Dubai...here I come!

So peeps, there's been a change of plan.

Instead of working with PwC for a couple more months after dear husband left, I only survived a couple of days before deciding, "That's it man. I'm not gonna spend my days here alone when I have a husband waiting for me in Dubai." So last Monday, 23rd August 2010, I submitted my resignation letter.

Turned out, I literally can't live without having someone to share my joy/excitement or food with, and someone to listen to me bitch about insignificant things like the slower-than-a-turtle car on the right lane, the long queue at the Touch 'N Go toll booth, the annoying advertisement on the radio, etc. And no, virtual communications (Gtalk, Skype, etc) don't count coz you and I both know, it's just not the same.

There I said it, I SUCK at being alone.

Yes, it hasn't been that long since I started working with the company and now I'm already leaving. But what to do, the heart wants what the heart wants. Or as a dear friend told me, I am just 'prioritizing' hehe. So I'm now serving my 2-week notice and my last working day with PwC after deducting my leave would be on next Wednesday, 1st Sept 2010 yeehaa! That means, 2010 is not only the year that I actually resigned from a job for the first time, it is also the year that I resigned TWICE (but each time with very different reasons laa kan). Funny how life turns out sometimes huh?

Plus, we felt that it's better to just leave, get settled and start our new life there as soon as possible so we can plan the next move and begin our new adventure chewahhh. I have yet to decide what I'm gonna do next; a beach bum, professional stalker, a desperate housewife, 'domestic' financial manager - there are a lot to choose from hahah! But as what they taught you in rehab or AA meetings (not that I've been to any one of them. I am no Lindsay Lohan dude =p) - let's just take one thing at a time, shall we?

So up next is my 3-week-plus trip to Dubai to nail down that whole apartment-hunting business, to conduct some price survey so we can decide on stuff that should be bought and shipped from Malaysia and stuff that can be bought locally, and since I'm there, perhaps do a little sight-seeing, try to get used to the weather, then I'll come back to tanahair tercinta to manage our shipment and maybe around mid-Oct I'll be ready to move there for good, Insya Allah.

I'm leaving for my Dubai trip on 6th Sept (I am soo exciteddd, I have already started packing hoyeahh!) and will return on 1st Oct. And yup, we're gonna be celebrating Raya di perantauan yet again this time. But at this point, I don't even care if we're just gonna spend the first or second day of Aidilfitri hanging out in the hotel room, eating nasi impit segera, watching TV or How I Met Your Mother episodes on the laptop, y'know nothing fancy and elaborate like back home, as long as we're doing it together. Barf all you want, but that's just how I feel at this very moment, given the situation.


So Dubai...here I come bebehhh!!! Can't wait to see you dear =)

Long-distance Apartment Hunting

This year, it seems like I have been and will be experiencing a lot of 'firsts' - first time resigning from a job, getting a new job at a renowned company (maklumlah jakun, coz previous company was not that well-known hehehe), migrating to another country, possibly not celebrating raya di kampung halaman ever since we got married and the most exciting and challenging part so far: long-distance apartment hunting hehe.

Since SRB has only a month to look for an apartment in Dubai before Marriott kicks him out, he has started the hunt first without me. So here's the plan; he'd go to all the viewings, take pictures, email them to me for my virtual-assessment, then schedule for con-calls to discuss the findings. We'd select (or should I say I'd select hehehe) the ones that look promising based on the pictures and later when I join him there, we'd just re-view the shortlisted units.

Here's the exciting part - I can't believe that we actually have a chance to live in The Palm!!!


The famous palm-shaped island that has many A-list celebrities as home owners, from Hollywood movie stars to sports superstars (whether they actually live there or not is besides the point laa kan =p). Okayyy that's it, I am sooo gonna change my profession to a fulltime jakun stalker later hahah!!!

And another interesting fact - the agent hired by Exxon to assist SRB with the apartment-searching is the very same agent who helped the gorgeous David Beckham rent out his also gorgeous villa in The Palm! The agent mentioned that when Mr. Beckham himself came to the office to handover some documents, people in the office went totally crazy. Well, who wouldn't?!!! I am also going crazy right now just knowing that our agent has a connection with THE David Beckham woohoo!!! So it's like I am separated from David Beckham by what, 2-3 degrees? You know, based on that six degrees of separation theory? Now, how mind-blowing (and at the same time perasan) is THAT??? Wakakakaka!!!

Okay, now back to earth, back to reality...the home hunting. I know this is kinda fast considering SRB has just started the viewing process today, but out of the 6 different units, I think I might have fallen in love with 1 of them already hihi. I mean come on, it has a sea view and it's within walking distance to the beach - you know I am a sucker for white sandy beaches bebeh!!! Remember my dream of having a beach house?


So now I'm just praying that everything will go well, Insya Allah aminnn, so I can be maybe 10 steps closer to living the dream, if bukan beach house pun, dapat apt dekat dgn beach pun jadilaaa...

And not to forget, there's also the challenging part in this whole long-distance thingy. Do not think that it's all 'bed of roses' with 'a clear blue sky'. There were and will also be rain, thunderstorm and banjir kilat ape sume along the way. I mean, a lot of huge, significant decisions need to made and even though we might look like a young loving couple (chewahh declare/perasan sendiri di situ, but just bear with me, I have a point here hehe), we don't always agree on the same things and we definitely have different opinions and outlook on certain things. So there are bound to be defensive arguments, a lot of sulking, tensed silence, not to mention endless amount of eye-rolling too hehe.

I guess, at the end of the day, it's all about meeting up in the middle, no matter how much tears or blood you lost in order to reach there. A bit like that Black Eyed Peas song, "Can you meet me halfway? Right up the borderline? That's where I'm gonna wait for you. I'll be looking out night and day. Took my heart to the limit and this is where I stay". I think THAT'S what marriage is all about, no?

(Ok chop, how did I end up talking about the philosophy of marriage plak ni? Ish ish ish =p)

Tragis

Alhamdulillah after buckets of blood, sweat and tears (especially tears hehe), dear SRB has safely reached Dubai early Sunday morning, with a shiny BMW 7-series waiting to take him to the hotel. Best gilerrr! Dear, when I come there nanti, will there be any beemer waiting? Hehehehe...

I'd like to write down the roller-coaster of emotions I felt during this whole Dubai departure thingy, but afraid that it might start the waterworks again so better not write in details hehe. I'll just say that it was and still is a very horrible feeling, trying to swallow a big, fat, stubborn lump in my throat that wouldn't go away, driving back home with a heavy heart, walking around with a deep sense of loss - it was just like back then, when he graduated and went back to Malaysia first without me =(

Yup, I know I'll be joining him soon, so why do I need to be so sad? I dunno, maybe because it's Puasa month and people tend to be a bit syahdu during this month? Maybe because Raya is coming up? Or maybe simply because it has always been just the two of us all these while, so when one is missing, life just feels lonely and sort of empty? Okay, I am starting to sound like a cheesy Hallmark card, so better stop all these mushiness now before someone barf on my shoes =p

All smiley and happy (at first)

Uh-oh here comes the dreaded part

Both tried to control emosi by making serious faces hahah!

Eventually I couldn't tahan anymore, so I went to the toilet and opened the gates of the overflowing dam dengan pasrahnya, uuuu sungguh tragisss huhuhu!

But I'm okay now, grabbing the opportunity to spend the free time catching up with friends and all. So friends, let's plan for buka puasa gathering jommm!

Leaving On A Jetplane

Now that I've lost everything to you

You say you wanna start something new

And it's breaking my heart you're leaving

Baby I'm grieving

But if you wanna leave, take good care

Hope you make a lot of nice friends out there

Just remember there's a lot of bad and beware

Ooh baby baby it's a wild world

It's hard to get by just upon a smile

Ooh baby baby it's a wild world

It's hard to get by just upon a smile

La..la..la..la..la..baby I love you

Wild World ~ Cat Stevens

Office Cleaning

Last weekend was a pretty productive one for us as we managed to spend some quality time berbuka puasa with the extended family, do a bit of pre-Dubai shopping (OMG he's leaving this Saturday!) and most important, perform the long-overdue cleaning spree in SRB's office which looked like an abandoned shipwreck, no offense ye dear hehe.

But seriously, I was just afraid that I'd find some big fat rats happily making themselves at home somewhere in there. He was supposed to tidy up the room weeks before leaving but the pakcik was super busy that I had no choice but to intervene. "What would I do without you babe", he said hehehe. Yup, what indeed =p

Halfway through the cleaning, SRB had to join an urgent telecon and didn't return until 2 hours later - sabar jelaaa okkk. I in the meantime, have managed to kemas, then got tired (maklumlaa puasa hihi) so lepak jap baca buku citer, then ngantok so I slept on the desk, then bangun sambung kemas balik. Ni sapa the actual tuan punya ofis ni?

At the end of the day, the place looked pretty decent except for the stack of papers which are "required" to be lying around on the desk, according to him. Pape jelaa dear, asalkan bahagia. Now, I know all these details bout me tidying up his office might sound pretty lame and trivial, but I just thought of writing it down so I can be reminded later of how simple things used to be before all these mega changes in our lives, before the 1001 of things to worry.

Many of you have asked me how I feel about his impending departure, leaving me here all alone to fend for myself temporarily sob..sob..sob..chewah emo giler hehe. I couldn't really put my feelings about the happenings in my life lately into words, but I think the writer Matt Dunn kinda nailed it perfectly for me:

"It's a very good question; how am I feeling? Numb, certainly, a bit like that soldier in the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan who's lost his arm but walks around looking for it as though nothing's wrong, as if he's refused to admit to himself what's just happened, and so doesn't feel any pain. Though the trouble with that is eventually, when the shock and denial wear off, he will."

Nobody Said It Was Easy

It has been quite a challenging & emotionally-tiring puasa so far and I believe it will continue to be so. The first 2 days of Ramadhan, our majlis buka puasa was "ceremoniously" held in the beloved Vios, somewhere along KESAS highway, with purple Oreo as the main dish (yup, I came prepared and agak sedap gaklah Oreo kaler purple tu). Today, I managed to reach home 15 minutes before buka but dear SRB had to break his fast in the office with tapau'ed ayam penyet (sorry dear, I terlupa to tapau the kicap =p).

Have not missed sahur so far but I think it won't be that long until the day comes when I'd be woken up by azan Subuh, at first in panic mode, then reduce to pasrah, and then much later pasrah would turn to guilt for failing to feed the family=husband well enough *sigh*. Oh well, let's just hope for the best.

There are a lot of things going on at the moment that I, well...I'm just really really really tired. So I'll just end this entry here with a piece of song that really speaks my mind at the moment that I couldn't stop humming it wherever I go, whatever I do.

Nobody said it was easy

No one ever said it would be this hard

Oh take me back to the start

-Coldplay-

August Dinner Party

Last Saturday was a very interesting night for moi, a bit weird but mostly fun. Hosted yet another dinner party at our place, for close family and friends, just to lepak2, catch-up on the latest goss, makan2 sebelum menyambut puasa and also as a mini farewell (uuu I hate this word lately) party for dear husband. Before Maghrib was doa selamat and makan2 with the family and after Maghrib till late night was huha time with friends hehe - mintak maap ye jiran2.

We tried to keep it small this time so that we get the chance to actually sit down and have meaningful conversations with everyone coz if not, you knowlah how it is with big parties - the hosts would be too busy replenishing the food supply, making sure everybody's well-fed & comfortable that you can't even finish a sentence before moving on to the next unattended guests.

Had a couple of surprise guests too that night - the kind of guests whom you include in the invitation list just for fun but didn't really counting on them to come but then they actually came, and they even brought along some friends. Jeng jeng jeng siapakah itu???

For those who knew my history, it IS a bit weird kan? Hahah! Trust me, it was not planned peeps but still, it was actually great catching up with certain long lost friends. See the protective hand creeping up my shoulder there? Hihihi just kidding dear =p

Ended the night with a couple rounds of Taboo and some stomach-cramping laughter, then woke up the next morning disorientated, every inch of my body aching, thinking, "What day is it today? What happened last night?". Maybe that's how the phrase 'ketawa sampai tak ingat dunia' came from hehe.

The more I host these kinds of parties, the more I realize how much I'm gonna miss everybody later huwaaa!!! Maybe you guys should come to Dubai for Taboo version Arab hehehe.

Last but not least, selamat berpuasaaaa~

Random - Gift Guidelines

Gifts that require someone to perform a household task don't count as gifts.

A gift should convey the message, "I love you, but most of all, I get you".

To that special someone, for future reference hehehe...