Before I Reach 30.

Whilst some girls my age have started saving up that S$20 000 minimum to hold their weddings of a lifetime, I am adamant that I will use my S$20 000 to travel instead, opting to restrict my wedding to be a private affair at the mosque with a small buffet spread after the nikah ceremony.

I understand the dropped jaws by the hardcore minah kawin-kawin out there “FAD! IT’S ONCE IN A LIFETIME TAU!”, but hmm I don’t know. At this point of time in my life, I feel that spending that much amount that took 2 – 5 years to save on a two day event is just… excessive (k don’t kill me already, it’s just an opinion hehe).

To tell you the truth, my dream wedding is just an itsy-bitsy ceremony with only the closest family and friends (cuz I am shy like that). None of the ’some neighbour’s aunt from kampung mak dulu’, or ‘the mat despatch where ayah work last time’ kinda guests you know? I want everyone who is there to be people I know personally, and people who I know is there to see me get married instead of being there just for the sake of showing up due to the invite, or to catch up with other mat minah pop yeh-yehs from the 60’s.

Best of all, there will also be no dais for me to sit nervously on :D Angkat akad nikah, sign the papers, kiss the bride, bride cries and ruins make up done by best friend, everyone gathers around to take a group photo, free mingling as guests tucks into food, say goodbye and well-wishes and after which…

Hubby and I will carry our huge haversacks and hop aboard the train to Malaysia, beginning our 6 month backpacking tour cum honeymoon around South-East Asia HAHAHAHA. What? 6 months worth of memories doesn’t trump a 2 days worth, meh?

Eh, don’t smirk lei. This is my version of a dream wedding hehe. Of course, seeing how Cik Bibah (that’s my mum, for the uninitiated) knows practically 1001 makciks around the neighbourhood thanks to her shop, me being her only daughter (eldest grandchild at that) and being in a typical Melayu family… I think I might still have to hold a void-deck lagu jiwang+hindustan+dangdut wedding. Prek!

Busy Busy Busy.

Barely had three hours of sleep before I realized that I am SO backlogged in my Make-A-Wish to-do list. Finally finished doing up the graphics for the poster and door gifts which is much better then the previous final draft, and I quite like it, but still has room for improvement :P

Now to send them to the printers, frame them up, get my room organized and prepare the other small stuff for tomorrow’s Wish Day. See lah, do last minute now I’m in a rush kekeke. Have a good weekend kids!

Latest Sprees @ Fashion-ist!

For bags lovers and fashion freaks, you can now join our Mix & Match spree! Grab any plain top, match it with any of our jackets or vests and top the outfit with that perfect bag. Yes we know it’s might be too humid these days for the former, but who’s to say when the next downpour or impromptu movie date will be?

And as per all your hot requests, the all time favorite Tiffany&Co collection spree is now open for the 3rd time! Thank you for all your feedback. We love those silver things too :)

All images and text supplied by Fashion-ist.

Forgetting Each Other.

This wonderful thing that I  share with Haikal has finally won the coveted title of “Longest Relationship Ever” :’) We will be reaching our second year anniversary this coming July (Insya-Allah), and even though back in Secondary School everyone would think that it is a big feat (even three months was considered a breakthrough!), at this age I know that two years is nothing and we still have many, many more challenging years ahead of us.

That being said, I am in no way belittling the past 23 months that I have him by my side. Every morning and night, he is still the first and last voice I hear, he is the one I seek for when I need companionship or a shoulder, and he is the only boy I know who will gamely break into a number when I request for a song at any single time of the day.

I still have the hots for him as much as the first day when I laid eyes on him at Vivo while I was queuing up for some free Ben&Jerry’s, and I still love him as much (more, even) as the time I received the sms where he was asking me to be his.

But sometimes, when we both get caught up with our own lives, like our work, our friends, our own self-aspirations or even succumbing to our laziness, we tend to forget and take the other person for granted. Haikal and I know this very well, and yet, because we’re human, we always overlook the subject at hand and create a mess between the both of us.

For some people, the solution could be going out for a nice dinner date, or having make up you-know-i-know, but for Haikal and I, we walk, talk and take photos.

Which was exactly what we did last Saturday :) The afternoon was spent watching Sinetron with his mum in the living room as the rain poured in torrents and when it finally subsided in the evening to reveal a perfect weather for walking, Kal and I waved our goodbyes and set out into the Sembawang sunshine.

It was a cheap, tiring day filled with walking around from one place to another, but zomg was it the perfect-est day ever! All the walking reminded me of the times Haikal and I used to prowl aimlessly around when we were dating, all the talking kept me updated about this boy that I have given my heart to and all the photo-taking gave us ample opportunities to capture the beautiful moment that we were sharing at that moment <3

I love you very much Bonpet :) Let’s make this last forever and ever and ever, let’s make this last forever!

Running away from one’s problems.

A Brand New Day, originally uploaded by Thomas Hawk.

Earlier last night at 10pm, as my heart laid heavy against my chest, I suddenly thought running might help. I rummaged through the shelves and being unable to find my running shoes, I put on a pair of Jack Purcells and started out into the night.

For the next 45 minutes, I alternated between sprinting and brisk walking as traffic went by me, the sounds of Yuna accompanying my every move. With every step that kissed the gravel, I could feel sweat trickling down my neck and onto my back and it reminded me how not long ago, I used to do this every single day until laziness got the better of me.

The bad news is that once I entered my home, I realized that running away did not help at all. Everything remained the way it was; the world had frozen during that 45 minutes I was seeking solace and now it has thawed out to reveal everything that it was.

I still feel sad, I still feel lonely and I still feel lost.

The good news is, I feel so damn exhausted that I think sleep should come easy tonight. By tomorrow morning, 7 hours would have passed and by then, perhaps even frozen hearts would have thawed out to welcome a brand new day.

Three Mats, a girl and a Man U match.

It has been MONTHS since I went out properly with Fitree, so it was a good surprise when Haikal turned up for our date last Saturday with Fitree in tow :) Stinky and sweaty from their soccer match in the morning, they had travelled down to the east side to pick me up from my Make-A-Wish meeting.

We spent the afternoon walking around Tampines to check out the Uniqlo jeans (unique meh? like same only. I still prefer Cheap (ironically not so cheap) Monday), and afterwhich just hung around for a while to see Anz in action at her flea market.

When evening beckoned, as with the other 1001 soccer fans, we headed down to the Singapore Flyer where Tiger was holding a live telecast of the match between Manchester United and Arsenal. Being the claustrophobic person that I can be, I felt quite disheartened for a moment when I saw throngs of mats and minahs with their motorbikes, as the Redbull Motocross event was happening there at the same time.

But after giggling when seeing Haikal looking so disappointed that he didn’t get his balls in the hole (see above pic, what were you thinking?) and making small talk with Fitree, the crowds dispersed from my mind and we joined everyone else under the big tent as the match begun.

For the first half, we were unable to get any seats due to the fact that we arrived a few minutes after kick off. Standing behind the VIP area, it was rather irritating as people kept walking in front of us and blocking our line of sight etc. So when half time came, we made a move and…

…Bagged seats smack in the center, front row. Power kedegak! We could even see Jean Danker’s upskirt (k tu part bedek)! I am not much of a soccer person, in the sense that I still don’t understand how a person goes offside (True Story : “Bie, ape tu term tu, offline eh?“), but I am ok in the sense that I don’t fall asleep, I get excited in the moment, and I LOVE washing my eyes with all the gorgeous hunks running around in their short shorts.

On a sidenote, it being a Tiger event, of course Tiger Beer was sold in full flow throughout the whole area. Although it was hilarious seeing the AhPeks get drunk and with their red faces scolding the Tiger people when their drinks were not delivered fast enough, it was also quite depressing seeing people of my own dunking the drinks one after another without a care of the makcik-makcik tudungs standing next to them.

I know I myself am no angel, but erm ntah it’s just my pet peeve. Ok next!

When the soccer match ended (yahoo Glory Glory Man United! (kes terpaksa support diorang or risk getting bitch slapped by the boy)), the boys and I headed out to the Padang to get a taste of soccer ourselves.

In between running around chasing the ball and just strolling on the field, I managed to get some talk time with Fitree. I think it was the first time this year that he actually told me stuff about himself, and I daresay that 5 minutes of talk time reminded me so much of the few years back when we became online friends, gradually became close friends and to where we are now.

Dude. Gue kangen sama persahabatan kita. Gue rasa seperti udah lama gitu kita enggak berbicara tentang dunia. Gue dan Haikal, loe dan Sandy, kita keluar sama-sama secepat mungkin, bisa?

Be Thankful for what you’ve got.

My family’s in a bit of a financial pit right now, so I have decided to cancel my Jakarta trip in order to help them out. Can’t deny it was a reluctant decision (it was a self birthday present since the trip’s in August), but I guess I was being rather selfish splurging on holidays back to back, taking cabs around and patronizing restaurants ever so often when my parents are struggling to make ends meet.

I have always had this mindset that by giving my parents the allocated amount I have set aside for them monthly, I have every right to spend the remnants of what I have on whatever I chose. How wrong I was.

Simple maths tells me that my dad’s decreasing pay (no bonus, no increment, no overtime, forced leaves etc) coupled with younger brothers who now incur higher education costs and an unstable economy would equate to the family having less to spend. To add to that, mum’s rented shop has barely managed to cover overheads for the past few months ever since rental prices have been doubled and two other competitors sprouted up in the same area.

Until I had a talk with her the other day, I was blinded to the fact that the parents have much less to spend then what I initially thought. For the first time in 15 years, dad and her have now decided that they would need to downgrade to a four room flat from the current five room that we are living in. Knowing how much dad loves the flat and was unwilling to move out even though mum has been suggesting it the past couple of years, it became apparent to me how bad the situation we are in currently.

Feeling guilty at my own excessive, exorbitant spending and lack of attention to the family’s well-being, I decided that perhaps it was time to revise my financial planning. As the eldest and only employed child in the household, I feel that the responsibility lies in me to help them tide over this time of economic crisis until things get better.

To add on, while counting my savings, I realized that at the current rate I am going, I will not even have enough to cover the cost of an average Malay wedding (the current rate is $20 000. Twenty effing thousand. That’s another entry.) even after saving for 5 years. Don’t even get me started on how the hell I am to pay for the degree that I am planning to take.

Goodbye shopping sprees at Borders/Kinokuniya/PageOne/MBH, goodbye twitching cab drivers cursing at other vehicles when they themselves are in the wrong, goodbye dashing waiters serving good food and goodbye monthly short getaways. I will definitely miss all of you :’(

Hijabs Pre-Order @ Muslimah0nline

Muslimah 0nline is currently having Pre-Orders for different kind of hijabs! All hijabs are priced at the rockbottom price of $15 and below and comes with FREE postage. Pre-Orders close on 31st May so start clicking the below links to check the pretty designs out :)

• Amiras
• MONAs and MONAxs
• Chifon hijabs with built in caps

Pop The Champagne!

Image Src : http://www.flickr.com/photos/stockrdb/2129396814/

I almost forgot, but Fingersdontfing turns 3 years old yesterday! This is the longest I have ever stuck to any domain name and I have never ever felt like changing names ever since I registered this one.

If this is not true love, I don’t know what is. I love you Fingersdontfing, thanks for sharing my life with me and I will never ever neglect you ever :’)

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Vietnam Part 4 : Nha Thrang!

We arrived at Nha Thrang early the next morning, and I awoke to the wide open ocean on my right and endless rows of trees on my left. Everyone around me was fast asleep, but the scenery enveloping the sleeper bus was too good to be missed so I sat up, and enjoyed some Me-Time just looking out onto the horizon.

For the next thirty minutes or so, the bus twisted and turned on the road, going along the circumference of hills. Even though I was cocooned in it, I could feel the serenity and the breeze outside, as shades of blue and green blanketed my eyesight. It was at that moment that I fell in love with Nha Thrang.

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