傻狗祝你狗年快乐！

Hey there.

Here's my CNY post!

I still remember that last year CNY I had a very special 幸福 moment at my cousin's rich residential area (actually I remember because I just happened to read back my post, that's the good thing about keeping a blog right?).

Well, this year I didn't really have any special moment nor feelings. But I just wanted to blog because I have some pictures to share lol (new camera *wink* ).

So, this year's CNY was rather relaxing. Not like last year where I was in the first month of my PRP training! It was so stressful that even very simple things also can make me happy?! Remember?!

Now thinking back... What was I so stressed out about that time? Pfft. 

Since I'm "floating" at the store now, my work is rather simple and I have a lot of free time after working hours. Don't have to rush assignments anymore! Don't really have deadlines for my tasks because the tasks given to me are actually not really urgent (might not even be important haha).

So I feel like I'm having my honeymoon period now. Doing work at my own pace... Have time to do my own non work - related stuffs after work... I must admit I'm quite enjoying the life now, but sometimes I feel I should do more. Hmm I should seize the time to learn as much as possible about inventory management so that I have an advantage if I work in the private sector in future, perhaps?

I'm grateful to have done my PRP training in HKKB. The best thing here is that the colleagues here are nice. I have not seen any politics here so far. I have not seen any PRP got scolded yet. Everyone work together in harmony generally.

So, if I'm given the choice, I will still choose HTAR as my working place haha. Of course, if I work at HTAR I can save a lot of money and I can be near family. But if I have to choose between big hospitals other than HTAR and HKKB, I would probably choose to stay in HKKB. Cos the people in HKKB are mostly nice, and peoples' mood, behavior and attitude really can affect your mood too.
KKB is generally a good place to live if we don't really mind about some of the minor drawbacks like lack of food choice, far from cities and frequent water disruption.

In fact, I've heard from the senior pharmacists that our big boss intend to retain my partner and I. We came to HKKB together and we're among the first batch of contract PRPs. We're the ones who waited the longest for our PRP posting, and now even FRP posting also need to wait for God-knows how long. It's been 2 months + past  our PRP training period and yet there's no announcement regarding our posting yet. For the previous batch, they usually have to be posted to another facility (can be in a different state) and they usually get the posting within 1 month after finish PRP.

But now that our big boss said to not one but a few senior pharmacists that she's gonna retain us, sounds like she has confidence that she can retain us. It's just that we're waiting for an official announcement or document.

Haha back to my CNY story. This year I did something crazy. It night not be a big deal to some but to me it is kinda big.

I bought my first cheongsam in my life.... wait for it.... with RM635! I think I made an irrational purchase lah! Never have I bought a clothing piece more than rm200 and now suddenly I bought RM 635 one! 

It's a tailor made cheongsam sold in a shop specialised in traditional wear (Emerald Brilliant @ One Utama) and its made of Thai silk. I think the main factor that lead to this regretted buy was because the lady boss was a pro in selling cheongsam. The designs and workmanship were good quality and their service was really good. I've been looking for cheongsam for weeks and yet none of the cheongsam fit my taste so when I entered this shop, they have a wide variety of choices and some designs caught my attention. But when I saw the price I wanted to leave already but somehow... I stayed... Don't know why! In normal circumstances I would usually just leave once I saw ridiculous price as such but I stayed...! Did the shop owner place voodoo spells on the shop or something like that? Lol. Or just because the lady boss so pro in retaining customers.

Dang.. So I 被骗去 fitting room... Tried on a few sets of cheongsam.. And the one I bought.. I like the flower patterns.. Its like Chinese brush paintings.. Heck.. They even can alter anything until it fits my body shape perfectly... Loosen the high collar.. The only bad thing that kept me from buying it immediately was that something was pricking my skin when I was wearing the cheongsam. At that time, I thought, must be the silk fabric because it's not that kind of soft silk like Chinese silk, it's a rough kind of silk. The lady boss suggested to soak it in fabric softener and it would be OK.

Still, I'm hesitant to buy coz of the price! With this price I would expect it to be very comfy and fitting. But it is far from comfy, it's making my skin itchy!

So I asked for HL's opinion a few times already, actually hoping her to stop me from buying, or help me to find an excuse to leave. Haha. So I thought, if they can't do the alteration for me by 4pm on the same day, I won't buy because I won't be coming back again.. That's too troublesome (plus I have to work during next weekend, and after that it's already CNY). At first the lady boss said cannot, then after she asked her tailor (Bangladesh tailor wow..) they said can pulak... OMG... So I swiped my card...

It was not a satisfying buy I would say... The quality is good yeah... But buying clothes with such high price... Still don't think its really worth it. But anyhow I realised that it's not the fabric that makes my skin itchy, it's just the edge of the fabric where the threads are exposed.. The threads are pricky. On CNY 初一, I wore it with a tank top inside and I felt better, but still a bit itchy at the parts not covered by the tank top.


Hehe... I like this picture because every year we would take a family photo on 初一, but we could only take it with phone camera and the resolution always sucks. This time we finally can take it with a proper camera! And Happy looked at the camera (so rare)! And this year all of us (almost) wore Chinese traditional style clothing. But damn my face looks so big here... And our background is as awful as always lol. 

Haha I wrote so much about this cheongsam thingy... Coz I never bought such expensive clothing wtf! Wanted to take OOTD but didn't in the end because its just awkward for me. I did take a lot OOTD pictures for Happy though lol. She wore a little red Kimono.

Dog and Mandarin Oranges

Is this edible?

Brought him outside relative's house for pee-pee

Happy is so kelian nowadays because she doesn't get as much car trips as last time since my mum doesn't need to fetch anymore! So I guess CNY is like a vacation for her as we bring her to every relative's house. But after sniffing the indoor one round, she gets bored easily and keep staring at outdoor. I don't really know whether it's because she wants to pee or she wants to explore.

Someone is Happy after a walk (pun intended).

I'm in heaaaaaaaaven~~~~~~~~~~~

One more time, please?

About the annual CNY gathering and house visiting, nothing interesting to write about actually... Just like usual... After we grown up, everyone's just minding their own business.. Gathering is just to see each others face so that we'd still recognise each other I guess? Hmm.. being an introvert, I don't really feel sad about this actually. I think it's just normal that some people come and go in your life. And I don't need many people in my life, that's too overwhelming hehe. However, I must admit that it felt good that I finally have a real conversation with my father side of relatives. Like, we didn't really talk for few years due to some family issues and my introverted nature which also played a part. 

And then 初三, went for a 2 days 1 night Malacca trip with ex colleagues and ex boss family. Lol. A rather odd group coz there's three young girls and another family with 3 kids (1 yr old, 4 year old and 7 year old). All because this Alicia suggested to go for a trip. Me and agness thought it's not a good idea because we probably would have to become babysitters during the trip lol. Oh besides that, Cheng also joined our trip. I don't know is it a good thing or a bad thing for her because she has to take care of the kids and carry all the heavy stuffs during the trip. But I'm glad that she get to see Malacca because it's a great place and we get to have some vacation together!

But well. In the end, it's more like we went to Malacca in two different groups. As usual, boss family took so long to prepare for the trip in the morning. So boss suggested us to go Malacca first without waiting for them.

Agness suggested to go to the Sand Dunes in Klebang as it's a good place to take pictures so we last minute changed our plan. As we were heading to Klebang on a 3 hours journey, boss family was heading to the Mini Malaysia park in Ayer Keroh. We decided not to go join them because me and Agness don't think we as young adults would enjoy it. Alicia seemed like she wanted to go though lol (she's a Malacca virgin! lol)

The sand dunes were quite hard to find! Reason being it's not on the holy GPS! First the GPS led us to the Pantai Klebang which was not where the sand dunes were. We had to start googling for directions from bloggers. It's still a bit confusing because I found that some of the directions given were outdated.

At last we found it anyway. So in case anyone of you came to this blog searching for directions...

HOW TO GET TO THE SAND DUNES IN PANTAI KLEBANG (AKA PADANG PASIR KLEBANG)

(Well, I just found that it was tagged as Malacca Sand Dunes in GPS. Wtf I always manage to find the GPS location only after I'm back from the trip =.=)

If you're coming from the Submarine museum, go all the way down the road until T junction, turn left, then go all the way until you saw a huge metal pipe (I'm not sure what is it) blocking the road. Other side of the huge pipe would be a road made of small stones. And that day we went, there was a truck selling drinks just in front of the huge pipe. And just beside the huge pipe there were a few cars parked there.

Yeah... so just park your car there, cross over the huge pipe and walk down the rocky road~ And be prepared to walk on a sandy road for a good 15 minutes!

Long... long... sandy road

There were quite a lot of people including kids going to the sand dunes despite the scorching sun. Can see the sand dunes behind us... It's so near... yet so far...

Along the sandy road you can see this view which is like filled with desert-y plants

Of course, it's nothing compared to the Sahara Desert. But still, it's quite a nice place to take photos. After all, there are big piles and piles of white sand!

Finally we reached!!! The sand dunes from the far.

Trying to take a adventurer vibe photo lol

A rocky road in the middle of desert. 还蛮有feel的~

Trying to take a photo with depth of field but obviously failed

OK I think this one can be seen as a small success lol. I think this the best shot I took in this whole trip lol. I think the subject likes this photo too. Although the pose is very cheesy haha.

Anyhow take also nice. lolll

Can see my skin turned red already, no?

It's so exhausting to take a jump shot :/ Especially when you're using self timer. Haha in case you wondered, I didn't bring a tripod. I just placed my camera on my hat and on the sand. And we kept jumping non-stop until we got a nice shot.

On the way back, I suddenly have an inspiration after realising her umbrella has a nice yellow colour lol

But WTF why my pose so weird one, like I'm doing exercise.

I accidentally adjusted a setting whereby my camera would randomly crop out the photos to become close-up shots of faces. This one turned out to be quite nice though.

I don't know what shit pose is this.

Anyway, TIPS BEFORE YOU GO TO THE SAND DUNES IN KLEBANG, MALACCA (IMPORTANT!!! ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU'RE GOING ON A SUNNY DAY)

1. MUST APPLY SUNSCREEN ALL OVER YOUR BODY!!! 

I didn't and ended up sun burnt to the max. We went to the Sand Dunes around 12PM and left around 1PM. My shoulders were burning when I was strolling around Jonker Street in the afternoon.

2. Bring a big umbrella and water 

Hat/caps won't protect your body from the damaging UV rays. You'll hope you brought along a big umbrella. And you'll be dehydrated walking 15 minutes under the sun! I felt like I was going to faint when we were walking back to our car.

3. Wear a pair of sport shoes (or anything that can walk comfortably on rocky roads and sand)

I wore my MyFeet sandals and it was so hard to walk in!




Of course, when you're at Malacca, you must try their famous foods!

Klebang coconut shake. It's just a few minutes drive away from the Sand Dunes.. So why not? Had to queue for a while for these, but it's so great to drink it in a hot weather!

Then, we went to Jonker street. It's quite hard to drive through the Jonker street because many people went Malacca during CNY. It's even harder to find parking. Luckily, I know there's a place that we can park at an affordable price of RM3 per entry and you can park until 2AM. It's also near the Stadhuys which is where most of the attractions are and it's just beside Little India (it's just that the uncle guarding the place is rude).   Anyhow, after that I found out that our hotel is just 6 minutes walk away from Jonker street and has ample free parking space =.=  In case anyone wants to know, here's a map on the car park's location.

The arrow pointing at the car park location. And you can also see our hotel (Ibis Melaka) was also so near!

Jonker 88's Nyonya cendol. I think it's too sweet for me. Too much syrup! Cendol is nice though.

Jonker 88's Nyonya Asam Laksa. This one nice weyh! I don't really like the Penang's asam laksa because it's too fishy and sour. But this one... this one is a little sweet and sour! I can't stop drinking the soup.

At night we went to Jonker street again for the night market. On the way we passed by the Malacca river. Malacca's night life is very happening like KL also!

Tried to take a nice photo of the tanglungs but too crowded! At some point we were like walking in queues =.= If the person in front of you stops, you also can't move forward zzz

 Actually, it's my first time visiting Jonker night market I think. It's also my first time eating at the stalls in Jonker night market. There are many stalls selling seafoods and Chinese street foods in one area and there are also a lot of tables and chairs for customers to sit. But since it's crowded its so hard to find a place to sit. We had to wait beside someone's table for them to finish their food lol. Overall, the foods we ordered were all nice. And best thing is our boss's husband paid for all the foods. He just gave us money and let us order anything we want. TQ!

RAW OYSTERSSSS with lemon juice

Fried carrot cake

Char Kuey Teow

Fried Lala

I also want to talk a little about our hotel. Usually when I'm travelling with my family, we would always go for the cheap budget hotels because my parents just thought it's not worth it to spend too much money on accommodation since we'll be outside most of the time anyway. But my boss's husband has a higher expectations for hotels I guess so we chose this hotel. It's not very expensive anyway, just around RM300 for a double room. But compared to the usual budget hotel that cost around RM100 per room it's quite expensive lah. 

But well quality comes with a price. The cleanliness and design of this hotel is really nice. I even shot a video of the room but too lazy to edit haha.

Bed is quite comfy. At least a light sleeper like me can fall asleep (although with the help of antihistamine, my nose was blocked again)

There is a make up lighting on the mirror itself and the switch is also on the mirror! You switch on and off the light by touching a spot on the mirror! How cool is that!

There's also a rain shower! It's my first time using rain shower actually. Too bad I cannot enjoy it because I can only shower with cold water due to the sun burn. Haiz. But I must haz rain shower in my future house!

I can say that if you wouldn't mind to spend about 100 bucks more for a better indulgent stay, Ibis Hotel is a good choice.

Next morning, boss and her family had to rush back to Klang at 6AM for some prayers. So we didn't get to say goodbye. And we were so surprised when we saw our WhatsApp message. Boss paid for our hotel stay! OMG so generous of her! We're so paiseh so we bought some souvenirs for her and her family (a pack of White Coffee because her husband loves coffee so much but didn't manage to get his craving fix at any of the cafes in Malacca, some Melaka Dodol for the kids and some Nyonya Zhangs).

I also bought some Nyonya Zhangs back for my family. The Nyonya Zhangs from East and West Rendezvous Cafe were awesome! I think everyone likes it. It's not too oily like the normal Ba Zhangs and it's more flavourful.

My dad's birthday was also in the same month as CNY lol. This year we just had home made dinner which was great. Each one of us (mum, sisters and I) made something for the dinner and all turned out to be nice!

It's raining outside and someone is scared.

Vege Sang wholly made by yours truly, ME! Damn I spent around 3 hours to slice all these with a very improper tool. Wait, who's there?

None other than the Tam Jiak Happy!

Must take picture because I spent 3 HOURS to make this!

More pictures. Haha the taste turned out to be more like fruit salad than Yee Sang.

寿面 The most appealing Longevity noodles I've every seen by MUM. Very nice!

Almost-failed-no-bake Chocolate cake by sis

Nice right the colours. All so yummmmms! Chocolate jelly by youngest sis.

We also finally bought a pair of Skechers for dad! And it was on 50% sale! Hahaha. Although they mostly only left large sizes but my dad managed to find one that suited him. Glad that he liked it. He said it was nice to walk in. You know... old people really need a good pair of shoes that can absorb shock... to protect their knees and all. I also wanna get one for myself because the Goga Max insole is really amazing! But nah... must keep telling myself it's not a necessity.


OK that's it! Phew finally finish this post!