Make over

I have a special attachment to this modest house. It is a home that I frequent ever since I was a child until now. We had Nada's cukur jambul ceremony here too.

It is my cousin's, Mentibang Paku's pad.  

For the last five months or so, it had gone through huge transformation and I have been.... none other than a busy-body. Saturday mornings after breakfast, it became a routine for us to visit the house under renovation. Many times, I made way alone after having a meeting nearby I am scheduled to have fortnightly. 

I'd like to thank Mentibang's family for bearing with me. There were occasions that I found out the contractor didn't really built according to the way I pictured it was supposed to be. I quickly drove over to my cousin's house and made such big complaint to her.

~ "Why there's a column there? It isn't supposed to be there....." bla-bla-bla

~"Why is the ledge like that? It's not supposed to continue all the way at front......" bla-bla-bla

As always, Mentibang is a very patient person and I guess  my complaint reached the pay master. Somehow or rather, things were fixed !

I am not sure if both of them agreed with me because I did make noise or they just don't want any hustle from me.

But I really hope, they trust me that I want their house nice.

Mr Mentibang is accommodating. When asked by the contractor if he wanted the roof as designed. His reply was "Just follow..."

When the contractor informed they already went to 10 building material shops to look for the item that I suggested to be incorporated into the design and they still couldn't find it, he himself made the effort to scout for it.    

~ yeah, the railings aren't there yet....

Congratulation Mentibang for the make-over. It may be different, but the soul and spirit of the home that I've known for 20++++ years is still the same. 

grumbling

At times, I do wish that I am not such an independent person.

At times, I do want to see myself less 'smart' and hope somebody else takes the lead.

At times, at times, at times...

Work in progress

After very much consideration, in between of go or no-go or paint and move or may be just move.. we finally made the decision. Two freakin’ months of uncertainty. Tiny renovation it will for our new-old house.   

This morning view of our backyard, where works had started on the 1^st of Ramadhan.

Unhappy

I’m loosing it.

Loosing the interest in my office works, and I do feel perturbed by the fact. So stressful, I don’t know to whom should I talk to.

Tonite, I am going glue myself to Lady Gaga – my ever trusted companion and cry to her.  

Tokyo DisneySea

When we had our first Disneyexperience in Hong Kong, a friend of mine asked my opinion of the place. For first timer like me, my honest opinion was the place is GREAT to me. I had so much fun and a thrill plus roller coaster lover like me, Disneyland would be something that brings joyful moments.

She however has different opinion. She told me something like : “Hong Kong Disneyland to her is just a notch higher than the district on-the-go fun fair we usually have. It’s not at all comparable to other Disneyland, in fact it brings down the standard of Disneyland. The least of a Disneyland to opt is Tokyo Disneyland.”

I don’t get her. I was happy with our Disney experience in Hong Kong and I am sure I enjoyed district fun fair too during my childhood years.

On the 5^th day of our holidays in Japan, we spent one whole day at Tokyo DisneySea. (Tokyo has two separate huge parks one called Disneyland and one called DisneySea)

Having visited Tokyo DisneySea, I now understand what my friend meant and for someone that had toured all the existed Disneys, she got her point.  

In Tokyo, the park is colossal, triple the rides and shows in HK ! .. I now wonder how is it in Miami ?

We queued to enter the park before the entrance gate to be opened at 8.00AM and left at 10.00PM as the gate is to be closed. Still, we couldn’t manage to cover all the rides and shows within the given day period.

O well, we moved around at the dictate of the tiny dictator – none other than our miss sassy : Nada.

If she decides to stop at every water cooler stand that she sees, be it, we stopped.   

If she decides that she needs a break, that’s it, we took a break.
If she decides to have her doze of addiction, no choice, on my lap she was.
If she decides to take a nap, willingly, Daddy's shoulder she rested.
If she decides to stand still and pop pop-corns in a middle of walking crown, grrrrrr, we braced and prayed she would not be stomped upon.  

As long as she is happy. The rest… it doesn’t matter.

milk stop

break

cooler

cooler again

who is the happiest?.. daddy !!!

pass for min 900mm ht ride 

first roller coaster experience for Dew, she's cool...

nap

cooler again..

it was magic...

We love Japan

We had an 8-days holiday in Japan, covering bit here and there of Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo.

It’s hard to visit Japan and not to love this unique country of more than 3,000 islands.

I don’t think there is any single word that can describe the place as a whole. But if somebody put a gun in my head and force me to do so, my word choice would be :

ORDER

And if I am given the luxury to blurt out words to describe the place and people of Japan, they would be the below words in no particular order :

- PRACTICAL

- EFFICIENT

- COMPACT

- SYSTEM

- COURTESY

- CUTE

- STYLISH

- PRECISE

- PERFECTIONIST

- SPECIFIC

- TIME KEEPER

- TRADITION

- HOSPITALITY

- TECHNOLOGY

- A+ PUBLIC TOILETS

It is a beautiful and ‘weird’ country, indeed a must visit destination. I wouldn’t be surprise if one day I wake up in the morning and news travel to me that the Japanese are not human but they are actually programmed robots! They’re too defined in whatever they do.

As though all words to describe Japan are the positive adjectives, I do have my displeasure. My only complaint was sometimes my sensitive nose could detect unpleasant surrounding smell every now and then. My guess would be, with all the underground drain and sewer system plus multilevel subways that keeps on gushing powered wind from the train rush, some stinky smell couldn’t be avoided.

Just my presumption.

I hope I’ll be able to write more about this trip that I did enjoy so much the company of one of my closest cousins, Feby whom is more like a sister to me.

There were a lot of laughter due to our silliness to cope with Japan amusing orderly systems and whine of how much sore we had on our feet that we walked too much, sore on our back that our backpacks weight are almost killing us.

~ Order ~

Inari Shrine

photo courtesy of : Isao Nagashima San

Be wise with time

I was browsing through our photos in the hard drive and found this one captured by my beau.

Totally don’t remember the photo and also don’t remember mending this dress of Nada’s while on a drive – of course as a passenger. Good thing about crafting, it can be done on-the-go, and it sure help to have my girl strapped in her car seat at the back. I have my hands free of holding a kid and could be used to benefit time spent in travels.