, but it is a start. Who ask me want to migrate to a city where jobs are so scarce leh? See what do what first loh~~~ I always believe in fate. So, let's see how it goes.

Speaking of the tea shop sales, because of the sales and extra discount for staff, I ended up spent more than 10% of my pay to buy the tea pot, cups, and tea from the store! aiyoyo... memang rugi lah~~~  sob!

Update soon, and, wish me luck on my new job!!:)

p/s: at the end, i only did 9 yoga classes for the whole mth of Sept. Yeeeeee..... mission failed again! I planned to do at least 10 times!

Labor Day

Today is Labor Day of Canada, and U.S.

So different from Asia's labor day date.

dim gai leh?

It's a "No Tax Day" in Superstore. I bought the iPhone car charger. Now, if we are on the road, we no longer fear that my iphone is out of battery (especially when we are depending on it's GPS service). Yay. Saved 3 bucks oh. hohoho... If hari hari is No Tax Day, isn't that fantastic?

Also bought a bag of candle, it says "each can last about 8 hours"... I will try tonight. I discovered by accident that a brand I bought from carrefour in Shanghai can last about 5 hours, that's the longest I have seen in market. 8 hours? I first time hear only... duk ng duk gah?

Every where is on sale for Labor Day. I think after tomorrow, the kids will be back to school. Yay... everything will be back to normal, no more stupid college kids lingering in mall at day time (they look very 颓废). I also bought another pair of sun-glasses from GAP yesterday at downtown. I get 20% off if I signed up for their membership wor, so why not? Plus, they have this cool service, if the item you bought is having another sale within 15 days of your purchase, you will automatically get the difference credited back to your account. This kind of service, I 1st time hear. So considerate. I like it.

Love Hate Relationship

I am bored. I am going to apply for the volunteer job from canadian red cross. They asked me to do criminal record check because the volunteer job will include contacting the children who are in disadvantage or vulnerable.

I discussed with my fren Hosea. He said criminal record check need $$$ one... and not cheap. I said, "wah.... I free labor also kena pay meh?? I dun believe. And if they want me pay, i no do volunteer liao."

Hosea asked me call the RCMP directly... i very very very very scared... immediately in my mind I picture those mata we have back home... the impatient face, the "bagi kopi duit" face, the "don't ka-ka cau-cau" face. I very hesitate to call. But, I don't want to go all the way there to find out one simple answer "if i do volunteer job and they want me provide criminal record check, do i have to pay or not?"

I called... the automated machine put me on hold for a while, which made me more nervous -- "means they are busy leh... and they will answer this phone and realize it is a small matter like this and waste thier time, will they get mad??? oh dear... should I hang up?"

Just when I was tempted to hang up, a lady officer answered the phone. I told her my question, she answered very professionally (not rushing me to hang up) and explain very detail. Apparently if I am doing this for non-profit organization and if they gave me a letter, I won't have to pay. And she even advised me what to bring to do that. Wow... I am so motivated after the phone call. I love Canada! hehehe...

Even with this criminal record check done, it does not guarantee me a volunteer job. You see... this country is so lurn si... no job, even if it is a volunteer job, you need to be on wait list loh.

Love Hate Canada.

Save some trees, would you?

I signed up for a month unlimited passes to Yoga. It is a community recreational center, very very very near my house... so, why not?:p

Anyway, there's an incident happened today and yesterday (at bank), that makes me 感慨万分.

Yesterday, at bank, we are opening a new account, something like FD in Malaysia. So, the financial planner asked me, "do you want us to mail you the monthly statement? Or do you like to go paperless and view it online?". I have had terrible experience with HSBC on e-statement, I damn scared. I told her I want the monthly statement mailed and also i want to be able to view online. She a bit boh song wor... she said, "ok.. just thought will give you an option to save some trees... hehehe." I totally don't think it is funny loh. I want to tell her my bad experience with HSBC... but I refrained. I want both options still, i told her.

Today, at that recreational center, I changed something on my pass. So the guy at reception helped me changed in the system, and then asked me if I want to print out the statement (after he made the changes). I said, "yes, why not?" Then he pushed his computer screen to me and show me the changes were done, implicating there's no need to print it out lah. He said, "so.. do you still need the print out?". I felt pressured. I said, "fine, no need then." Then he like very happy, and he said, "great, we saved a tree!"

I have no problem in saving trees. But the "saving trees" and "HSBC bad experience" kept haunting me. They are like twins, whenever people said "save a tree", I will think of the bad HSBC. eeeeeeeeee....

I need to do more yoga to calm myself. huhuhuhuhu~~~

Okanagan Trip (Aug 13-16)

Some Pictures of what we took in the okanagan trip. A trip full of wine drinking/tasting/buying/vineyard photo taking, beach photo taking, our friends skinny deep diving (with clothes on though), staring at milky star sky at night, staring at RV and making the sound "ooooh... what a cool life style", etc etc.This is Suki, it is the first time she met Jay but it seems that she is very manja-ing Jay. Look at her.... so manja! She belongs to the vineyard called Forbidden Fruit.At a cross road...At a beach. No, it is at ONE of the beach, we visited so many beaches this trip, but Jay and I didn't go swim, we didn't bring swim suit!!First time see real grape in whole vine yardMore grapes...3 Men fantasazing at this "Dirty Laundry" vineyard. Can you see there are 13 women in this poster? This vineyard is called "Dirty Laundry", it has a story... hehehe... dirty story?:p Don't tell you.Hans caught a glimpse at this little bug and he picked it up, got bitten, but he said it is fine. While he was doing all these, we 3 asian went to shop for grocery, and bought sweet corns!! Damn nice sweet corn, better than those we have in Cameron Highland.Cool RV Van eh? They will be stationed here during the summer and when winter come, they will move down to Arizona. Even though this is not exactly a house, they still have to pay for property tax. How brilliant is canadian government?

It's the first short trip we have in Canada. We stayed in different motel for all the 3 nights, the motel is exactly what I imagined (and i get the imagination from watching movie) and I kept thinking the police will come knock on the door and said "POLICE! come out with hands up!!", only people on the run will stay in motel in the movie ger mah, right?:p We each day spend like 3-4 hours driving on the road, it is a great experience. end up the motel is the biggest chunk of the expenses, the petrol is really cheap. 4 days 3 nights tour we only spent like $98 in total. And really appreciate our fren Hosea for contributing his car. hehehe...:) And we have had great fun - peach picking and tumbled into graveyard next to it (eeeeeeerie), and ended up picking at the wrong spot and got the small peach instead of the big ones, we are so blur! - driving at night and suddenly i saw so many stars in the sky, i was so excited! And Hans suddenly pull over the car, we thought he wants to go "sing song" (shuuu shuuu), no, he purposely pull over the car to let us enjoy the milky star! hohohoho... At that moment, I really thought we are the only creature on earth, the feeling is very 原始, dunno how to describe.

Taste Bud changed

I still remember when we first moved to Shanghai, we thought the food there sucks. It was too oily, too salty, and too sweet. But then slowly, we found restaurants that we love the food there. And then suddenly one year, when I went back to Malaysia, I excitedly go visit those my favorite stalls for chaw kueh teow, laksa, dim sum, and I ended up feeling very disappointed --- they no longer taste good. The cook has changed?

No, it was our taste bud has changed. It has been accustomed to Shanghainese/Chinese style and it strayed away from our Malaysian style slowly.

I think the same thing is happening to me again. Yesterday, Hosea brought us to this Malaysian restaurant. He said the laksa is damn nice. I was so excited. Went there, put the first spoon of soup inside my mouth, and I was totally disappointed again - Not nice one!!! But then Hosea finished his whole bowl of soup.

Jay and I tried out this Sichuan restaurant 2 days ago and we ordered the spicy froggie. I have never tasted such undelicious froggie... :( Obviously the froggie is not fresh and it was from frozen food. We were both disappointed.

Jay and I haven't really found any good restaurant that we both think it has good food. So far, whenever we go try out new restaurant with excitement, it always end up with disappointment. Sometimes I will murmur to Jay, "I cook also taste better than them... yew..." =(

Maybe it takes time?? So far, I really think I cook better than any food we tasted outside. This feeling is no fun. I am very 泄气. By the way, I am not a fantastic cook. I am just a normal cook, so, those cook outside can easily surpass my level, but no, the food tasted not nice one!

Help~~~~~~~~~~

p/s: The only thing that does not fail me yet is the Japanese restaurant here. Japanese food here tastes so much fresher and so much better than those in Shanghai. Of course lah, the salmon fish is from here leh..

My plant

Remember I had a plant 2 months ago (2 chives, 1 chilli)?

After I returned from Shanghai in August, they already not quite happy, especially the chives. But surprisingly the chilli is ready to harvest. I had harvested 2 chilli and cooked it with meal, it is very spicy! and nice:)

Lately, the plant have another 2 chilli, but they are half-blackened, not sure what happened. But this morning, I saw another baby chilli coming out. Hohohohoh...

I decided to gave up on the chives. It's too messy lah... 东歪西倒. Not pretty at all.

Jay said this is my another "3-minute passion" example... arrghhhh...

Refund Policy over here...

As you all know, America and North America have excellent refund policy. This is very good to consumers like me, who always change mind after buy the things. I always change my mind about stuff and if it happens in Shanghai, I can only continue using the stuff I suddenly don't like, or I throw it away. But here, if I don't like what I purchased, I can always return them and get refund.

I bought electronic hand held mixer, mixing bowl, and angel cake pan 2 days ago. Today, I refunded the mixing bowl and angel cake pan. But I am a bit bad person today, I actually used them and realized I don't like them, and I repackaged them nicely and have them returned. The mixing bowl, I decided I wanted the stainless steel type instead of the hard plastic type. And the angel cake pan, I returning them because I failed to make good angel cake, I threw away the angel cake I baked 2 days ago, it is that bad. So I cleaned up the pan nicely and sticked back the sticker onto them and refund them... and I have prepared so many lines in my head of the questions they might ask. Worst come to worst, I will become a mou lai, tell them "I don't care, I have the right to return the stuff I bought within 14 days, so just processed my return!" But they didn't ask anything. They just ask for my credit card to charge it back the amount to my card.

But actually, they have no lost also lah, I will buy the stainless steel mixer bowl and another loaf pan from the same store again. Yes, this time I can confirm stainless steel mixer bowl and loaf pan are what I indeed want to have. No more return lah.

I want to bake sponge cake. Anyone has any good recipe to share with me?? The guai low style of sponge cake (apparently they called it "angel cake") is really lousy, the recipe I got is too sweet and the taste is awful! yucks. I want sponge cake!

Going back to Shanghai

Going back to Shanghai for few days! Yay!

I am debating with myself, should I bring Lee Kai Fu's 世界因你不同 to continue finish reading it, or the novel I bought in KL's mph "Dear John".

Dim leh???  Probably Dear John because it is lighter, and because I want to slowly read this great book written by LKF. Some of his childhood stories made me laugh even when I was bangsai-ing.... haha~~

Hooray~~~~~

Warming Drawer

I am very 孤陋寡闻，only today I realized the existence of such appliances, named "warming drawer". Quote from a website "Warming drawers are the perfect solution for keeping dishes warm while you're waiting for guests to arrive or putting the finishing touches on the rest of the meal. "

They are not cheap!

Look at that! It's really a perfect solution to keep your dishes warm while waiting for your other dishes to complete cooking eh? For me, I always have this problem -- i like to cook, then only take shower before eating the meal. So by the time I finished the shower, some of the dishes are already turned cold, which I really don't like. But there's no way for me to eat first and then shower later because that will mean I have to shower much later - 2 hours after the meal.
 
I want this "toy" when we have our own house next time. It's such a cool feature!

Inception

I had so much expectation towards this movie Inception after I saw its trailer 2 weeks before it's show time.

I went for a movie last night, to watch Inception.

The outcome --- not quite I expected. First of all, the movie have this jap guy right called Saito - without subtitle of the movie in the cinema (I miss those english movie with subtitles in china and in KL), sometimes I don't know what is he talking about with his strong accent. And the dying father of Fischer, the last word he muttered "disappointed....." the "....." is so important, but again, I can't hear it, neither can Jay nor my English speaking friend. Arghh... a bit frustrated on that part.

The whole movie is too "intelligent". I can't understand some of the part, like the part Cobb told Mal they did grow old together.. and the 50 years they spent in their dream, then how come they not old one?? OMG, it's killing my brain cells so much. I have to come back home and googled for "inception explained" and got some of the answers (not all).

Overall, I don't quite like it lah. It's not my cup of tea I guess. I like to watch something I can understand with my own intelligent level. But I get to know that the director of this movie Christopher Nolan, he himself have this experience and fantasy to control his own dreams since he is young. But have to admit his plot is very very sci-fic loh. And the "effect" is very "real" in some part. I like it when Arthur walks in the hotel upside down and sideways. Hehehe... very cool. :p

Recently also watched Clash of Titans (downloaded). I find it quite nice. Not super nice, but not that bad also lah. I don't know why most chinese in China do not like the movie. They said the movie very childish. I find it quite OK, i will give it 6.5 out of 10 loh. haha.. The chinese only give 4-5. I also "accidentally" watched andy lau's 未来警察, because it is starred by Andy Lau, I thought it is a nice movie. But I was totally, absolutely, miserably disappointed by the whole movie. It's cheap, childish, and totally without nice graphic effect except for Andy Lau's police outfit. Damn, wasted my 1.5 hour. I was very angry after I watched it.

Composting

Just get to learn new vocab as I researching on composting method:

- straw: 稻草
- bark: 树皮
- sawdust: 木屑
- manure: 肥料

And apparently coffee grounds contain high level of nitrogen which worms will find it tasty..

And then, there are those specialize compost bin for sale one, and they are not cheap. This is so new to me.

Have a little faith

I have become Mitch Albom's reader after my dad passed away in 2008. His books soothe me in some ways, not spiritually, just something I cannot explain. And also most of his stories are true stories, real life stories.

I bought this book in Chicago Airport last year, when I was transitting the flight to Virginia to meet my family for the vacation. And I only get to read it early this month. I finished the book this morning, as usual, his book always leave me with teary eyes at the end. I am easily touched by emotional sentences in the book, especially when it is death related, because every death related incident made me think of my dad, and I miss him so much, still do, every single day.

At first glance, it is a book of religions. After my dad passed away, I believe in no religion at all, for if something so powerful named God, I am sure he wouldn't make somebody as nice a person as my dad to leave this world so abruptly. This is unfair, and I still hold grudges towards Him (if he is out there). I don't care if I go to hell after I died, because I am losing faith that there is a Heaven anyway. Anyway, why do I still buy this book even though at first glance it is about religions? Because I believe in Mitch Albom the writer. Well, he proves me right again, this is aother good book written by him, after Tuesdays with Morrie. I have 5 of his books, and I still think Tuesdays with Morrie is still my favorite. I have to "murder" 2 tissue papers when I read the last chapters. It is that moving.

Just like to share some of the good books I read recently, now that I have so much time on hand for reading.

My first attempt on muffins

My first attempt on muffin. Turns out quite good and Jay is loving it:) It is his birthday today. This is his birthday cake so to say:)

Making muffin here is so easy, they already premix some ingredient and sell it in pack, u just need to add 2 eggs, some water, and some blueberry:) And baking time needed is only less than 20 minutes.

I want to learn how to bake cake next!

The Christmas List

I haven't had this feeling for very long time, too long that I don't even remember when was the last time - to finish a book within a day because I simply can't get my hands and eyes off it. I borrowed "The Christmas List" from library yesterday, and I was having such a good time reading it. At some chapters, i will laugh out all loud, some chapters I will laugh cynically, and towards the end of the chapters, I was crying and Jay was so worried he asked me what am I reading, is everything OK?

This is a book of love, friendship, father & son, betrayal, redemption and repention, etc. Oh.. so emotionally rich! Towards the end of the chapters, I was first crying because I was feeling so romantic and touched, then I cried because I felt sad because his wife is dying, then I cried because I felt happy for him that he has changed to a better man!

I am seriously thinking of buying this book to keep. Jay said I crazy, it will just collect dust on our bookshelve and I won't even read it second time. Maybe he is right. Anyway, I can picture how great a movie will the plot from this book make. Not sure if they made it into movie before?

bui bui's "new" bike

Bui Bui's "new" bike. We bought used one advertized online. He joined a gym lately, the gym's location is not very far, not within walking distance either, so, driving is a waste and parking is a hassle. Instead, biking is the best option. But we very giamsiap on spending. New immigrant mah, get used one loh. It is selling for $100. It took us forever to get this bike fit into our car, and at the end, scratches our baby (our honda) a bit on the trunk. Bad boy! It had better worth all the effort in getting it. It is now sitting in our store-room. Bui Bui is lazy, he should have brought it to pump air in the gas station nearby, but instead, he goes to take a nap. He very 吊儿郎当 sometimes.

In order to bike "legally", he also made an attempt to buy a new helmet, and a new lock. We were so startled when we went into the biking store, it has so many biking related stuff that we will never even think of. Sports is a crazy industry and good business in BC. 

The used bike, as advertized, it is a "18-speed Sportek "Mud Dawg" Full Suspension with Shimano Altus parts". Without the stickers though.

It's a bright sunny day @ Stanely Park

We didn't have a swim suit when we visited Stanley Park yesterday (I totally forgotten Stanley Park has a beach), so we just chilling under a big tree, and playing with jay's phone's camera;)

new hobby

I bought chives and superhot chilli (指天椒) and transplanted them to small pot at my balcony today. Jay commented sarcastically "let's see how long will my honey's new hobby last this time". Hmmmmm....

I forgot to get any furtilizer... yiu.... have to go back to the farm again?

Learnt new vocab

I am constantly learning new vocabulary here (shy shy...):

I thought all 地毯 is called carpet. I didn't know the smaller ones are called rug until now.

I thought the small drawer next to bed is called drawer, but it is actually called "night stand".

I thought all tables are called table, i didn't know there's coffee table, tv stand (yah i considered this table too), and dining table.

And then, I thought chairs are chairs. I didn't know there's a type called "ghost chair", and I thought it is very scary. Then only I realized ghost chair is just those chairs very plastic feel, almost transparent, maybe that's why it is called ghost chair.

And then, I didn't know 烤 is broil. I didn't even know the word "broil" existed before this. Luckily we brought a dictionary over. So I checked it out and realized I have the chicken "baked" instead of "broiled" for past 5 minutes, so, I quickly change the setting to broil and have the wonderful broiled chicken. haha.

I have to say I am a bit lost here still. I really miss Shanghai a lot. Miss the food, miss the cheap books, miss the cheap stuff, miss the taobao.com, miss amazon.cn, miss sooooooo many things. wooo...wooo...... Miss communicating people in pure mandarin. sei mei?

One lazy afternoon at Granville Island

All the troubles seem so far away when you have such beautiful day.

Canada Day

Tomorrow, July 1st, is Canada Day. Holiday.

National Day for Canada. (Don't ask me how many years it went independent, so memalukan to say, I also don't remember how many years has Malaysia went independent)

Strange that I don't see many houses or cars hang the national flags... Maybe here not "heng" this??

I am so sleepy~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

hey, I miss Shanghai!!!!! I love Shanghai!!! It took me 2 years+ to fall in love with Shanghai, will it take me same amount of time to switch to love Canada??? Sometimes I feel so pathetic to be a Malaysian -- pardon me and forgive me but I have to say this out loud - I feel I am a second citizen in everywhere in this world, including my own country! But to be honest, I don't feel so "second" in China at all. In China, we foreigners are treated so equally with the rest of the chinese people, it makes us feel so comfortable in that sense without any "discrimination". They don't have special discount for locals in buying houses regardless your skin color (eh-hemmm..); they don't have certain bank acount or termed deposit for certain kind of people (eh-hemmm-hemmmmmm!!!); they don't have the kind of different attitude in police station in treating different skin color people (eh-hemm-hemmm-hemmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!).

When can I fall in love with my own country without feeling depressed???

p/s: I feel depressed recently because my sister got bullied at "polis" station because of the accident involved with a "ah-hem" race and we chinese race. The polis man immediately have that kind of look on their face that shows "must be the ah-hem race correct, chinese is at wrong". WTF is this???? Still got 天理 in our country or not??? This is totally high-level-discrimination!!!!!! The very truth is, the ah-hem race is at fault because his stupid motorbike hit my sister car because he still goes at red light and there are witnesses and the polis still want to say the guy is right and my sister is wrong! WTF is wrong with our country?

Hmm...

I am so going to watch Sex and the City 2!!!!!!

And, just discovered iGoogle, it is cool! The search page now is empowered with your unique preference style.

Someitmes I wonder, what were we doing when we were without internet and handphone last time?

Fuzzy Wuzzy

I bought a new "gadget" today.

You know how I cannot stand the dust on the table surface? Today while I shop at a supermarket, i saw this thing called "Fuzzy Wuzzy". It is a unique double sided multi purpose mitt, that allows you to clean the dust easily. And then the other good thing is, it is machine washable - again, this is environmental friendly and economical eh?

Mine is the pink one. hehe. Can you see the BEFORE and AFTER effect?

I didn't know it sells so cheap on Amazon. I paid like 5.99 to get this leh... and I am so surprised it only sells 0.99 at amazon. eee....

This baby really sweep away the dust so easily and leave the surface so clean and smooth. I guess the dust are all trapped in the strip like thing on this fuzzy wuzzy thing.

Better than 鸡毛扫？=）

老爸，你也在听吗？

以前就觉得bui bui在很多方面很像我父亲。今天，他在youtube播放了很多他喜欢的老歌--猫王的"only you", "love you tender", "always on my mind", John Lennon's "Imagine", Simon & Gafunker "Sound of Silence"... 听着这些老歌，让我很是想念我的父亲。听着听着，眼眶湿湿的...

bui bui 说他很喜欢这类老歌。连这一点都像我父亲，不爱死他是不行的了...

不知道我的父亲这时候是不是也在天国享受着这一些老歌，还是他已在tea-time with Elvis up there???

My new toy - Vacuum cleaner!

I bought a new toy today -- it is a vacuum cleaner! I feel very happy when I bought it, and it suddenly hits me to realize that... am I 100% silai nowadays? I can feel very happy easily if I bought a useful household items, a nice oven plate, or even a handy rice container can make my day. Geez.... .....

Anyway, I am now charging the toy now. It is a cordless, bagless, stick broom type of vacuum cleaner. It is light, small and can fit into store-room closet perfectly. I didn't know the brand name before this, it is Oreck. But I came back yesterday and google for its review, seems pretty decent. So, I went back to buy it today. The indian seller gave me a free-gift. He wanted to give me a watch, it is very a cheap watch. I have so many nice watches I have no time to wear them, and u expect me to wear those china-made watch meh? So, I boldly asked him if he can give me other same value gift or not, I don't need a watch. At the end, he gave me a hand sanitizer liquid. Hehehe... this is much better. See? I am happy again for this liquid... Geez..... .....

I will try it on tomorrow. Hopefully it meets my expectation. My expectation is not high -- i want it light and no restriction for me to move around, so cordless it is; I want it to be able to convert to crevice tool to pick up dust in between sofa's cusion, this one can do, so should be alright; I want it to be economical and I don't want to keep buying bags to replace bag, so this one is bagless, I am glad. I just need it to work on the floor and some rugs, and keep my house clean. This expectation is minimum right? The dust is driving me crazy. I cannot stand to see dust lying on the surface, it drives me crazy and I will mumble whole day. Jay kept asking, "Have u taken your medicine, Martha?" [if you watched "24 hours", you will catch this line.. martha was president logan's wife, and she was mentally ill, at least that is what Logan believed, haha]. And I will answer him back, "are you my lover Aaron or u are stupid Logan?" [Aaron is Logan's body guard, but he became martha's lover at the end. Haha...]

We met a guy on the lift when coming back just now. He wished me "happy sweeping"... I really look like a silai I guess. SOB!

Our cell phone package - How I get "con" into subscribing to iPhone

We got our cell phone packaged gao tim on Day 2. I didn't do a good home work on this, so, I just go for what everybody says a good phone company - Rogers. It is just like Maxis in Malaysia.

We visited the Rogers at Downtown inside the Pacific Center, the system was down for more than 2 hours, so by the time after our dinner, it was still not able to sign us in. The salesman suggested us to go to another nearby branch, I think it was on robson street or somewhere there. So, we went. At the Pacific Center, both Jay and I have made up our mind to just subscribed to the minimum package, they have this thing called "couple plan". Then when we reached the robson st. branch, this lady, her 口才 is damn good, she ignited my passion for the iPhone with their promotional plan! I think the store got ghost also, coz it blinded my mind, I signed up for the iPhone package, which tight me up for the next 3 years. 3 years leh~~~~~ after I came out of the store, only I realized 3 years is a hell long time - after 3 years, I can be citizen already if I want to! So, it is a damn long time! But the lady is very good, she is very helpful, very passionate about her job. And she stayed up til 10pm that night just to sign us up (their working hour is supposing til 7pm only). we really appreciate for her help, even though she successfully "con" me into another iPhone customer.

But.... iPhone is really a great phone!! Lots of application is very user friendly in daily life. I love it, although the "3 years" thing is very haunting... anyway, what is done, is done.

We both signed up for 3 years deal, both got a new phone (free if u signed up for 3 years). Jay didn't get an iPhone, in fact, he didn't care about phone, he is fine as long as people can find him on phone or make phone calls. He got the LG again (yes, again... he is such a LG man), and the phone has the push-email function, so whenever he received an email, his phone will beep.

So, this is our cell phone package hunting (or, hunted) experience. Phone package here in Canada is so inhumanely high. In china, my phone bill per month seldom exceed 150 yuan (that is like 24 CDN dollar). But over here, my phone bill each month, minimum is 70 cdn dollar!!! (before blardy tax some more ok). I really miss shanghai....

Would I stay here for the next 3 years???

p/s: It has been a while I get pushed by pedestrian here. In Shanghai, I get pushed everytime I am walking on the street. I kinda miss the pushiness over there... Help~~~~~~

Big Ticket Item - Car

As soon as we arrived, we realized we needed a car. We are not those energetic students anymore, can figure out where to take bus. Unlike in Shanghai where subway can practically brings u to anywhere u wanted to go, and for places where subway cannot reach, you can always take a cab. It's totally totally different here. So, we need a car. (I really miss the subway-life in Shanghai... so convenient... I think I am a very subway-girl... :s)

My good fren Hosea is very kind to lend us his car while he goes to work. So, we take his car to shop around car dealer shop. Our aim is to get a used car. If we were to sell it off again in a year's time, it won't depreciate that much. We have test-drove toyota matrix, honda civic, and toyota corolla. Matrix is quite spacious inside, but the engine is very loud, yes we know this version engine is quite loud, but it is very uncomfortably loud, so we passed that one. The corolla is in orangy red color, Jay doesn't like it, and I also think the resell value could be affected given this strange color, even though its mileage is very low, so we gave it a passed as well.. so, at the end, we bought the Honda Civic, it's blue color - Jay's favorite color, and it's very comfortable. Both of us test-drove it (the car dealer very scared of me, coz i so used to Malaysia road system, i drove very to the right side... could have hit the right lane car one... til today I still have this issue... dim suen??), we both love it, the only disadvantage it has is its mileage is very high, well, nothing is perfect in this world. We feel it has some connection to us, like we knew him very long time like that. So, this is yuen fen, we bought it. I bargain for it, wanted to bargain for 500 off, at the end only get 350 off... ok lah, better than nothing. The car salesman is a Korean guy, can see he very happy to make this deal. While we sigining the paper, the toyota guy kept calling my handphone... yew... so hungry meh these salesmen? So, we paid the money in cash (what to do? new immigrant, no cheque book yet, no credit card yet), gao dim the insurance in 15 minutes (damn expensive the insurance here!! and I already got 40+% off because I hold canadian driver license for more than 10 years, luckily I got it renewed on last trip), and drove the new baby back the same day. We are quite efficient in buying car. Haha...

Do you like it?:) So, this is our first big ticket item - Honda Civid used car - got it on Day 3.

p/s: by the way, car dealer here is very strange, they can sell new car (say authorised car dealer for toyota), and at the same time carries different brand of used car. Very chap-ba-lang.

In Vancouver

Hey folks, haven't been blogging for a while, I hope I can resume doing so next week. Time flies, we have been in Vancouver for 3 weeks+ already! Wow... I can still remember the night before our flight, I was having difficulties in sleeping because my mind was still twirling around the luggages - "will it be too heavy?" "did I bring everything?" "where did I put the lock? shit!" "would we create a scene with 4 big luggages?" "excess luggage charge?"

But it turns out everything is fine. MU didn't even check the luggage weight. However, we did have some small issue in Vancouver Airport. Apparently we have to know EXACTLY how much money (different currencies) we bring into Canada and declare it. As you know, we are quite a heavy travellers, we have unfinished euro, australian dollars, US dollars, canadian dollars, renminbi, ringgit, HK dollar, Macau dollar, Japanese yen, Indo notes, etc etc, we really do not know EXACTLY how much money each currency we have! So, we gave an estimates to the officer. The officer jotted down our words, and then he said, "OK folks, I am going to search your luggage, if I found more $ than what u declared, they will be confisticated, understood?". WAHHHH.... I immediately stopped him, "actually, those are only estimates. If you want the real number, let me count in front of u. we don't want to lie to u, but we really do not know how much we have." So, as we searching for keys to unlock the luggage, officer said, "OK, wait here.". He went into a room, and when he came out, he just said, "I believe the number you told me this time. But next time, please know how much currency you bring into Canada. Today is the only warning you going to get, understood?". What a relief... phew... actually, they just want you to declare how much money u bring into canada, they are not going to tax u, they just need to know, so to avoid terrorist bringing big sum of money into the country.

Will blog more next week =)

Enjoying house wife life

It's been quite some time since I last blogged. Partly it is due to I have been busy with all the preparations, secondly I realized most of the time (last time) I only blogged when I was pissed at work. So, now that nobody is my boss (not even bui bui), my life is fill with happiness and skin also become better tim, I find no time or no reason to blog. Hahaha...

I am enjoying house wife life!!! And fuck you, M*tt*l, fuck you Karen Ong!

(sometimes I still pissed thinking what she did! I hope she is not sleeping with the bosses again, like what she did in Electrolux, shame on you!)

See? Whenever I blog, I like to venture out my dissatisfaction, be it now or accumulated from last time. Haha!!

I have been busy packing (say only... i only packed one out of 7 days...), gettiing quotations for various reason, calling to get more info (e.g. If I have a golf set bag, does it count to my luggage weight limitation as well? e.g. Can I use your "e-boarding" services? No??? Why??? It's for domestic flight only?? Oh....), reading to understand more on info on buying house and buying car over there... medical coverage... etc etc etc... Whenever I get 1 question answered by reading or by asking question, I feel satisfied and I go play facebook, go see stock market, go email, go msn, give excuses to myself "Yay, accomplished something today, let's have some fun now lah. haha" Days go by without me knowing, it's really time to count down. It's just 1 month's time away.

I am both excited and worried about my new chapter. But I am definitely happy not working for the stressful and full of bitch company (just one bitch only actually). And as I said before, it's such a nice feeling to cook for bui bui and see his satisfied look every night at the dining table, he himself also said, "if I knew earlier of this good life, I would have asked u not to work from day one." :) so sweet of him.

That day went shopping with my girl friend, passed by 2 shopping mall, went to see the x counter. Cheh... thought that bitch got simi power said she gonna do this do that, my ASS, nothing has been done, the counter is as old as last time, and no customer also. Some more said when she gonna launched the fashionista, she gonna hired Coco Lee to come do the dance, sing, be on TV and to be the brand ambassador.. My Ass again!!! Nothing was going on, and the fashionista is already displayed out, means what? Means they are NATO again (no action, talk only!). cheh cheh cheh!!!!!! Don't even mention that bitch also said want to renovate the in-store look. My ass again, the store still look the same as 4 years ago. Renovate with new fixture? Where huh?? after spending RMB200,000 on fixture/merchandising design, where is the result huh??

Hahaha... so happy bitching on my own blog. Yay, satisfied now, gonna log out and enjoy my tv series time, followed by cooking.

Ciao~ til next time~~

2010 CNY Family Gathering

We - one big family of Jay's side and my side, spent our first few days of CNY at Muar - Bukit Tinggit and then Cameron Highlands. This will be a great memory trip in the future:)

At Bukit Tinggit:

At Cameron Highlands:

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!:)