2014

It's that time of the year again to make new year resolution and to reminisce this year that is coming to an end.
This year,  we have yet again experienced so much, we went on our belated honeymoon early in the year, spent new years in macau travelling back to hongkong and getting stuck in sea of people, then headed of to Europe and UK in Jan. When we came back in Feb, i found my first full time pharmacist job after doing a few locum shifts in Auckland. We moved to Whangarei and started a new life up here, meeting new friends, trying out new activities like archery, going on walks and even getting lost in the woods and had to ring 111 search and reacue to help us. It has been a great experience and journey, i am actually feeling sad this year is ending in a couple of hours time. The last 2 years have been amazing, i look forward to what is coming next year.
I had to look back at my 2013 post to remember what my new year resolution was, surprisingly it was only to find a full time job that i am happy working at, guess what, that was achieved very quickly into the year as i found a job in Feb. Although this job has its work drama just like any other jobs, I actually achieved alot, got my first pay rise 6 months after starting and working as a charge pharmacist now. People managing is not easy but i have learnt and grown so much.
For this year's resolution, i just want 2015 to be a healthy year, let it be a year of fitness and good health!

Life and its uncertainties

Just as I thought I was not going to blog anymore..

The future seems so uncertain at the moment, I thought I knew what I wanted in life and have my life planned out. Now that we are both living comfortably, with stable jobs and income, I guess the next thing to do is to think what to do next.

The biggest question is, where am I going to settle? Should I stay in Whangarei? Move back to Auckland? Move to New Plymouth like I initially planned or move to OZ?

Moving town again sounds like a fresh start all over again, it is exciting yet challenging at the same time. There is always that 'what if' at the back of my mind, what if I don't like living in the place I choose to settle, what if things don't work out as planned, what if i'm better off staying at where I am now. How do you decide on where to live when you are considering places you have never lived before? There are good and bad things about each places, how do you justify what is a rational decision? How do you prioritise?

The next biggest question is when do kids come in the picture? And where do I raise them? And how do I raise them? I guess that is what everyone expects us to do next, and conversations with friends now involve babies and kids, but am I ready to be a mum? It's a life changing decision and I want to make sure I do it for myself and my family, not because of peer and parent pressure. I know it would be lovely to have a baby now, and it would also be perfect at my age.  The plan was to have a child before i turn 30, but I do not want to raise a child not knowing where I am going to be living in the next five years. Call me perfectionist but I don't feel comfortable having a baby with so many uncertainties going on, not forgetting the big question about how to raise them? I have absolutely no idea how to raise a child and the thought of being a bad parent puts me off.

And the question about career comes into play, I'm lucky enough to have a job with people I enjoy working with and have potential to grow professionally, but there is also a possibility of finding a better job, with higher pay, and more opportunities somewhere else. Do I want to start my own pharmacy business or stay as an employee? It is a risky time to start a new pharmacy at the moment, because of the law and funding change, I personally do not think that owning a pharmacy business today is as profitable as 10 years ago, although the fact of being my own boss is sweet, realistically speaking it is a big risk to take at this time of my life. I might be better off working for someone else knowing that my job will be stable. Talking about being a parent, I wouldn't be able to devote myself fully to my child if I do venture into a new business right now.

I guess you can only plan this much for life. I have no idea what my plan for the next few years is. And I do not like knowing that there is nothing I can work towards to. Maybe I will wake up tomorrow with a clear mind of exactly what I need to do. At the moment, a husband, a dog and a cat in Whangarei is good enough.

I have not forgotten this space

Haven't been blogging for so long, I am so tempted to end my blog for good. However, something tells me I will want to come back and post things someday. Sorry for neglecting this space, I may not be updating as often but I have not forgotten this space.

Frank's 30th coming up this Saturday, the whole family is coming back from Oz to celebrate, it's gonna be a great weekend!

Post birthday post!

So I fell sick about 3 weeks ago and I stopped my 3 times a week pilates. Laziness got into me...

I should be really get back into it.

My birthday was great, we had thai massages and yummy degustation! 27 now!! getting close to thirty!!

Got a pay rise the other day, makes my day since i only started for less than 6 months! Boss seems to be real happy with my progress, she told me she was really impressed with what i've done and how well i fit in. I haven't had such good compliments before, knowing that you are doing something right feels great!

Spring is here, means more sunshine! yay! Going to start running again, we missed the marathon sign up date but we can always start training for next year!

Sorry for ignoring you blog for so long.. life has gotten in the way :)

Finally, pilates!

I'm focusing at living a healthy lifestyle at the moment. I've been trying to exercise atleast 30 minutes a day, 4 days a week, so far it's going good and I can see some changes starting to appear in my body. I'm not trying to change how I look, although I do like to firm up that belly fat, I'm really just trying to be more fit and healthy. I guess hearing stories about parent's generation getting sick is making me feel nervous about my health, sure want to stay healthy when i'm old! So pilates and badminton here I come~ Would love to pick up swimming again but that will have to wait till summer is back.

It's that time of the year again

I used to dislike winter, but having somebody to snuggle with at cold winter nights is a luxury, makes you enjoy and appreciate the coziness on winter nights :)

Rainy windy night

So we went to Auckland on Tuesday night because Frank had a scheduled electrophysiology study on his heart. After a few doctors and specialist visits since the end of last year, we finally found the cause of his ocassional palpitation and one incident of dizziness. He was expecting to do an ablation on his heart today but during the electrophysiology study, the doctor reckons his heart was normal enough and he didn't need the ablation done. He was hospitalised for a whole day after the procedure and could not come back to Whangarei with me. Too bad I had to work tomorrow so I had to come back alone, it was quite a scary drive back because the rain and wind was terrible and I was driving in the dark for 3 hours, with Pinky in the car with me. Frank is usually the driver and I am not used to driving long distance alone.

Poor hubby was in so much pain at the area of insertions after his procedure. He also had an episode of low blood pressure and almost fainted at the hospital. Thankfully we now know that his heart is normal and he does not have any increased risk of getting arrhythmia in the future. He is now safely discharged and resting at home with my parents. Guess I will be spending my coming Easter long weekend in Auckland.

I was having sleepless nights about this and was trying really hard not to think too much about it. Thankfully it is now all over and I know my hubby is fine.
That was a big reminder about how we take things for granted all the time. You can never give too much love and kisses to your loved ones, especially the ones you see everyday.

Sunday morning

Got woken up by nightmare, not a good way to start a Sunday :(    hubby is still away in Auckland for baddy tournament, and i am trying to blog with my phone for the first time using blogger app, if this works i will be blogging more often!!

Also noticed I have become a grannie, i dont take selfie anymore, so here you go, a selfie of me lazying in bed with my phone.

Plans for the next step

It feels good going back to full time work, all settled in our new home and get back to same routine everyday.

Now that a big chapter of my life has begin, I wonder what the next step is.

We don't plan to have a family just yet, we want to see what the next few years hold for us first, whether we are going to stay in Whangarei, go back to Auckland, or move to New Plymouth.

We are also trying to pay off our mortgage as soon as possible, hopefully get another property before we start a family. That way, even if I take a few years off work to raise my family we are financially secure with assets and have investments on hand. However, these are just a plan, life is full of surprises, who knows what life has in hand for us next.

Our house in Auckland has successfully been rented out, that's another task ticked off. Our property manager did a good job finding us a tenant, and we found them within 1 week of advertising, feels good to know that things are going to plan smoothly.

I still want to try to have my first baby before i turn 30. I have 3 years and a bit to do that, will we be ready then? And when I do get pregnant, I want to be a full time mum and raise my kids myself with minimum help from other means (day care/parents).

As for my career, I will eventually get back into full time work when my kids are older. And then the focus will be to get my own pharmacy business and be my own boss.
Plans plans plans.. I wonder if my life will turn out how I want it to be, I shall read this again in 10 years time and compare :)

Oh, and I am going to get a goldendoodle as a family dog to grow up with my kids! :)

Back to work

Feels different not needing to cram and study after a full day of work, suddenly there seems like a lot more free time.

I am so used to studying and working full time and be away from Frank, now that we are seeing each other every day and I finish work at 5pm, night time feels so free.

Hot Sunday

It is so hot today. Hot Sunday in Whangarei.
I wonder when is summer going to be over because I am sick of it, wishing for Autumn to come!

MH370

My last day staying at home! Resume work tomorrow, then back to full time on Monday!

Reading about MH370 is just heartbreaking, I can't believe there are so much politics, lies and blaming involved.
The politics have gone from bad to worse over the years.. when i was young i never noticed these politics although occassionally hear about parents talking. It never used to be so bad though. Ever since i started noticing about politics and ever since I left the country, I read news about Malaysian corruption, not from Malaysian news but from overseas news, somehow part of me is glad I no longer need to be part of that, but another part of me is deeply sadden and shamed by what is going on in my home country.

I used to be so proud to announce I am a Malaysian, it makes me feel special because not many people know about Malaysia, and they always thought I was Chinese, Korean or Japanese to start with. But now I am actually ashamed to tell people I am a Malaysian, because of all these talks about MH370 and how poorly it was handled.

Anyway a kitty video to cheer everyone up!
Cody had his lamb since he was 2 months old, now 7 years old and still loving it! He does go a little crazy with it. (I had replaced his lamb with an identical one few years back because Pinky ripped it)

Honeymoon photos

Love being able to catch up on things I've been meaning to do for ages! Since we came back from our big trip, I've been wanting to post up photos but I got caught up with finding a job, interview, moving house etc. Finally, almost 2 months after our honeymoon I'm posting up hundreds of photos of our big trip. It took me a good few hours and lots of tagging to complete.
Honeymoon pictures are FINALLY uploaded! And I can finally cross off that to do list!

And can't believe I have been blogging continuously for the past few days.. wonder if this will keep up once I start work again next week haha

Photos!

Been a while since I posted photos up on my blog.

Our living area

Kitchen and dining

Other view of living area and study area

Master bedroom

Main bathroom

Cody pining to go outside the first 2 days he is here

Started relaxing

Finally have the top tier of our wedding cake unfrozen

Dessert for the next week! Velvet and white chocolate mm

 Panorama view from our deck, I took it too fast so the deck looks bent haha

We bought a new cat tree for Cody to prevent him from boredom and ahem scratching the carpet

 He enjoys the view from top

 Feels like king huh

Lastly, a picture of me! Yup! I am back to curls!

Clearing out old stuff!

The advantage of staying at home is I finally get to sort all the minor things out.

There were things in boxes that remained in boxes since i moved out of my parents' house, such as albums and old books etc. When I moved out i took everything with me into my own home, and they remained in the boxes in storage for over a year. Now that we moved again, I finally have the time to go through them, can't believe so many junks followed us from one city to another, when they could've gone into the bin ages ago.

I am a collector, I used to collect old letters, books, ornaments and memorable little items. As a kid, that is fine but as I grow older I find myself having more and more junks, at the same time finding it hard to dispose because every time i go through them it brings back so much memories, and it reminded me how long I've had them.

Today, I found boxes of piano books since I was a kid, i do not know why i kept some of them, perhaps thinking i might use it to teach my kids some day. But to be honest, some of them are in such bad condition, I doubt I myself want to play from it. So off they go to the bin.

I already did a big clear out on old mails, cards and letters few months back, and yet i ended up keeping some. I think it's time i really part from them, so that I have room for newer memories.
The special box i used to keep things from Frank since we started dating remains in tact. Some of the things in there though, I have no idea where i got them and what the memory is behind it, maybe i should dispose of such things because i can't remember them anyway, Frank might do, so i better keep it until we have time to go through together.

I still kept my old English tuition notes and essays I wrote since high school. I do not know why I held on to them, that was the only high school work i kept. Perhaps it was because I really enjoyed the classes at ACEdventure (I think that was what it was called), I heard they eventually opened up a private school, good job Teacher Ann! Reading back what I wrote when I was 16 surprises me (more than 10 years ago omg!), I was pretty good :P or it just means i never improved since then and my grammar has gotten worse instead haha. Can't believe I brought all these books with me from Malaysia to New Zealand and kept them in storage for so long....  Yup, definitely time to throw them away once and for all!

We are whangareian!

Finally officially living in Whangarei.

The move was much harder than last time, afterall we are moving cities this time, not just suburb.
It took us the whole day, with cyclone lusi predicted to hit Northland that weekend, the worst weather you can have to move.
But it turned out not too bad in the end. We got hit by the rain, some furnitures got drizzled on, but at the end of the day we all safely moved with minimal damage.

We took the animals with us the following week, with cat Cody meowing all the way in the car and the dog Pinky excitedly about the long road trip, little did they know they have been moved away from home and are never going back.
I think they are liking their new home though, more space inside and outside for them to roam. We are all still settling down.

I think I jinxed myself by saying that I have experienced all the biggest life events in 2013. Little did we know we again went through a major life changing event this year. Moving house can be stressful, and it takes time to recover and adjust.
I do however enjoy the extra time spent with hubby everyday, the nice working hours of 8 to 5 everyday, the free time after work and the bigger more luxurious house to live in.

I do miss my friends from Auckland, and the asian people/food/entertainment there. Also miss both my parents and in laws but hey, we will meet new friends and adapt to a new environment here together.
We don't know if this move is going to be permanent, but that is what makes it exciting. We might decide to settle down here and start a family, or move to a different town or move back to Auckland. Who knows what the future holds, as long as we have each other and our family of 2 humans and 2 pets are in one place, we can be anywhere.

I am having last and this week off, so i could go back to Auckland and clean the house in preparation for renting out, and also to sort my farewells with friends. This week I am up here cleaning this house and helping the animals to adjust to the new environment. Whangarei is promising for our career, we will get great work and life experience up here, I am really looking forward to going back to work and get better at what I do.

So right now I am here blogging away and sorting out little bits and pieces for the house.
I will post some pictures of out house up soon, we do have quite a good view being at hill top!

First wedding anniversary

Happy Anniversary dear, finally found a place and officially moving to Whangarei!

First year of marriage went by so fast!

We are now in Whangarei while all our stuff are still in Auckland, waiting for movers this weekend. We have forgotten to bring our wedding cake (frozen since wedding day) and our wedding video that i planned to share on our anniversary with us to Whangarei... such fail... but we managed to grab outselves some nice dinner to celebrate :)

House hunting again!!

Had a tiring day today, although only worked for 9.5 hours straight.. Hope it'll be ok when i go back to full time workforce.

Quite excited about moving, and a lot to plan.. renting our house out and finding a new place at the same time is so stressful and exciting at the same time!

The benefit of moving again? We get to start over ALL OVER AGAIN! Time to throw old clothes and junks away... for good this time. Last time i dragged them to my new home and they ended up in storage for over a year.. untouched.
This time, I am going to have a serious clear out!

Time to put things into boxes and containers again!

Fingers cross we can rent our place out smoothly..

I give ourselves 2 months to settle in, by end of April, we would be enjoying the new home in the new town, and go back to stressfree steady lifestyle...in the mean time, it is house hunting and tenant hunting time!

Found a job!

Job hunting went more smoothly than i expected, I found a full time job!
I will be moving up to Whangarei where Frank has been travelling to work. And hopefully this time I can finally live with Frank in the same town permanently.

So it is house hunting all over again, only that we are renting this time, not going to buy another house yet.
I am getting excited about the big move, this will be my biggest move. New job, new town, new life.. oh how much my life has changed in the past 2 years...

I hope we can finally settle down, at least for the next couple of years..

So many good things have been happening to me lately, I was feeling lucky so I bought lotto last week... but I did not win any money, only a bonus ticket for this week, haha silly me.

Back from Holiday - New Year resolution

It's nice to finally be back home from our honeymoon. Being away for 6 weeks is a loong time, we were both missing New Zealand a lot, afterall we both agreed it's the best place to live, after living in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macau, England, Italy and France for the past 6 weeks.

I have been doing lots of tidying and cleaning, we have been living at our home for just over a year and already collected so much junk, time to do a clean out.

Frank got me a new phone. My new gadget is now this baby

So anyway now that I'm back to reality, been trying to look for a full time job. In the mean time I have been locuming here and there at random places. It's good experience working in different environments but I miss working in a set environment and having a routine going, I like stability.

Who knows what life will bring and where we will end up staying, but for now, i enjoy doing my casual work and being a housewife :)

I have a new item to add to my new year resolution. ''Taking more risks''. I have been trying different unfamiliar paths when driving to places or walking Pinky. And when I am stuck in different situations, instead of always choosing the safest option and the option that I am familiar with, i want to be able to step out of my comfort zone and adventure new things. That's what I want to accomplish this year.