Fun in the Sun

Watching the Housing Market

I am currently watching the real estate market to see what will happen in the next couple of months. Not that we will be able to afford anything soon, and even if we were, we will not be able to get a loan just because our (mortgage) debt to income ratio will look too risky to any lender. In order to buy a home, I will have to go back to work to hike up our income so it looks good on paper. Well, not only on paper, :) I will get to pamper myself with all those extra money lying around too! haha. We shall see. I am just very tired of moving so if the housing market comes down, it will mean we can afford to get a cute little house we can call our own and I don't have to worry about Cael destroying the curtains and such!
We think that Cael is ready for childcare now. He will thrive very well in a home childcare environment once he gets familiar with the surroundings. He loves playing with other children. In fact he loves playing with other adults too besides his mama and dada. He is bored seeing our same old faces! So the search is on for a home childcare. Not to mention updating my resume too. Daunting!

While We Were Away

Why do unexpected things happen when you are having a good time? Anyways, we come back to a voicemail from our landlord's agent saying that she wants to put the condo up for sale. Well, our lease expires in October so I guess we will be doing some moving again! Just the thought of it makes me want to tear my hair out. I think I have moved enough to last me a lifetime. This will be the 6th move since I stepped into American soil. It is TEDIOUS. Harder with a little person. Well it doesn't necessarily mean that we will have to move in October but I am not cottoning to the idea of having strangers traipsing around the house for however long it takes to sell it. I didn't like it when we had to sell our own house, so much less when it is not ours. Gerald suggested that if this is what the landlord expects us to do, then we should ask for a discount since we are under no obligation. So we'll see.
The other 'lovely' surprise we got was that our VoIP provider, Sunrocket, decides to shut its door suddenly. So we are left with no local line. We signed up with another provider yesterday so hopefully we will receive our new number soon. Yes, for the umpteenth time yet again, we are changing numbers. Only consolation is we only had Sunrocket for 2 months so I think our credit card company can get the money back for us. Paid a whole year's worth cause it was a GREAT deal. Well we know better now. So it's back to month to month.

Gripes and Updates

Finally arrived home from Malaysia at almost 1am no thanks to Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and its infamous delays. And I speak this from experience. The last time I came back from Malaysia via MAS teo years ago I was subjected to a delay of more than 3 hours. I guess this must be a standard practice for them, because this time around, the same thing happened again and it has gotten worse. Not only were we delayed from Malaysia, when we arrived at Taipei, there was an additional delay of over an hour. The captain said it was due to MAS changing to a new system and having computer glitches. We'll see what kind of excuses they come up with the next time I have to travel with them again. When we left for Malaysia, there was also a delay. This was due to the fact that the flight was full and they only opened 2 counters for economy class and 1 for business and first class. Is it that difficult to get more staff?????
Anyways, so we arrived home. Everything felt kinda weird for me after almost 2 months away. The home looked different, forgot which drawers held what! Felt quite odd. We had finally nodded off when at around 3.30am when we heard Cael crying in the other room. I was so disoriented that I asked Gerald, "Where am I? Just tell me where I am and I will be able to find Cael!' Gerald didn't know either. We finally realized we were home and he went to get the boy. Boy ended up sleeping on mama's tummy and our bed until this morning. Both mama and child didn't want to get up when Dad tried to wake us up at 7.30am. Finally resisted more sleep and got Cael up at around 8am. Boy and Dad are sleeping right now as I type.

Our Farewell at Tony Roma's

We are all still wondering how Cael knows he is supposed to pose and smile for pictures! Forgot to take a picture of all the food we enjoyed at my brother's Tony Roma's chain in Malaysia. Suffice to say there were steaks, ribs, shrimp pasta, margaritas and pina coladas and desserts! See you again in 2009! ( I think, hope)

Island Getaway

Need I say more? :) Just the two of us. Snorkelling. Canoeing. Walking on the beach. Saw a baby shark, tons of multicolored fishes, some live corals, sea cucumbers, little bitty sea urchins, jelly fishes, baby turtles.

Insomniac Ramblings

This is the second day in a row that I forgot I am no longer young enough to be drinking caffeine in the evening. So I have been having a hard time going to sleep and ending up tossing and turning all night long. Finally called it quits, so I have decided to do something 'useful' besides surfing the internet mindlessly and playing games.
Being on vacation gives us time to reflect on what we can do differently in our day to day lives to prevent monotony setting in. Or at least my vacation does, maybe yours is filled with activities! Well, I don't necessarily sit down in a corner and do nothing but reflect. It is more so just talking to friends and seeing how each one is doing different things to make life more exciting? enriching? meaningful? I also have the opportunity to observe lives being lived and from there glean certain things that I see that I say yes, that is how it should be, or no, that is not something I want to do.
I think what I mainly learned is that it is important to find someting that I am passionate about and see what I can do about it. The question is, What am I passionate about? Well, I love musicals. I love theater. I (used to) love singing, but I think my voice is horrible now from years of neglect. I would love to be able to sing classical songs. The next question is, will my neighbor still like me?? haha. Anyways, the next step would be to do something about it. Maybe I will take vocal lessons. I want to, I will have to work that out into my budget as they don't come cheap.
I also learned from this trip that the day does not end at 5pm!!! HAHAHA! I think I live a very sedate life. It is probably an insult to the word live. I think the word should be just being. Well, I guess the situation of living on one income that does not cover all our expenses probably has something to do with that. I am not divulging this information to get pity or sympathy. Just that this is the choice my husband and I made when we chose that I stay home with Cael in his first years. But I think that is something that we can work on. I mean, I can start looking around for part-time work. Or start selling stuff on Ebay or something. No one stops me except myself, right? So I think there will be some different steps taken when I get back from this long vacation. I am actually looking forward to it.

More Pampering

I fear if I don't blog about this soon, all the sweet memories will fade into the back of my brains.
So, a very sweet friend treated me to a spa resort to relax and be pampered. We went to Cyberview Lodge Resort & Spa and had a lazy time. It is a very beautiful resort, very quiet, lots of waterfalls, palm trees, hammocks, tropical, no mosquitoes(!!). The package came with a daily massage. Bliss! We dressed up every evening for our dinner. It was a fun ladies' getaway. Need I say more? Someone forgot to take her camera so the only thing I got from this resort is a very tense-looking little teddy bear souvenir which somehow stowawayed in my carry-on. :)

Back from Singapore

Ok..for those who are wondering why I haven't blogged for a while but still not willing to drop me a line in my email, this is for you..thanks for inquiring!!
Once Gerald arrived in Malaysia our lives have been a bit frenzied. We left for Melaka on our way to Singapore to visit my dad and my brother. Broke the journey so Cael didn't have to endeavour 5 whole hours in the car.
Went to visit my dad's church and finally dedicated Cael to the Lord. We spent 2 days at the Conrad Centennial Hotel which was a luxury indeed. Housekeeping comes in twice a day. Once to clean, the next in the evening to prepare the room for bedtime. We were pampered. Cael had his own crib too. I might post some pictures later if I remember. A daily breakfast buffet came with the hotel. This luxury is thanks to my brother Mike, who had lots of reward points on his credit card.
Spent the rest of our stay at his home. We ate a lot, tried to shop but found the crowd overwhelming and the stuff not really cheaper than US. Although I must say they do have lots of interesting things not commonly seen in US.
Came back to Kuala Lumpur today and I go off with my friend to a spa resort tomorrow leaving Gerald and Cael to their own devices! Can't wait to be pampered even more!!! Yippee!!