Thank You. Career. Mid-life Crisis.

A long note to thank you.

Happy birthday Mum and Dad, and Thank You.



My parents are pretty easy-going, happy-go-lucky folks so I sense that I could plan the wedding without much objections from them. Thank You Mum and Dad who always spoil me!

Just this week, Dad was behind me all along as I walked home from the MRT, and he was such a close proximity to me that I sensed his presence. The moment I spotted an uncle from the corner of my eye, I thought that he was some weird uncle, so I turned and almost glowered at him before I realised it was Dad all along. He burst out laughing, and carried both my bag and dinner for me all the way home (and I gave them to him naturally without realising it. Omg I'm such a BAD daughter I tell you!).

Every time after I finish dinner and just before I wash the dishes, Dad would quickly wash them for me. No matter how many times I told him not to do them and that I would do them myself, he would not listen. So from then on it became fastest fingers first.

During the few weeks after my surgery, I was really touched that Dad took many days' leave to take me to the hospital for weekly checkups and physiotherapy sessions. There was once when the wheelchair wasn't working well and he used a lot of strength to push it. Younger bro wanted to take over but he insisted adamantly that he has the strength to (when he was panting and perspiring all the while). Bro and I agreed that the head of our family is egoistic and always wants to take things in his hands.

Once I fell and went home to wail, telling Dad that I would never ever recover from this condition even after the surgery, but Dad said in a comforting tone, "Tsk tsk tsk.. This is only one small setback. How can you deal with bigger things next time if you can't even deal with this? Give it time and you will recover.."
For that 30 mins he just stood in my room with occasional "tsk tsk tsk" which is quite cute actually. LOL. And he is right; I have not suffered any fall since then.

Got really emotional tidying up my room, as I delved into my secret stash of old toys and found some lifeless Barbie dolls staring at me (they scare me out of my wits now), my collection of Polly Pocket houses, the Yellow Ranger's dagger and belt, some plastic jewellery, sewing kits, origami and handmade plastic flowers (Mum paid for my Art & Craft lessons), and some other Disney themed keychains. I can't decide which is the most expensive toy now, whether it was a small inflatable pool where Barbie can get a tan from her personalised suntanning bench and swim in with a float or the big magnetically geared Polly Pocket neighbourhood where you can control the plastic tiny figurines using a joystick. Then I realised they bought me so many toys despite earning not so much. :~) Mum still keeps the flowers that I made myself in a vase even though they are all dusty and tattered.

Mum had executed her plan of extorting more and more money from me ever since I began working, and drew up a business plan (without discussing with me) about the childcare package she wants me to take up next time when I have children. Lol.

Mum and Dad are the cutest people ever.


Thank you My Friends.

Thank you my dear friends who got so animated by the proposal news! Your reaction was a far cry from what I expected, as I thought you guys won't be as excited since the engagement is an expected thing after Simba and I bought an apartment a year ago. Maybe friends are really thrilled that I'm advancing to the next phase of my life and that is worth getting excited over! Anyways.. I'm so touched by how passionately you guys reacted.

Friends started congratulating me, asking to see the diamond ring or referring Jun Wen to my husband/fiance the moment we met up!

Bumping into TW in the train few days after the proposal was epic as he flexibly popped his head up down left right hoping to see the ring on my finger. Lol.

When Jason asked to see the ring and I said it was with the jewellery shop (I went to exchange for a size bigger), he suggested to dip my ring into hot water and problem solved. Lol! Weirdest but funniest suggestion ever!

Kept meeting different cliques of friends after that and some friends shook my hand so intensely that it kind of hurt (still in disbelief that my hand was bruised from the massage I did earlier at KSL).

My sec sch friends actually listened attentively to my whole detailed proposal story that lasted an hour or so, which I thought was a very noble act. T.T

Though it took about two weeks for the ring to be returned back to me, it was all worth it since first of all it was free, and we got to engrave words on it for free! (I couldn't stand myself for being cheapo. Initially I rejected the salesgirl's suggestion of engraving thinking that it may be costly but once she said it was free, I sealed the deal. Lol.) 

Utter remorse was how I felt after telling everyone that the ring size was small and went ahead to exchange for size bigger, but now it hung loosely on my finger. In the end, the one he bought in the first place was the right size. Lol.

Anyways.. Guys if you are going to propose I can help u compare my finger to your girlfriend's and gauge her ring size, now that I have heeded some advices dispensed by the Jewellery Specialist.


Thoughts about the proposal.

One of the life principles taught by Mum that I always try to uphold was to be appreciative and contented. Mum just needs me to be average and simple in everything, and she says this is the key to happiness. Hence, I never want to compete or compare with others because we are onto different sets of beliefs, had different goals and aspirations, and at different paces of our lives.

If ever I were a fictional character of the SIMS computer game, the aspiration to create me under would be the love aspiration. To me, I think that love makes the world go round and having a good boyfriend makes my life beautiful. I find my persevering belief in "Happily Ever After" could be largely due to my liking for Fairy Tales books, perhaps cos I had read Cinderella a dozen times. And of course who can forget Walt Disney Pictures that emphasise on happy endings?

Life has been kind to me - I lead an average life but I have a more than average boyfriend. 

As cliched as it sounds, I know Simba will take the stars out from of the sky for me just like how my dad would, if I ever want them.

I always think about how my future husband will look like when I was young. Or whether I will have a husband or not. Weren't you a little curious about who your special someone will be in this lifetime? I always picture mine as tall, dark and fat, all of which don't spell jun wen. Lol. Then I told myself that he always think as himself as tall, and he gets tanned for a while after a hell of a sunburn and he was fat for nearly half a year. So yeah he's the one, if we don't look into great detail.

All the waiting for the right guy was finally worth it.

I mean, who else would be so penny-pinching on himself in order to treat me to some good food or some good film? He only eats the $2.90 nasi lemak set from ALLGOOD or the $2 chicken rice from Cafe Lobby on days where he eats alone, and thinks for ah hour before buying a discounted PS3 game that costs $40. (All his other PS3 games were loaned from his best friend who was willing to be the giver in the friendship. Lol.)

Who else can survive through clips of Running Man (overdosed with Gary) when the only things he finds funny in there are Kwang Soo and his background music?

Who else lets me choose all the songs in the KTV and sings along in every song I chose?

Who else will buy himself only one tee and use up all his vacation money to buy me clothes and accessories from Bangkok, after I casually said I wanted him to bring back all the fashion from there?

Who else will spam me with knowledge from the National Geographic, international news and more vocabulary, when all I ever tell him was how pretty that dress is? 

And becos I'm so love aspired, it's undeniable that I'm an overly attached girlfriend.

The days after he got diagnosed with the disease were devastating. Gradually, I became withdrawn to the thought of marriage. My condition is hereditary and his could be too. I remembered asking Ying over lunch with tears in my eyes, "How can our children be happy if they get one of our conditions? How would they then lead their lives?"

I lost hope. Whenever people asked about when I was gonna get married, I said I developed pre-wedding jitters and didn't want to get married just yet. My self-esteem became self-destructive, as I thought I will bring more harm than good to him. 

Until he started to recover. Until then I got some sleep and stopped blaming myself for things that I can't control. 

I'm finally getting married. T.T

I promise I will not say I'm not ready for marriage to anyone anymore.

Now I want to say...

I'm ready to build our lives together. 

Slowly but surely.

And this is my fiancé.

Disoriented after THE proposal:
"Oh no did I just propose?"



BUT IT'S TOO LATE FOR REGRETS...
COS...
I AM......

OVERLY ATTACHED!

Lol!! 

Exercising

Ever since I resigned about 1 week back, I have been doing what I have been intending to do all this while but didn't have the time to - things like leafing through bridal magazines, delving into wedding studio pages, choosing a not-so-mainstream wedding solemnisation venue, tidying up my room and thinking about what to do next, that is of course other than slumping onto my couch and watch sitcoms.

But all these won't do if I want to be a slimmer bride next year. I had to hire him as my personal fitness instructor and after lots of persuasion, he said,

Lol!!!

(Currently I'm hiring him as my admin help for my tuition work at $5/hr. Child labour, u don't say?)


Career

I was offered full-time at the Korean tuition centre that I've been working in every Saturday for almost a year now. My Korean boss is a benevolent lady and I'm really fortunate to have met her this life. 

I would agree to it immediately if it was me a year ago. But now my mind complicates itself, especially when it dawned on me one day that I need more than just a job - I need a career to see me through life.

Tutor as a career? I dunno. Much to my surprise just as I thought everyone is gonna dissuade me from becoming a tutor, my parents and Simba asked me to give it a go. They said I enjoy teaching a lot; Dad even asked me to go get an NIE cert! 

My mid life crisis, not knowing what to do when it isn't mid life yet.

...........

I'll put in my deepest thoughts and update you. 

Petaling Street. Berjaya Times Square. Mid-Valley Mall.

My day of my wedding solemnisation will most likely be on 13th September 2014, his birthday. There may be a change of date though, depending on the fortune teller. Mum and Dad said it is a MUST to go through the motions to ask for an auspicious date, but were reluctant to take the initiative. They simply said in coherence, "Leave everything to his parents, it's their responsibility. 我们是女方，我们什么都不用做。”


With just a few sentences, it became 

apparent that they just wanna sit through the whole wedding thing.

Lol. 

When I asked if we could ask around for one "celebrity" fortune teller and recommend him, 

again they said no, the girl should never do anything.

Presenting to you my mum and dad who are too "proud" to help.



Pre- and Post Proposal at KL.

Day 1.
It was only 10am when we reached the hotel, so we took a stroll around the hotel area while waiting for the Time Square mall to open, and found Petaling Street by chance (Lol, no map, no tourist information, no nothing from the hotel)!

Prolific in turning heads, stores lining Petaling Street that sell these congratulation gifts overshadow the others which sell typical counterfeit goods.

We usually only see small bears as part of the adornment to the flowers but Minions and Pikachu?? First time first time. I bet these minion-ornamented flowers were selling like hot cakes, since Despicable Me had just been taken down from the screens but would dwell in people's hearts for a while.

He had the dubious honour to be the ambassador of Petaling Street for a minute.

This fellow gave me a sudden jolt of surprise at the cinema when he attributed his support to "Petaling Street Warriors", a movie starred by Mark Lee, instead of some angmoh movie I told him to book that day. Deceit usually holds the key to unhappiness, but he was lucky that I didn't lunge at him; after all I have long accepted his awkward character.

Took a cab that takes about 5 mins at RM12 to get to Berjaya Times Square.
Most cab drivers don't turn on their meter to charge passengers according to the distance travelled because seemingly they don't earn much from letting it run, so they have to quote a price at the beginning before the passenger willingly hop into the vehicle.




We stood outside the mall for awhile hoping to catch some less busy tourists that have integrity imprinted on their heads to help us with a photo, and our patience didn't go to waste since tourists from Middle East were so enthusiastic with it!

Two of them rushed into the picture with one imitating his signature "I just want to say Hello, hello" gesture. So cute!

Guardian Lion of Times Square.
Bet all of you have seen the SGAG photo about a Chinese Guardian Lion's hangover that has gone viral weeks ago. LOL.

If you haven't, I have embedded it here:

The primal job of Chinese guardian lions was to provide protection for the building behind where they stood, but looks like someone has been drinking and is not doing his job well! :D

Simba was shrewd to say that the angle was taken really well. The standing lion in the 1st photo looked like it was utterly startled by his friend who fell on his face from that angle. And for the 2nd photo, the lions faced each other like they were conversing. Cool! However, he advised that they should recycle the same lions to present a more realistic story.

The Minion Craze. It was unexpected of me to not buy one out of impulse and even analysed it before deciding not to buy. The minion toy is bean bag material which I like but its eye(s) and goggle(s) were printed, so it's a pity! I really don't want those innocent-looking eyes to disappear few months down the road.



After searching high and low for Marrybrown, we finally found it at a secluded corner of the entire level.

I ordered my usual - a Fortune set (2 pc chicken) while he chose some wrap. 

The milo was bad, really bad.

Some supposedly artistic pic. Marrybrown features dining on a garden swing, to reminisce eh maybe eating fried chicken while playing on a swing when you were young. :D



First time for him as a patron to this fast food restaurant, so he set the timer on my camera. I was pretty embarrassed since it was just a fast food restaurant and the country bumpkin took numerous photos.

He liked the one-seater swing too.

I wondered how his childhood was like, but I derive at a conclusion that I'd rather not know.

My first kill was this iPhone 4 cover that costs only RM10. iPhone 4 covers became rare after iPhone 5 got launched in Singapore, so I can't possibly pass up an opportunity to buy one of these in Malaysia. Unlike in Singapore, iPhone 4 covers were everywhere! I'm really grateful that my current phone stuck with me for so long and nah I'm not gonna change to a new model until it bails on me out of its own will.

Wandered to the Mini Taipei section of the mall but the shops in there were extremely disappointing. 




Haha! It's time for some antics.

Like many guys, he adores his silhouette and loves nothing like his own reflection, so he went over to the opposite side and hinted for a photo of his silhouette.

We couldn't find anything that we like in Times Square but nonetheless we walked around aimlessly to pass time and that was when the Gangnam Style music permeates the mall.

After which, we found our way up to the observatory of the Twin Towers.

And waited at the Petronas mall for our dinner. 

Then at the restaurant where we were greeted by a panoramic view of the lit city.

At the patio of the restaurant. Enhanced this photo taken by the waiter's camera. The angle was a little off since I was back facing the camera but at least his comical expression could be seen. Lol. (There was actually another pic with him kneeling down and slipping the ring onto my finger but it was so blur I can't savage it.)

Although Simba was slipshod to have leaked his intention to propose to me a week ago and the waiters are not very instrumental in giving us some privacy, it was overall still a dinner to be remembered.
I hope that my human adaptive nature to the norm will slow down a little so that I can be happy about that day for a prolonged time.

Day 2.

As the hotel didn't provide the American breakfast (lol), we wandered around its premises and found a row of shophouses across the street which is the potentially the place for us to have our breakfast.

Sometimes I think he is super thick-skinned to be able to ignore those looks from onlookers.

The cart stores sold jerseys, twin tower souvenirs and unauthentic handbags.

We ate fried chicken again as he wanted to taste the goodness of KFC in another country.

Our next destination was the Mid-Valley Mega Mall where we shopped till we dropped. The mall has those typical shops that we usually see in Singapore's shopping malls but we still bought many from these instead of looking out for those that are uniquely Malaysian.

Waking up earlier than usual made us lethargic and in need for some caffeine. The mini plush wild critter moose (from IKEA) was there to accompany us at Coffee Bean. This moose was supposed to be part of the artwork that he did for the proposal, but it ultimately didn't fit into any leftover space, so he gave it to me as an isolated present.

Yup, now tell me where the moose can fit into.
The fat bride and groom were finger puppets from IKEA, and part of a set, so there were many other unused puppets. One of the puppets is a baby which he intended to put beside the bride and groom but his mum was against the idea, arguing that marriage should be between 2 people and everything should just come in pairs.
He bought the decorative papers from Paper Market. :D

Couldn't resist buying a Korean rabbit in Malaysia. Found the 1st rabbit at a cart store in Korea selling at S$20, and this at $23 in Malaysia's mall. And the ones sold at Plaza Sing were $29.90.

Animal cruelty - Force feeding rabbit with coffee. 

My tutee has been bugging me to let her drink a sip from my coffee but I have to keep saying no. 

"Children shouldn't drink coffee" was my reason, although ironically adults shouldn't drink it too.

Goofing around



More and more goofing before he finally...

... nestled in the armchair and dozed off.

30 mins after his power nap.

Watched "The Frozen Ground" to get a feel of watching a movie in an overseas theatre. Lol.

With nothing better to do while waiting for the light indicating that we could go into the theatre to flicker.

He was dissatisfied with the outcome of the previous photo and exclaimed, "NOOOOOO you should just take the picture of the rabbit and the puma." But let's scrutinise the photo again, don't you think he went ahead and posed for it?

Forced the rabbit into the puma's mouth.

Conveniently, he put the rabbit into a huge crack in one of the pillars. Lol.

I was secretly glad that at this time we were allowed into the theatre. The theatre seats were huge but limited and I think one can easily seat two people. Cool!

Since our dinner reservation at No Black Tie wasn't till later, 

we went back to the hotel to put down our shopping bags.

Before I ended this post abruptly, I wanna show you 2 videos that Simba recommended, one of which I'm sure you have already viewed from your friend's Facebook share:

The Fox by Ylvis, which went international.

Stonehenge by Ylvis.

I like this, witty and amusing. :D

Ylvis, a pair of brothers from Norway, who make hilarious music videos to entertain their audience.