2008 Review

Time flies, today is the last day of year 2008. In 2008, I do not travel as frequent as in 2007, but we have makde a big move. We have relocated from KL to Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Here are the review of my year 2008
Jan’08 – I spent about 10 days in ChiangMai after our ROM. Counting down 2008 in ChiangMai with Ray. The sky was so bright that full of the ‘KongMing’ lantern. It’s awesome!
Feb’08 – Travel to the states for business and visiting trip right after the Valentine’s Day. Watch a nice NBA match in Cleveland – LeBron James was superb!!
March’08 – ......
April’08 – .....
May’08 – Ray and I have moved from KL to AD. We started our new chapter in our career.
June’08 – My 1st Middle East business trip. Travel to Bahrain and Qatar for business. Concluded that there is a similarly for all the Middle East country – old souk, gold souk, nice cornice, and of coz oil and gas!
July’08 – My Happy 28th Birthday in AD. I am lucky we have corona for my birthday dinner.
August’08 – Enjoying the summer, up to 49 deg C! I was fainted when I jogging (dehydrated). There will declare as a public holiday if the temperature reaches 50 deg C. (so, I guess the government will never let the temperature reach 50 deg C!!). My 2nd trip to Bahrain.
Sept’08 – Ray’s Happy 32nd Birthday. He has his 1st Oris from his lovely wife *wink*
Oct’08 – We have nice dinner @ Shuja Yatch along AD cornice with a friend's visit.
Nov’08 – Busy busy month, attend a huge ADIPEC show.
Dec’08 – Terrorist blast Mumbai – the sadness tragedy of the year. We celebrated our 1st Anniversary AD. Enjoying UAE 37th National Day and Christmas in this winter.

To Do List aka My Wish List

1. Preparing my wedding ceremony and dinner
2. Get myself a SLR
3. Pay more for house loan
4. Get a driving license in AD
5. Involve in more projects and get more sales!!
6. I want a OMEGA watch
7. I want a nice vacation trip
8. Always keep keep fit
9. ...
10. ......

Well, before the clock turns to 00:00 2009, i wish everybody have a prosperous New Year and all the best!

Happy New Year!

给天堂的表哥

深夜，我辗转难眠。。。

今早和小妹MSN提起了三年前的那一事件。

年底，有着让我心酸心痛的日子；三年了，我们依然怀念着你，无时无刻。。。

泛黄的照片细述着我们童年的日子，生日party，旅游，历历在目。

还记得你为了刘德华而给自己取名ANDY。

记得你总是宠爱我们这些表姐妹，每次都要你当我们的司机，嚷着你去买我们都爱吃的馨香淡文饼。

记得是你载我到北海去的第一次见工面试。

更不能忘记你多么坚强地睡在ICU，我们轮流呼唤你的日子。

从没告诉别人在赶着回去你的丧礼时我在KLIA歇斯底里地哭着和姐通话。

看着你冷冰冰地躺在丧礼时我们的心都溶掉了。

至到今天每每想起你的时候眼泪都不听使唤在眼角打滚；我想不只是我，我们所有的家人都一样。

失去你，让我们更珍惜及照顾身边的人；让我们更了解我们的感情是多么的深厚。

永远怀念在天堂的你。

311208 0114 AD Time

Merry Christmas..

Ray's Christmas Present - my handmade Bear...

I do not know what to buy for Ray's Christmas present.. so, i have sew him a teddy bear -- hand made ar! Hehe. We bought this from Brand For Less (a shop that sells German and discounted product), i actually promised him to do this for his 121209 anniversary gift but end up for the Christmas gift.
Its not difficult to sew this bear but its difficult to figure it out from the German & Swiss language instruction book. i spent about 6 hours to finish this project, and its a big bear (11 inch height!)
Ray is happy to see him sitting on the chair with a Christmas card when he got back to the room and he gave him a name, as WeeKO no. 1 (weeko 1 号） haha..
We do not celebrate the Christmas but we went for Christmas eve dinner in LENOTRE PARIS above Mark & Spencer Abu Dhabi in Khalidiya (its located in between Airport Road and Hamdan Street). I had roasted turkey... yummy yummy.. There is no public holiday in this Islamic country, even the decoration is not as nice as KL, but i am enjoying the yuletide season in this cold weather.

.. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year ..

上一个星期的冬天

上一个星期，我都在沉迷着庾澄庆，从看见他的新闻，到沉迷于他的《百万大哥星》，再不断重复着他的歌曲。他的歌真的陪我渡过好多日子，有伤心，有感叹，当然也有快乐的。《靠近》应该是让我有着深深感触的一首歌。听这首歌的感觉还是一样，只是仿佛忘了一些曾经是很重要的事情。曾经的十月有着让我觉得要庆祝的日子，渐渐地我已经忘了是那一天，而今年的我更是在两个月后的今天才猛然想起有着曾经的那一天，但我想爆了头脑也想不起是那一个日期。今天的我真正了解‘时间会冲淡一切’这句金言；还是我老了，记忆力衰退了？

从没想过冬天的阿布扎比是那么的冷。朋友都说迪拜比阿布扎比还冷，五年前我也在迪拜渡过一个冬天，但我还是觉得这里比较冻。可能我们住的较靠近海边，海风吹来真的好想让人钻进被窝里。我已经没有继续跑步了，但我还是很坚持饭后与柠檬到附近散步，拍拖。穿着厚厚的棉衣，握着柠檬的大手，这就是我要的温暖。谢谢上天的恩慈和眷顾，让我有他。我会惜福的。

冬天真的让我变得懒洋洋的。在冬天的假日里我平均每天都冬眠10小时以上，连柠檬都说我睡太多了。没办法，就是爱睡嘛。好好好喜欢这个冬天啊！听着哈林的情歌，吃着热热的拉面和绿茶，好爽！！

冬天--芭比球

冬天，差不多每天都有很多人到户外野餐和BBQ。室友和小孩到迪拜几天，我们也心血来潮地好好享受这天气和宁静。为了避免和别人争公园里的烤炉，我们打算在庭院里BBQ。
四个人的BBQ还挺OK的。

B前

B后

p/s: 为什么题为芭比球呢？曾经看过一部港产片《表姐，你好呀！》；其中让我铭记心里的一句极度无聊的话是,芭比球BBQ的由来 : 从前有一个叫芭比的娃娃，她在玩球的时候不小心被球啶死了，为了纪念她，人家就称这为芭比球（BBQ）啦… （好啦，我知道我有时候真的很无聊啦。。。）

121208 HAPPY 1st ANNIVERSARY

My handmade card to Ray

Its our 1st anniversary celebration.
We actually plan to buy each other a present in Abu Dhabi Mall. I have get Ray a nice suit for the pre-wedding shooting next month but I did not get anything for myself, its ok, I think Ray will keep the quota for our next celebration.. LOL…
Ray brought me to a nice dinner – Trader Vics @ Rotana Beach Resort. It’s a good restaurant, we always could not get a seat during the weekend, you would have to make a reservation a few days before.
Ray is so sweet that he has pre-ordered a cake for our celebration (he knew that I would love to have a cake for any celebration), with the band singing around us; of coz we shared the nice cakes with other guests in the restaurant.
Good food, nice atmosphere --- Thanks hubby.
Listening to Harlem Yu’s《爱你的只有一个我》, dedicted to hubby… A-ba-ni-bi o-bo-e-be-a-bo-ni-be-ma-bo-sa-ba…

2．12．08 阿联酋，生日快乐！

阿联酋生日前夕，我们赴了一场‘还可以’的演唱会- George Michael and Alicia Keys Live in Abu Dhabi. 嘻嘻，本来已经放弃了，在演唱会开场的几个小时前，友人给了几张免费票。Thanks Brandon!为什么说‘还可以’呢？因为我还真的很不熟悉他们的歌。认识乔治米高，皆因那一首歌。而认识Alicia Keys是因为她曾是美国音乐盛事格莱美奖的大赢家。

整个演唱会大约进行了4个小时。前半场是Alicia Keys只是暖身，后半场的乔治米高才是真正的演唱会！大伙儿都跟着他一起唱和跳！虽然他唱的12首歌里我只听过3首，但我还是很耐心地等待我的echo曲… 当音乐响起，我真的很感动，终于听到现场版的careless whisper，是我万万没想过的。超感动。

Desert Safari

好友汕汕来迪拜公干和旅游，当然多忙也得放下工作，不能错过和她把臂同游，（阿汕，感动吧！）花了半天的时间去了再去的沙漠之旅。天气凉凉的，还真好玩！

Desert Safari 沙漠之旅

Desert Safari 的Camp

性感舞娘 - Belly Dance

Abu Dhabi Sunset

If someone ask me what is the nicest in Abu Dhabi? I would probably answer, SUNSET. Yes, its sunset...

The pictures was taken in between 4:45p.m. - 5:30p.m. in different days... beautiful, isn't it?

夕阳无限好，可惜近黄昏

Lebanon Food in Khalidiya

I just discover two very busy Lebanon restaurant in Khalidiya.

The Lebanese Flowers
I have tried the kebab but I love the vegetable wrap the most.
Fried cauliflower, grilled eggplant, tomato, spinach with mayonnaise in the wrap – Lebanon bread. Less than AED 6. NICE!

Caracas Pastries
Traditional Lebanon pastries shop – something like pizza, but it is soften than Italian pizza and thicker than American pizza. There are a lot of favor and they make it immediately when you order. There is a fired place to fire the pastries. Less than AED 25 for a normal size pastry. NICE!

Suria Brasserie

Hunger for Malaysian food!!

And we found the Suria Brasserie - the only Malaysian Restaurant in Abu Dhabi. It is located at the penthouse of the Eclipse hotel apartment, Liwa Street. Quickly browse through the menu and wow, everything looks good. The waiter told us that there are 5 Malaysian chefs in the kitchen. Ray and I have ordered a Nyonya curry laksa and Char Kuey Teow.. and teh tarik.

Don't ask me how i rate the food. to be frank, it's OK only. I think we have not ordered the right food. We should not order the Malaysian Chinese food. Anyway, i will go back to the restaurant again, and I will order the Malay food, nasi lemak and rendang...

Sevilo’s

We dine out very frequent recently. We went to Sevilo’s – the authentic Italian food in Millennium hotel last week. It wasn’t our 1st choice but it’s the only restaurant that I manage to get the table on the weekend eve (it was a Thursday)

The food is nice, the prawn is good, the beef is good, and the atmosphere is the best. A live band with nice Italian and oldies..
Ray and I will definitely will go again, next year. (when we get the 2009 entertainer coupon :P)

Ray’s Hand made Bolster

Ray was complaining I am not a nice bolster for him. @#$%^& (sorry for my impoliteness, hehe).. we have been looking for bolster in most of the furniture + bed room shop e.g. ikea, home centre, Liwa centre, Zara home etc but we could not find any. Wait, I actually found something similar for him in Ikea but he doesn’t want it.. see below..

So, i decided to modify from the pillows.
It took the whole morning for me to modify this. It is not very nice quality but OK la. Better than nothing lor. Ray is happy with this surprise. I do not know how long I didn’t sew for a project since my KH (Kemahiran Hidup) in school. (maybe 13 year ago).. opps, I did make a Bear last year. So, not that long lar..

2 become 1

sew it to 1/4 smaller

Ready!

Careless Whisper

There is a page of advertisement that attracted me in Time Out Abu Dhabi this month..

GEORGEMICHAEL and Alicia Keys Live in Abu Dhabi.

George Michael  Careless Whisper! My most favorite song! I do not remember when I started to love this song; it probably during U time.

Quickly log into http://www.georgeandalicia.ae/; the ticket price is from Dhs 195 to Dhs 995.
Mmm, I would only afford for Dhs 195 ticket which is the Coral Standing. I have been to many concerts but I have never tried the Standing area.

Well, it means,
1) I have to go super early to get a nice stand (kiasu mind - maybe 2pm? I will have to stand there for 4 hours as the stadium doors will only open at 6pm)
2) I have to stand in the crowd with multinational people, so maybe I will be blocked by the taller and bigger people. (I don’t care if I am in Asia but not here. I think I am pretty tall and big among the Asian)


Sigh, I think most probably I won’t go for this concert, although I wish I will be there..
You would probably curious why I love this 24-year old song so much. Well, it just a… feeling… so so so romantic but sad feeling.
Listening to Careless Whisper… and I just never want to turn it off whenever i listen to it….
.
.

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Costa VS Starbucks

VS

I am sitting in Costa café when I writing this. Escape from home because the power termination – someone didn’t pay the bill!! I need power supply to on my pc, check and reply emails. Ordered my favorite drink and start work.. Guess what? I don’t drink coffee in this popular coffee franchise. I have my Mango ice-blended. Miss tropical fruit ma. Costa café is just so popular in this country, besides the American brand – Starbucks.
They have the same history – they are both founded in year 1971.
The original Starbucks was opened in Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington, in 1971 by three partners by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegel, and Gordon Bowker while the Costa coffee was first founded in 1971 at 9 Newport Street, London, by the Italian brothers, Sergio and Bruno Costa.
Of coz, Starbucks is the biggest coffee chain in the world nowadays; you will see his logo worldwide. They have an excellent CEO - Howard Schultz which has ranked by Forbes Magazine as the 354th richest person in the United States in 2006.
It’s always good to know the history and story of something and somebody. But, who cares, I would be happy as long as I can find a cozy café with nice atmosphere and good service.
.
.
.
Continue my Chicken Caesar salad in Costa…

Cruise dinner along Abu Dhabi Corchine

Shuja Yatch

Before I start writing, I would say thousand Thanks to FB which get me and my old friends reunion in this cyber world.
So so so surprise when I receive a message from a uni mate, sometime in Oct…
.
.
.
Hi cw,
How r u? heard from AN that u r working in d UAE.
Well, i'm in AD this week.
Maybe we can meet up=)
nl,
skp
.
.
hi nl, how r u? i am fine here.
sure MUST meet up!!! i can meet you up anytime tomorrow.
which hotel are u in?
we can go lunch, yamcha, dinner, beer, anything will do..
let me know.
0509268XXX
.
.
.
after a few messages in FB, I decided to bring her to a cruise dinner along the Corchine! The dinner cruise is under Hotel Le Royal Meridien management. They served nice food. We had fun!

有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎！

Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai

Nice arabic lamp in Old Souq, want to get one home...

Madinat Jumeirah water transportation -
there are restaurant + cafe @ the left and hotel villa @ the right.

Photo shooting spot :)

We’ve visited the Madinat Jumeirah weeks ago. It is a super nice place with a combination of old souq shopping area, restaurant, café and resort. The most interesting is the buildings are surrounded by the channel, which you can travel via a boat from hotel room to restaurant, café etc. It’s a cool place with excellent view. You will want to visit again if you have been there once… superb.

Busy busy…

It has been awhile that I do not update my blog.
Well, I just recover from flu (still sore throat though) and I was getting busier and busier in my works recently, with tones of tender, feasibility study etc.
The ADIPEC (Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference) 2008 has just over. It’s a huge oil and gas show in this region. I have been standing at the stall and talk to too much people during the show. Hopefully the business can grow here.
Besides works, another thing that I busy with is my wedding ceremony. It is from pre-wedding shooting, wedding dinner reservation, invitation cards, door gift and most important thing – the gown. I have tried to get more information online and do a lot of price comparison and preference before decide.
Now I have to start plan for my flight (try to get a good price ticket) and domestic flight KL-PNG.
Wow, still a lot in my To Do List!!
Well, I hope I would be OK to clear these items, after awhile.

p/s: so excited to go home although there is still 2.5 months to go!

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

1. The Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi
2. It named after His Highness Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the late President of the UAE.
3. It is third largest mosque in the world
4. The structure covers an area of more than 22,000 square metres
5. It was built by 210,000 cubic metres of concrete and 33,000 tonnes of steel reinforcement was used in its construction.
6. It able to accommodate more than 30,000 worshipers
7. The carpet is the "World's Largest Carpet" imported from Iran. This carpet measures 5,627 square meters. It was made by around 1,200 weavers 20 technicians and 30 workers. The carpet weighted 47 tons (which is 35 tons of wool and 12 tons of cotton) with 2,268,000 knots within the carpet.
8. This mosque holds the largest chandelier made from Swarovski crystal. There are seven imported chandeliers from Germany and are copper and gold-plated. The largest chandelier has a 10 meter diameter and a 15 meter height

Babe in Abaya.
- The Abaya is a large, black cloak, worn either loose and flowing or wrapped around the body. The Abaya is generally made of silk or synthetic cloth.

Luxury Interior - Swarosvki Chandelier

Angel’s Birthday

My housemate, little Angel’s 1st birthday.

My little model

She is cute, isn’t she?
(Long sleeve purple blouse by Tape A Loeil AED22 with legging AED35)

Eid Mubarak – Selamat Hari Raya Aidifitri

30th Sept 08 is the first day of Eid Mubarak in the middle East. I do not know why its one day earlier than our Hari Raya Aidifitri holidays in KL. Probably the people here manage to see the moon one day earlier. Woohoo, its public holidays! Two days!
Ray and his colleague have planned to go to the Atlantis @ the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. I have seen many emails, pictures for the Palm Jumeirah but I have never step on this artificial island. Well, there are three Palm projects in Dubai; The Palm Jumeirah, The Palm Jebel Ali and The Palm Deira. http://www.thepalm.ae. The famous one is the Palm Jumeirah because everybody wanted to be the neighbor of David Beckham!
Atlantis the Palm was built based on the architecture of the Atlantis resort in Bahamas. There are hotel, shopping area, restaurant, Aquarium – The lost Chambers, Water Theme Park – Aquaventure and the most impressive Dophin Bay in the resort. We have only visited The Lost Chambers this time. It is nice, but I think the Aquarium in the Siam Paragon is still nicer. http://www.atlantisthepalm.com

Big Aquarium!

白须公

龙趸

Ikan bakar?

My fav NEMO!

Oboh-oboh

Dont knw what name - cute fish

Colourful - wish to put one @ home..

Sex.. City..

Today is Friday. It is a weekend in this Arabian country. Ray is still on his business trip. My housemate’s 11 months baby was crying the whole day, with no reason. Ergg.. should I go out to the mall? NO, most of the shops were closed in this Ramadan month. They will open during iftar time – 6pm. Boring boring.. I was so boring at home. Again, on my pc, finished some proposals, browsed through some news and at last I have found that I still haven’t watch the movie Sex and the city. It has been downloaded for a few weeks but I have not watched it.
I know the series and the movie has a very good comment from the audience but I have never watched the series before. Well, you may think that I am a bit ‘out’. So, I do not have any idea what the exact story is. The only thing that I know about this show is 4 women in New York City.
Finished the movie, it’s not too bad but it’s not my favorite story. But I totally agreed with Carrie’s say, people go to New York City for 2 ‘L’; Label and Love! After all, it’s a materialistic world! The only thing that warmed my heart is the women’s friendship in this movie.
I don’t recommend this movie to guys, and I think Ray won’t like it too.
Hehe. It’s a LADY’s movie!

跑步-瘦身

最近很勤劳瘦身，因为skinny jeans越穿越窄了，很怕有一天会拉不上；至少这三天都没偷懒，有去跑步。我的跑步朋友SK先生又放飞机，原因：很累，唉，还不是每天晚上和女友msn倾到很夜，所以‘很累’。嘻。
天气越来越好，大概冬天要到了吧。一个人跑步，戴上mp3 ， 海风吹来，很爽哩！这边其实很安全，犯罪率比祖国低很多，只要穿着不‘太’爆露，是没事的。（穿着 ‘太’爆露，听说会被警告，严重会被关进牢）。唯一一点我不太喜欢是这里有很多猫—野猫。我室友的小孩和邻居小孩都喜欢和野猫玩。所以我时常带着恐吓的口吻灌输‘野猫很肮脏，会咬人，有细菌，中细菌会生病，要住院，一个人住院很可怕，爸妈不可以陪你，可能会死掉’的教育给他们。两个星期前，我使过被一只猫追，然后我从2公尺高的墙跳下来，没什么，手脚擦伤，洗澡时痛了几天而已。然后那只逼我跳墙的猫还跟踪我几天。讨厌！！！没办法，我今天只好兜路走。
在这异乡跑步的另一个个好处是，你可以边听mp3边唱歌，不需要理别人的眼光，因为不管你唱得多难听都很少人听得懂。

下图为我常跑的路程Check Point 1：1.19 mile per way


下图为我常跑的路程Check Point 2：1.22 miles per way


这里车牌很难考，排期很久也比较难，据说他们不吃duit kopi，所以不容易。所以我们很常坐taxi。但，有时也刻意走走，当散步。

下图为我们走最远的路程-spinney supermarket：2.06 miles per way


下图为我们常去的pub-3rd avenue, Sheraton Khalidiya：0.62 miles per way


下图为我们常去的supermarket, Khalidiya Mall：0.96 miles per way


下图为我每个月都会去的电讯局- AD Etisalat HQ：0.53 miles per way


怎么样，劲吧。每天都走很多路，不过还是不会瘦。再走下去，可以去参加马拉松赛了。