Mission Impossible

For the past 3 days or so, I kept hearing this loud sound of helicopter like it was flying really low over our house. At first I thought it was just one of those helicopters that they used for weather or traffic report. But then last evening, we saw a helicopter hovering near Burj Khalifa for quite a long time that I was beginning to think that either, A. some VVIPs were too lazy to take the elevator down that they require a helicopter right outside their window to take them out, or B. somebody was committing suicide so the SWAT team was flown in to handle the delicate situation. Okay, maybe I watched too much crap movies hehe.

Turned out, it was actually Tom Cruise filming the 4th installation of Mission Impossible, right here in our very own backyard!!! Okay fine, not literally our very own backyard coz our house doesn't have a backyard actually, just this big not-for-swimming pool haha. But Burj Khalifa is just around the corner from our house, so it could be considered as our backyard chewaahhh perasan nak mampos hehe =p

The point is, the MI4 crew are currently in Dubai (which according to Mr. Cruise, will be the centerpiece of the movie) and will be here for the next 3 weeks to film parts of the movie franchise around Burj Khalifa and Palm Jumeirah area. Not saying that I'm a big fan of Tom Cruise or Katie Holmes or Suri Cruise (I was but not anymore), but it would be very cool if I can see them in flesh and blood, wouldn't it?

Yup, Tom Cruise is in there somewhere doing his stunts

or watching his body-double doing his stunts hehe

So this means, I have to go walk around Dubai Mall every day, especially at those posh boutiques wing and go watch the fountain show every night for the next 3 weeks, with my camera ready (SLR will be needed for this special moment hehe), coz mana tau Tom Cruise bawak his family pegi shopping (with the assumption that they're staying at the Armani Hotel next to Burj Khalifa; Dubai Mall is next to the Armani Hotel) and tgk fountain show in between his shooting ke kan. Then maybe I can sell those pictures to some magazines and make some money or better yet, instead of taking pictures of them, I can take picture WITH them teros hahah! Mannn..that would be very the awesome and THAT my friends, would be my very own Mission Impossible hahaha sungguhlah toyeeee!

Aight peeps, I'll be in my stalker-mode starting tomorrow =p

Dinner at Grosvenor House

So everybody knows that one of the responsibilities of a trophy wife (I meant it in a good way) is of course accompanying dear husband to office dinners and social events. To be honest, this is not really my most favourite thing to do coz, believe it or not, I am actually one of those people who are uncomfortable and awkward at making small, superficial talks (SRB, on the other hand, is great at it. That's why we complement each other muahahaha sedikit jiwang di situ =p).

But since we're now living far far away from our friends and family, I think it's important to make the effort to build new friendships, especially with SRB's colleagues, since it's such a small group anyway so it'd be good if we can form a close-knit community over here chewaahhh. God, I never thought I'd actually say that hahaha! It soo didn't sound like me (if you really know me lah), more like a line from 'Desperate Housewives' or something. But then again, it's a whole new country, so I guess it's a whole new me hehe.

So last night was the first time I met with everyone in SRB's Subsurface team and their spouses. Someone from Houston came down here for a visit, and apparently for a surprise award-giving ceremony (SRB's technical advisor got an achievement award for his outstanding contributions to ExxonMobil's Subsurface Engineering), so they organized a group dinner at a hotel called Grosvenor House. It's a kinda fancy schmancy hotel and I silently cursed the shipping company coz darn it, all my fancy schmancy clothes and shoes are still in the yet-to-arrive boxes! Felt a little underdressed wearing jeans and all but oh well, what to do.

As you can see, the rest of them are a bit on the 'veteran' side hehe and we're the only young couple there. Maybe that's why one of them said that we looked like newly-weds last night hahah! But being mat salleh, all of them were very sweet and friendly, stressing how lucky we were to get this opportunity at such a young age. Being among them memanglaaa made me feel so much younger kehkehkeh!

So, first social test - passed. There were suggestions of having some pot-luck parties and barbecues last night, so I guess I'll be bringing some pasta or mashed potato or sate (berangan rajin nak buat ni) to the party then.

Hmmm...now I'm starting to feel like my life is a movie.

Rent-A-Car

We've got ourselves a car! A rental one that is. A white Toyota Corolla. We wanted a Civic at first, but they didn't have any available so we settled for the Corolla instead. (Sorry girls, the initial plan to get a 7-seater SUV to comfortably drive you around Dubai has to be abandoned coz it's too expensive). We're renting this car for a month, coz that's the maximum duration those on Visitor Visas can drive here using the International Driving Permit, and after that, hopefully dear husband has successfully passed his driving test and then we can start looking into leasing a car. Berangan keta apa nak lease is so much fun, but whether we actually gonna get it for real or not is another matterlah kan.

Felt a little weird driving on the different side of the car, sometimes tersalah budget and for a couple of times terlanggar curb on the right side of the road hehe. But the biggest challenge is learning our way around here. I am so completely clueless about the roads here that I think once sesat, I could be driving till the end of Dubai and back hahah!

The first place we went after getting the car was of course Carrefour to buy the much needed kitchenware. Now that we've got the whole complete set, I can start being the next Nigella Lawson and start flipping through the cookbook for new recipes to try. I can also start preparing lunch pack for SRB so he can have a nice home-cooked meal for lunch instead of the expensive, tasteless sandwiches, pasta or God-knows-what they have in the office food court.

Plus, I need to get him to gain some weight coz he's been losing some while I was back home. I can't be the only fat person in this house, noooohoooo wayyyy =p

Touched Down

Alhamdulillah, after a bit of a teary farewell at the airport, I'm now safe and sound in our new home in Old Town Island, Dubai. I'm not sure whether it's the jetlag or just me mourning the loss of an old, familiar life in M'sia, but for the past couple of days, I've been feeling a little sluggish and moody. It took 2 days for me to finish unpack (usually I'm done within 1-2 hours coz I'm a bit of a neat freak) and even a simple task like folding the laundry could leave me feeling tired for the rest of the day. I guess my body is still in the transition phase, getting used to the different air, weather, the new house, bed, shower and what not.

We already have the basic furniture in the house (thanks dear!) except for the dining set, which will be delivered next Tuesday. The cable TV, phone line and internet broadband just got in yesterday so we're now connected to the rest of the world. We don't have any pots or pans, plates or bowls, cups or mugs in the kitchen yet. As I said, I got tired easily lately so we haven't done any major shopping yet. So inilah masanye untuk mempraktikkan 'survivor' skill huyeahhh!

We made full use of the rice cooker - bolehlaa masak nasi lemak for breakfast, makan with mom's sambal ikan bilis and masak maggi hehe. We used the microwavable, take-out plastic containers as our rice plates and cereal bowls, and the free coffee thermos provided by ExxonMobil in the Welcome hamper as our mugs. So far, Alhamdulillah kenyang gaklah dok rumah =)

Hopefully by tonight we can get a rental car (Oh God, please don't make me cacat driving on the right-hand side of the road) to make it easier for us to move around and buy more stuff for our home. Dear, please register for driving class now!!!

The Curious Incident

And she said, "But sometimes we get sad about things and we don't like to tell other people that we are sad about them. We like to keep it a secret. Or sometimes we are sad but we don't really know we are sad. So we say we aren't sad. But really we are."

So I said, "I'm not sad...."

Whenever I'm Lonely

Besides running errands, I also spent my last week in M'sia meeting up with close friends for some gossip, bitching and gelak ketawa sessions. It's amazing that no matter how long we don't get to see each other, we can still continue to share and talk about our deepest secrets, regrets, frustrations, and excitements about almost everything without any awkwardness. "It's like you never left", said a friend. And I'll be forever grateful to still have that kind of friends around.

The more fun I had hanging out with them, the sadder I got while driving back home. And the more I realized that we can never have EVERYTHING in life. You get to live in this super posh apartment, with all-expense-paid, but you don't get to have your family and best friends near you. You win some, you lose some. Oh well...

So dear friends, do know that I'll be thinking of you whenever I host a party, whenever I see a group of friends hanging out at the mall, whenever I have juicy gossips or oh-my-God news to share, whenever I'm depressed or whenever I'm lonely. Especially when I'm lonely. I wish you're just a phone call away, but with 50-dirhams-for-10-minutes-international-talktime they have there, it's gonna be a bit hard to have the usual long talks about life, however sucky or great it is.

In short, I'M DEFINITELY GONNA MISS YAH...HUWAAAAAAA!!!!!

Change For Good

This morning the shipment company came to pack our things into padded boxes and bring the boxes over to their warehouse before flying them to Dubai. The movers/packers they sent were very efficient in optimizing space that I was curious whether this was a skill they learned from a special course or it's just a natural talent.

Before

After

In less than an hour, they managed to pack everything into 10 boxes, with a total weight of 106kg. Watching them drove away with our stuff made me feel a bit syahdu coz I kept on thinking, Mannn...that's all I'm gonna have there later to remind me of home isk isk isk!

Also today, I could finally cross out the last task in my To-Do list when Maxis efficiently cut-off my phone line like 30 seconds after I made the last payment. Ooo if nak cut line cepat je kan, if nak activate line bukan main kena tunggu 24 hours cisss! In the meantime, I'm back to using prepaid seperti di zaman 'saya budak hingusan' dulu2. I terasa mcm muda remaja kembali plak hehe, tapi nak check balance prepaid pun dah lupa nak kena tekan ape.

This is gonna sound a bit ridiculous but I felt a weird sense of loss after my Maxis line has been terminated. Somehow it felt like I not only lost my phone line, but also my connection or some kind of bond that I imagined I had with my home country, with the life I've built here and with the people I've known here. Like I have permanently disconnected myself from an old life in order to move on to an unknown, blurry future. Which is a bit scary and agak drama queen, but wait till you have to leave everything and move to a new country, then you'll understand what I mean.

Maybe I'm just a little overwhelmed coz now that everything's done, it just seems all too real. There's no more living in denial. My life is gonna change and it's gonna change for good.

This Is Where I Leave You

Sometimes, contentment is a matter of will. You have to look at what you have right in front of you, at what it could be, and stop measuring it against what you've lost. I know this to be wise and true, just as I know that pretty much no one can do it.

Judging a book by its cover can sometimes be potentially beneficial, you know. While walking around Borders looking for a new book to read, I stopped and picked this up mainly because I thought the cover looked cool and colorful (don't you think so too?). Plus, it's a story of someone who seemed to be going through a depressing phase of his life and I thought I could relate to him given the emotional state I was in at that time. And that's how I discovered this wonderful writer whom apparently, critics referred to as "The American Nick Hornby", which I soo agree lah. So naturally, I have to go and buy all his books now hehe.

To Do List

So last week was filled with trips to malls which was awesome, but this week is gonna be less fun since my days will be spent running a long list of errands to ensure that our assets and liabilities here in Malaysia are properly taken care of in our absence. (Isn't it "nice" of dear husband to leave all these things for me alone to manage? Kena mintak naik gaji ni theehehehe =p.)

This will involve return trips to MPSJ, DBKL, JPJ, Kedai Tenaga TNB, Villa Putera Management Office, Jabatan Imigresen, etc and a lot of waiting adoiiilaa. By the end of the week, I think I'll be allergic to the voice of the lady used in most places to call out numbers in queue; "Satu...satu...tiga...enam...kaunter...lapan..." huwaarrgghh!

Also went to the clinic today to find out the type of vaccinations I'll be needing for my stay in Dubai and ended up getting 4 shots (screamed a bit during the last shot - it seemed that the doctor really saved the best for last), consuming 2 drops of something that tasted like car petrol and drinking a cup of something that tasted like stale 100 Plus. Doc said I have to come back for 3 more shots next week coz I guess poking needles into a patient 7 times in a row is just too cruel. With this many shots, people would've thought that I'm going to the Amazon jungle instead of a city with modern civilization.

Ticking off the To-do list continues tomorrow...

Broken

I don't know why they call it heartbroken.

It feels like every other part of my body is broken too...

~ Missy Altijd ~

I Will Always Love You

He: Dear, tadi fountain show main lagu 'I Will Always Love You'. Wish you were here...

She: I wish too...

When I think about it, in a relationship, it's things like these that make all the 'makan hati-ness', 'kecik hati-ness' & 'sakit hati-ness' worthwhile (at least a bit, if not much), no?

Pursuit of Happiness

For the past few days, I've been going in and out of shopping malls and hypermarkets to get all the things we plan to bring over to Dubai via Exxon's free shipping services. The team in-charge of the shipment are coming over next Monday to do a survey on the items we wanna ship so that later they can bring the right stuff to properly pack them. It's gonna be a bit like that episode from Kimora Lee Simmons: Life in the Fab Lane show, when she was preparing to move to her new home in LA. The packaging pro came to house, she pointed to them things that needed to be packed, then the pros figured out how best to wrap and load them to the lorry with zero damage. (So please excuse me if I feel like Kimora Lee Simmons at the moment, living a life full of fabulosity hihi!)

Aaanyway, walking around the less crowded malls, taking my own sweet time deciding on things to buy, watching other women who, like me, were also shopping alone, I felt very...peaceful. Relieved. Felt like I could finally exhale after holding my breath for so long. Felt like time moved very slowly and I was okay with it. Memang bahagia lah! I didn't even feel offended when the waiter at Nando's said, "Ohh makan sorang2 je arini kak? Kawan takde?" when I asked for a table for 1. Maybe I'd feel differently when PMS'ing but hey, I'm trying to be positive here. So let's imagine a world that's full of rainbows and singing birds okay =p

Since I'm gonna have many more of these "alone time" later, it's important that I learn not to be easily depressed by these kinds of remarks (oh please help me God). And I guess the trick is to be happy just to have yourself as companion. To be content to just sit in a cosy cafe somewhere, alone, with a nice book to read and a delicious meal to enjoy.

I hope these feelings stay with me during the good and bad times ahead - Insya Allah, Amiiinnn...

Wish You Were Here

Alhamdulillah, I have safely arrived in tanahair terchenta on Saturday around 6 AM. Couldn't sleep that much on the plane so after sampai rumah, terus pasang a fresh bedsheet on my sweet old bed and gedebushhh...terbongkang tido hehe. At noon, woke up and got ready for a couple of open-houses. Memang tak sabar nak makan food open-house okkkk!

Some friends were surprised to see me, some stared at me like I was a ghost before saying 'Hi' hahah! What to do...the announcement of me coming home tak keluar national newspaper, so most people didn't know hihihi! Had a great time catching up with old friends, laughing our asses off till tears came out, diselangi dengan beberapa pinggan of nasi impit, lemang, rendang, roti jala, soto, kambing golek, nasi tomato (Nirma's very own nasi tomato rawksss!) dan sebagainya. Seriously, I AM GLAD I AM HOMEEE! Dear, sorry...jangan jealous ye hehehe~

On Sunday, helped mom and dad to host a makan2 for rombongan from relatives yang datang beraya ke rumah. Well when I said 'host', I meant the parents borak2 with the guests while us the children jadi macam catering waiter/waitress in-charge of angkat pinggan, gelas, refill food, air and kuih raya. Sometimes the adults talked in Jawa, which of course we the children memang tak faham langsung, so there's no way we can join the conversations. Hence all we the children could offer is our catering services =p

Then went to Summit, appreciating the much lower price tags of everything and bought 10 DVDs to catch-up on some of the latest movies I missed. Yelaaa...in Dubai, movie tix is 30 Dhs per person, excluding popcorn. To enjoy a normal movie night out at the cinema, complete with drinks and popcorn, we have to spend almost 100 Dhs aduiii. So kena beli DVD movies kat sini banyak2 hehe since I have no patience to download them. Kirah, kau make sure sedut banyak2 movies and TV Series from your friends, then aku sedut from kau okeh? =)

So first movie to watch tonight - The Expendables. Dear...wish you were here though =(

Good night~

See You in a Month!

Souvenirs - packed, passport - packed, bags - all zipped up and ready to go!

So goodbye Dubai, goodbye tallest building, goodbye biggest mall!

I'm going home and I'll see you again in a month bebehhh!