Mid-30s

I just hit mid-thirties.

If you are going to enter a marathon race, you will be placed in the Veteran category. No shit! Means old lah. Hahaha.

My relatives say I have this motherly look. What that means is that with just a glance, people will know that I have kid(s). To me, motherly look literally means - I have panda eyes, and my face looks puffy and wrinkly, and I pandai bargain in the wet market, I suddenly got very interested in cooking-ware, and love sharing recipes. Basically, like an Ah Sou.

Nevertheless, there is nothing I love more about myself than achieving mid-30s. I feel mature, I feel empowered at work, I feel I am in control of my household. I am happy with my relationships at home with my hubby, siblings, with in-laws, and my own parents and relatives. I am happy with my job and being a career woman. I have some assets (properties, investments, not body assets). I am not bragging, but I am grateful to be given various opportunities in life to see and experience so many things in this world:

1. I drank good coffee before
2. I drank bad coffee before
3. I got a many degrees - biology, Ph.D. and recently - chemistry.
4. I have obtained a Scholarship before.
5. I have been an exchanged student before overseas.
6. I have completed a triathlon and a duathlon. I swam in the open-ocean before.
7. I have 40 open water dives logged around SEA - Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia
8. I have completed 6 full marathons.
9. I have lived overseas - China, Netherlands, Singapore
10. I have experienced blind dating, meeting a guy online and regretted it because he's so not like his Friendster profile
11. I have gotten drunk and drove drunk for 10 km (only if I remembered).
12. I bribed a cop before.
13. Got caught for DUI before.
14. I have sung on the stage in public before
15. I studied a foreign language before - Japanese
16. I have traveled to many countries around the world before
17. I have kissed a complete stranger before
18. I have been embarrassed in public before - usually involving clothing malfunction
19. I raced up KL Tower before. *proud*
20. The highest I've been in Twin Towers is 74th floor.
21. I own a luxury bag before (relatively expensive)
22. I have helped a stranger before by giving him/her my money, and not asking it back.
23. I almost died due to a medical condition before.
24. ....and came back alive and became a motherfarter
25. I stayed in a dorm before with total strangers.
26. I acted like a bitch before, throwing tantrums and not giving in.
27. I have experienced both bloody childbirth and c-sect. The pain!
28. I must have had 6-7 dates including boyfriends, before I found my hubby. Wait, maybe 10.
29. I met with 2 major car accidents before.
31. My car got stolen before.
32. I have been baptized a Christian.
33. I am a landlady
34. I am a wife
35. I am a mother.

Glad to announce:
I have not smoked before.
I have not taken drugs before.
I have not experienced studying overseas before (I really wish)
I have not done plastic surgery before.
I have not ate weird foods before and will never try - reptiles, fried insects, live octopus, raw herring, blue cheese, etc.
I have not seen the death of a human being before.


I know can never (but never say never!) be a stay-at-home-mum as my brains are constantly churning chemistry reactions for the development of new chemicals, thus I kinda think nobody at home would appreciate my brilliant, scientific (ahem!) mind. And tell you, I hate managing my home and my son 24 hours, 365 days a year. He can be so cute that I wanna kiss him all the time, but that's just it. Otherwise, my son can be quite annoying because consciously I enjoy my freedom as an individual, hence I hope to just see him at night (kidding, but 50% truth) (I am a good mother ok but I need my ME-time back). I love my kid, but I also love the office, the laboratory, my colleagues, the rat race, and I like to get my brains work out hard...and most importantly: I get to bring back a chunk of salary.

To say I am an accomplished woman, nope. But to say I have hit some good milestones in life, then yes. I still think I have a long way to go to achieve -

1. financial freedom

2. having successful kids (though you have to define success)

3. leave a good legacy in this world (e.g. breakthrough in scientific discoveries, charity, save tigers,     :-P ).

4. sleep without anyone disturbing me.<--never br="" never="" say="">

Ivy-out!

1 Day, 2 Celebrations

6th May 2013: A day after election, when I was still berdebar-debar with the near-death election results (esp. Perak), we went to JPN (National Registration Department NRD, Ipoh) to submit our marriage application. Thank God my hubby and I are both from Ipoh which makes registration much easier and business was as usual at the government's offices despite the GE13 frenzy a day before. One of my bestie thought NRD was the name of some cafeteria. Lol!

Somewhere in May 2013: Bought a dainty LWD for my ROM (great buy: good quality taffeta material) and a pair of ZangToi's for the occasion. Most expensive shoes I've ever bought...yet. (the furthest I went was Aldo).

Bought a bridal package which was great and no hard-selling, woohoo! Nowadays, bridal packages (e.g. prices and offerings) are extremely competitive, thus some bridal advisors resort to hard-selling, which often turns me off.

31 May 2013: I've gotten myself a Korean Wave (read: hairperm like those Korean babes) and new hair colour for a change. I did think I went over-board (read: too adventurous) with the colour. Whatever! I do feel 'changed'...for once, for real. I applauded myself for being brave.

I learned two new words during the process: 'Boutonniere' and 'Burgundy'

7th June 2013: I drove down from KL to Ipoh the night before, picking up my uncle and aunt who joined the rest of my more-excited-than-I-am family members. This day was not without its trauma: my bridal bouquet and cupcakes (doorgifts) delivery was delayed for 4 hours, when that 4-hour delayed could bring me back to Ipoh much sooner. The florist gave me much excuses: it was Friday, traffic sucks and Malaysians abide by Malaysian time. I did panic.

7th June 2013 (pm) until dawn of 8th June 2013: I slept with my Maltese, Pei Pei. Woke up with her by my side.

Bantah?? My ex-high school classmate (Freda Hew) spotted this by chance, and snapped this for me at Ipoh's NRD.

8th June 2013 - I turned 3# years old and I am going to change my name on this very day!

8th June 2013 (am) - Put some make up on, set my burgundy hair into a Korean wave, spend a few minutes for some candid pics at home with relatives and we're good to go!

Me and the Godfather(!)

Pei Pei and I

I though I reached NRD early, but the Fong family was already there. Pinned the *swallow* Boutonniere onto his blazer and we went in to take our queue number. We are the second couple. Saturdays only receives 4 couples at NRD.

Meanwhile, my bestie, YP and my aunt snapped some pics of us in the waiting room. Thanks Pooi!

Mr. and Mrs.

My brother will marry first, but we ROM first. So, Fong don't need buy him trousers to hang.

Aiya....photographer tak pandai Macroshot. (This is where I did miss you Kenny Law, with your photography skills)

Okay, boleh masuk dah:

Satu kampung MASUK!

.....and I thought witness is supposed to be >18 years. 

The angkat-ikrar room is not too huge and the sign in front says: "No Children Allowed". But my witness is my nephew. Cannot?

Then the whole lot of family members, friends and kids(too!) went into the room and the room was packed to the brink! But I am blessed everyone's here to witness our signing together. Just blessed. Mum and my uncle, as usual, made crazy jokes, and we laughed and laughed just before the Registrar came in. Everyone suddenly turn quiet. Can hear a pin drop. She's like Judge Dread.

Okay, start The Registrar said a few legal stuff....bla bla bla, angkat ikrar...signed, habis. I am now known as ....same lah: Ivy...what else. Thank God for first names. Lol!

Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm yours.

After coming out from the Registrar's room, the photo-taking frenzy begins:

 

      Original Chai family: Eric, Dad, Mum, (Mr. and Mrs. Fong) and Andrew and future missus Chai!

L-R: Bestie forever YP, Fong, I, Leng chais Meng and Beh

Passing the baton. My siblings

My parents and parents-in-law

My new family

8 June 2013 (brunch): After taking a whole lot of pictures...like A LOT, we went to old town for dimsum. Once back home, everyone begin celebrating my birthday. Once again I felt blessed. I was over-joyed by the presents and presence. My hubby got me charms from Thomas Sabo. Blessed gilerrrr!

My 1-candle-cheese-cake birthday at home with everyone!

8th June 2013 (pm): Okay, remove my make up but still no rest. I had to rush to another appointment: Meeting my Actual Day photographer. and he is like the BEST! Better than you, Kenny Law :-P

Tired like mad.

Ivy-KongOUT!!


More photos on my Google+ account or on Picasaweb.google.com/cchivy

1Lab + 6Pizzas --> 7Rules Broken

Oh, I had a birthday preview. June 6th, 2008. I realised that Dominos pizzas had a good combo deal if booked online, so I taked-away 6 pizzas and some side dishes for my labmates. We brunched at our lab - the lab largely known for storage of pesticides, used of toxic chemicals, foul fumes of glacial acetic acid, HCl, methanol, chloroform and fungal spores (that's mine). It's such an obscure place to dine, but we had no choice because we had limited food and not everybody was invited (lab also got office politics marrr).

Anyway, nobody sang any birthday song for me because we opened Youtube and let the computer sing Juno's 'Happy Birthday'. Now, that was what I call 'modern civilization' + 'lazyness' (even to sing) to the max!

I had a great party. It's different! I made sure my lab assistants were not around because they would have been furious for feasting in the most toxic lab in the whole faculty. I once drank distilled water from a used beaker. That was desperate times. Now too. 'Thank you', Pak Lah *hugs*.

That's us in Red. My birthday theme. Just maybe, everyone knows I love ManUtd.

Clockwise from left: Arshia, Aishah, Me, Dahlia, Mogeret, Sek Yee, Ina (middle).

Economic crisis on your birthday.

FOOD
As my birthday looms, I was wondering how I should celebrate it. It's my birthday so I can do anything I want, right?! Mmm...RIGHT?!?! Am I allowed to show off my cooking skills to my invited friends? Hmmphh...but doubt I'll be cooking. Not because I'm a bad cook :P but because I don't want to end up washing dishes ON MY BDAY! Maybe buy 5 large pizzas back.

STYLE
Should I go for a (expensive) hair cut? It's tooo long; my mum said I looked like a Punjabi (no offence to Punjabis! Mum said it, not me). Actually, the aunty in front of my apartment can do better stylin' and cuts than the one in 1Utama (I somewhat kena tipu before by the latter). Just that aunty has once pulled my hair too hard during treatment/styling that I went home with a headache. Sick! I thought of buying a blonde wig and act Paris for once on my bday. I've never played dumb before.

EVENTS
I thought of just a small outing to the P. Ramlee Musical 2. Dad and Mum aleady plan to buy me those tickets that I yearn for soooo long. I missed the previous musical. Or a birthday filled with books! I'll go and spend the whole day at the Popular Book Fest at KLCC. Anyone for those 2 events?

VENUE
Can I celebrate my bday in a mamak stall? Why not ehh...food prices are rising; Although roti tisu and teh tarik also naik harga, it's much affordable than some hype restaurant that serves (extremely) overpriced food. Worst - I don't even understand the menu! If my birthday was held in a mamak stall, I can get a candle stuck on a roti canai rather than a Secret Recipe cheesecake that costs a fortune (I am on a diet anyway - cheesecakes are a BIG no-no). I don't fancy cakes anyway. I prefer kuih. Can I eat kuih bengkang instead? I like the kuih bengkang from the fighting-couple-stall inside wai-sik-kai in SS2. Seriously, that would be the best bday 'cake'. Let's celebrate in SS2.

SHOPPING SPREE
Thought of going to Singapore. However, in this 'hard' times, thought of saving money a bit. And I know definitely I can't stop myself from splurging on everything and anything during this Great Singapore Sale. So have to scratch this trip on the basis of self-control. I still love you Jo; you know that.

PASSION
Maybe I can celebrate in Starbucks. I'll buy every guest a cup of brew. Hmmphh...guess not, because I'll be the ONLY person really enjoying myself there. Not everyone love Starbucks and its experience. :P To me, no coffee is expensive when it's Starbucks. To hell with economic crisis! To hell with zero oil subsidies! Starbucks, here I come!