Rumah lelong

Went to property auction last Saturday to bid for a house, price is RM139k. And it went up all the way to RM178k. Can you beleive it??? This is not the price of rumah lelong.

So anyway, today I would love to share the procedure of buying a rumah lelong.

1. Check the house and TNC. The taxes and maintainance fees usually will be covered by the bank. You cover only the utilities bill (kalau ada tunggakan)
2. If you are interested, register your name, us we registered to the agent.
3. Then, do a banker's check (5% or 10% from the price of the house before bidding)
4. Bidding day, register and leave your check and IC at the couter.
5. During bidding, stick to ur max budget. Minimum bidding usually every RM1k or RM2k.
6. If you win, you'll be given 120 days to get a loan.
7. Else, take back you banker's check and IC at the counter.

So I lost the bidding.. Maria said, "Maybe rumah tu berhantu". So funny! But, I know it's not the best thing for me because...

I found a better house near the rumah lelong at a better price and it's not rumah lelong!! :)

Moral of the story, please survey the price of the house before you set your maximum target during the bidding. The bidder who bids the house for RM178k surely did not do his homework cuz the value of the house is way lower than that!

Don't do the same mistake!!

Korea korea

One thing I love about Korean and Japanese is their passion towards their own country.

When I was a Liaison Officer for the Japanese swimming team during FESPIC, I saw that they would go to every Japanese shopping malls (Isetan), hotels (Nikko) and restaurants. Also they love Malaysia so much, that they make sure the stuff they bought are from Malaysia.

Once we went shopping for groceries, I took a pack of tea brand 'Lip**n'. And one of them asked me, "Why you used Lip**n? Boh is from Malaysia, ryte?" And I started to be a faithful fan of Boh ever since.

Also, my mum-in-law is Korean who stayed in Malaysia for at least 3 decades now. Still, everything in the house is Korea brand. The washing machine, the TV, the rice cooker. Even the writing at the electrical appliances is in Korea (I wonder where she got it) that it made me hard to even cook the rice. I would go like, "Which one is the On button, Sayang" and he would go like, "Ha! That's why you have to learn Korean."

Last Saturday, I had another exciting experience. In the evening, Love asked, "Jom Sayang pegi tgk bola dgn orang Korea, nak?" I didn't know what he meant by that, but he had this kind of exciting tone which made you say, "Nak!" with the same exciting tone in a reflex manner.

So, we went to Ampang Avenue, where we saw some policemen blocked the road, and a big screen with Korean song at the background an all these mata sepet people all around. I almost said to Love, "Where are we?"




Siap dengan a Korean guy wearing hanbok playing his gendang lagiii!!


Oh my!! The players should see this! And when they scored, you should be there to witness the excitement.

I wonder if I could ever be this passionate for my country. Don't get me wrong, I love Malaysia so much you'd be surprised. But, this is different.
Well, at least for a start, I've been using Petronas and drinking Boh and eating Big Apple. Hmm..

Gaucho Grill

As I mentioned previously, when you got married a lot of people wanted to buy you lunch or dinner, right? So, I discovered a new makan/lepak place called Gaucho Grill in Chulan Square.

The price range is more or less the same as Chilli's. But the best part is that during weekdays, they had this promotion where you pay RM 28 for your lunch set and you'll get free buffet of vegetables. Not so excited, I'm not a big fan of vegies btw, but the asparagus is really really yummy!!

Anyways, I went there with Love and his parents. Hadn't really try variety of foods there as Love and his parents had beef steak and I tried the lamb chop. But, I discovered soemthing very interesting that day..

See, mum-in-law had her steak medium rare, dad-in-law had his steak medium and Love's steak was medium well. I didn't know that it made a whole lot difference on the taste of the steak depending on how you cooked it. Medium rare is a lot more tender, but I just couldn't stand the blood. So, my fav is still well done.

I googled on some Degree of cooking in wikipedia, I think it's fun to share this with you:

Raw - Uncooked.
Seared, Blue rare or very rare - Cooked very quickly; the outside is seared, but the inside is usually cool and barely cooked. The steak will be red on the inside and barely warmed.
Rare - The outside is gray-brown, and the middle of the steak is red and slightly warm.
Medium rare - The steak will have a fully red, warm center.
Medium - The middle of the steak is hot and red with pink surrounding the center. The outside is gray-brown.
Medium well done - The meat is light pink surrounding the center.
Well done - The meat is gray-brown throughout and slightly charred.
Overcook - The meat is dark throughout and slightly bitter.

Anyway, this is the latest picture of Love and me..


Please tell me the specs make me look rounder.

Things to expect after you get married ;p

As a newly wed, I feel that I hold the responsibility to tease you with what you should expect after you get married..

1. People thought that straight away after you got married, you will feel a whole lot different with your partner. I thought so too. But, actually it feels more or less the same for a while. Because you really can't measure love rite? So only after a while that you discover, it's a whole new feeling after all.
2. They say, wedding is a whole new start of a relationship? They are right. It starts all over again. The "get-to-know-each-other" part, because you finally live in the same room and you see him every waking hour. The flirting moment. The "i-miss-you" part when he's 5 minutes gone. Duh! So cheesy!! I can't beleive myself either seriously!
3. The tense of adjusting to each other. I mean, men are less tidy than women after all.
4. The overloaded room, if you're staying with your parents. Buy a new wardrobe! You won't have enough space for his clothes.
5. The waking up in the morning to cook for him.
6. Googling for recipes and an hour conversation with your best friend on what to cook. Man, i sound so boring!
7. Using your time more wisely. Usually on weekends, if both of us have nothing to do and we just met each other the day before, I would end up having a nice rest all by myself the whole day. But now, I would call my gf and just have a nice girlish moment.
8. This is the worst part. You would eat like mad!! It's like everyone was so excited for you that you go anywhere people want to buy you lunch or dinner. (Thanks lovers, for making me.. urm.. rounder)
9. Memorized his family member and start doing your family tree to explain to him. Haha.
10. Everytime you eat a lot, people start asking you, "Gosh, are you pregnant?". Or when you're dizzy. Or when you drink a lot and go to the toilet more often. Or when you look at a baby and give a normal gesture like, "OMG so cute!!!". Kesimpulannya, no matter what you do, people will ask, "Are you pregnant?" My solution is that, everytime I met my relatives I would start with, "Owh no. Not yet. But insya Allah soon, I'll get pregnant ok. So hye Aunty!" Before they even asked, and they always laughed at that. So, heee.. :D

Lucky number 21

Love and I have always loved the "Rumah Lelong" advertisement on the way back to my house.

Previous two weekends, I saw an advertisement of a house with a very reasonable price. We hadn't really look for a house at that time, as we were waiting for our bonus this year, then only thought of house-hunting. But just out of fun, we decided to look at the house and got up all excited, then the next day, we've almost forgotten about the house.

Last Saturday, we had a tea with Omma (my mum-in-law). I didn't remember how the conversation got there, but we came to the house topic. Then, Omma grab a pencil, a calculator, a laptop and a paper, she said, "Now, serious talk, bukan main2!"

For hours, we calculated on our savings and our salaries and surprisingly, we managed to pay for more than 10% for the deposit of the house, just on our savings.

So, yesterday, after Omma insisted to look at the house, we went to really take a look at the house and thought about all the pros and cons. And we fell in love with the house. So badly that I just have to drop by to look at the house everytime I drove my car out of my home currently.

After a while, we realized that the number of the house is '21'. I've always loved 21. Our anniversary is on 21st. Our previous house number is 21. And you know the kind of feeling when you looked at something and you know that it is gonna be yours so badly that you already feel that it's yours? That's kinda how I felt right now. (Anyway, I thin slice a lot this lately, I trust my instinct and I don't do unnecessary extra thinking. This is what happened when you read too much of Malcolm Gladwell, Blink)

Insya Allah, if this is the best for us, we're gonna have a castle of our own by end of this week. Ameen.

As of now, I feel so grown up already!! :D I mean mentally, not physically. Though I heard some comments on how "grown up" I am (physically) after I got married. Ugh! So depressing! I need a jog!! Or better I need to ganti puasa soon!

Goodbyes

I hate 'goodbyes'! What am i talking about? Everybody hates goodbyes..

Yesterday morning, I received an SMS from Nana (actually she sent the SMS the night before, but I went to bed quite early these few days). It says, "Dearest all, Farah's 2nd bro, Yan has just passed away today due to some sudden illness. Sedekahkan Al-Fatihah, semoga rohnya dicucuri rahmat.. Amin.."

I called Love straight away and he asked, "Ada tahlil tonight? Let me know, I can try go home early."

I wanted so badly to see Farah last night, she's one of the best friends I would forever treasure. But Love usually got home around 8.30pm and another hour to Farah's house, we might arrived really late. So I said, "If you get home early, we go, but jgn rempit, take your time."

Later in the evening, I found the courage to actually call Farah. She picked up the phone with one ring, sounded all chirpy that it surprised me and totally clueless on how to react. I even for a while had a feeling that I must have had the wrong 'Farah'. She even managed to convince me that she's fine when I asked her about how she's been doing.

Not until I asked her again, "U ok?"
Farah: Terkejutla ikeen. It's just so sudden. He was healthy. Dr. said he was ok the morning before. It was just so sudden.

And that was when I sensed how hard she was trying to sound as chirpy as she usually is.

I said, "Kalau sempat, i datang tonight ok.."
Farah: Kalau dah habis tahlil, lambat pun takpe..

The moment she said that, I called Love and said, "Sayang, can we go and see Farah tonight?"

See the best thing about him is that he said OK to almost everything for me. He cancelled his meeting, got home before 8pm, for the first time in our married life and I'm so glad we made it.

Sigh.. life is so short. The incident of Farah's bro really hit me, this morning you're healthy as a horse with no history of major sickness, and the same evening, you're just no longer here.

I still feel all gloomy this morning. The fact that I have to say another goodbye to a colleague that is so dear to me. I just hope the power of internet will keep us closer.

Al fatihah to arwah.

And to a really really REALLY strong woman whom I know will get through this all, hang in there, k. ♥

4 out of 6 and it's only June!!

Woke up late this morning. Yes people, when you are married 6.20 am is considered late ok. Usually woke up at 5.30 am, did some breakfast for hubby cuz he usually leave home around 6 am.

Arrived 10 minutes after 8 at the office. Nasib baik flexible hour. Then, dropped by at admin building to photostate some cert for my PhD application when I suddenly had the hunch to check the pigeon hole. I don't usually like checking the pigeon hole, because I hardly get any mail (sounds like loser gile.. hehe)

Anyways, I saw this giant envelope with my name on it. I thought, "Owh.. the grant I applied the other day. Must be telling me officially that it is accepted". So I took a glance at the letter. And stopped. Looked at the envelope, read my name again. The letter head, read my name again. Ehh.. Betulla it's my name there.. I mean except that the HR calls me "Cik", pfftt..


I captured the first word, "Pensyarah" then I captured some numbers and I smiled. Alhamdulillah. I just got promoted, with double of my current salary.

I emailed my darling boss,

Me: Salam Puan, Saya dah dapat surat tawaran untuk jadi lecturer!!! :)
Boss1: Excellent!!!, Congrats Ikin, welcome to the academic world (At this point, I jumped happily)
Me: Thank you, Puan. Thank you for helping a lot in getting us a place untuk jadi tutor and promoting us for a lecturer. I can’t thank you enough. May Allah bless you and your family always.
Boss1: No problem, you prove yourself well!

How sweeeettt...

Then, I talked to Boss Number 2.

Me: Salam Dr. I just got promoted!!
Boss2: How much is your salary?
Me: (Happily) Double than what I received now!! Yay!
Boss2: Too low! You should call them and asked them to raise it to at least RM???? (whatever I'm receiving now) + another RM 1K. (And the nagging goes on..)
Me: Can't you just be happy for me for one moment? Just one moment. *Laughs*

So yup, I just got promoted..

And about to submit my PhD application today.

It's June. And my to-achieve-list; 4 out of 6 things have been achieved. All praise to Allah SWT. Alhamdulillah.