Financial Planning for Babies

Babies here are not literally babies, bayi. What I meant is young executives who are new to the working life (like me…well, one year plus is still quite new) and just starting to lead a more stable life financially.

I started keeping track of my expenditure every month because, ONE, I’m a big spender. I spend a lot of money on unnecessary things like cheap clothes and accessories that will be worn out within a few months, TWO, it’s damn hard for me to save money. I go on a lot of holidays but instead of saving the money bit by bit every month, normally I’d just pool up my salary that particular month for a trip and just stop spending on anything. Which is just dumb.

Copenhagenization

Back in May, I went for a two week trip to Copenhagen, Denmark and London. I've been to London quite a number of times so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect in London. But for Copenhagen, I wasn't too sure of what's there. Before coming there, the only thing I knew about Copenhagen are they have great Scandinavian designers, especially Bjarke Ingels and all his quirky buildings, Hans Christian Andersen, the Danish author who wrote 'The Little Mermaid' and 'The Ugly Duckling' and they are among the Happiest Cities and Greenest Cities in the world! Tu je. 

And before going, I wanted to experience a different kind of travelling. I went with my mom but she was busy with all the meetings she had to attend to in Copenhagen so I get to explore the city all alone and I was so excited with that idea. So I want to try travelling where I don't know what to find there but I will let myself explore by myself what's there for me to see. So, I avoided reading anything on Copenhagen prior to the trip.

The stories of my exploration will come someday but I want to write about the best thing I found there. It's called Copenhagenization. 

Short Trip to KCH - Day Two

Hello! It has been more than a week since my trip to Kuching. But I'll get to it soon. Been busy during the weekend with my mom's birthday doa selamat / break fasting / terawih event.

On the second day, we planned for a trip to the Cultural Village in Damai Puri? I'm not too sure what's the name of the area but I know it's near Gunung Santubong. But before we started the trip, we wanted to eat laksa sarawak and mee kolok. I tell you, I have a super huge massive appetite. The amount of food I can take, scary ok! I've never tried mee kolok before, and I tried laksa sarawak once when Tina cooked it. So, I had a pretty huge expectation on the food I'm gonna have that day.

We went Pasar Satok area to get our breakfast. But we were too late to get the laksa sarawak. Finished before we get to taste it :( So I tried Mee Kolok. Gahhh, so so good! I'm a big fan of soupy dishes so this is perfect for me. It tasted very meat-ish, so they give you a really hot sambal sauce to go with the mee kolok. The mee seems like a maggi mee. But taste better. 

Mee Kolok

The owner are these two siblings and they are the only two people managing the shop as they don't want the family's secret recipe to fall to strangers. But I think they should get more people to help around because the service was pretty slow. Or maybe it's the KL girl in me. I don't like slow services but in Kuching everyone seems okay with it. I don't know. Thank god the good mee kolok made up for the slow service :)

After having breakfast with Tina's parents, we're all set to go to the Cultural Village. It's about 45 minutes from Kuching City. We had an awesome time road tripping the whole way. And the journey there was lovely. It was raining, the breeze was so chilling and we can see Gunung Santubong from far. I was the only one who have been to the Cultural Village so I was telling em all the things we can do there. The Cultural Village is where they have the different races' traditional houses in one area. So they have Malay houses, Chinese, Bidayuh, Iban and lots more.

Gunung Santubong from far. You can see the silhouette of a woman's face. 

The moment we arrived, we were just in time for the Cultural Show. Lucky us! But you have to pay for the tickets first. The ticket is about RM60 for adults and RM30 for kids. For Sarawakians, it is about RM25. Oh and RM15 for Local University Students.

The Cultural Show is where they perform their respective dances. There's one with bamboo and hair feathers and sexy man wearing nothing but loin cloth. Hahaha. I was a bit shy when the two guys danced wearing the loin cloth because we can see up close since we're at the first row. Oh! And there was a section when the guys were doing 'sumpit' – blow dart. And they pulled me up to do it with them. Haha! Finally pop the balloon after the third try ;p

After that we went around the area. We saw skulls! I think it was awesome! They put it at the roof trusses and there's a fire burning underneath. The fire plus smoke is to prevent the spirit of the skulls to come down and disturb the house owners. The Ibans were well known back then as head hunters. Hehe.

Afterwards, we just chilled at the beach area at Damai Puri. And we hiked a lil bit to find a jungle pool. Pity we didn't have our bathing suits. The water was so so cold. And refreshing too. Can imagine if we go skinny dip or something at night then there's lizards all around us. Hahah! And from the beach in Damai Puri, we can take a boat for a dolphin tour (I was impressed. Never knew Malaysia has dolphins) and a tour to Bako National Park. We're planning to try that the next time we're in Kuching :)

Well, that concludes the second day of our Sarawak adventure! 
Pictures from Tina and Syu

Short Trip To KCH - Day One

I had a short trip to Kuching with my girlfriends last weekend. We bought the tickets early this year when me and Tina were talking about going on a holiday. So, she said she just bought a ticket to Kuching, her hometown, for a trip in July. Without thinking that much, I just bought the tickets and finally it's time for a break! 

I've been to Kuching around 4 times before. I kinda knew what to expect there. But for Farhana and Syu, it is their first so we planned to visit all the tourist attractions and eat everything. Oh god. I ate so much, I think I freaked out my friends. Haha! 

I drove around cos.. hehe, my local sarawakian driver is afraid to drive in Kuching *Points at Tina* Which is funny because she can drive great in KL. The traffic in Kuching is like an old lady's driving. It's like everyone is not rushing off anywhere. Everyone is super relaxed on the road. Oh, but I had a short battle with a road bully.

The minute we arrived, we went to one of the must visit places in Kuching. First is the sampan ride at Sungai Sarawak at the waterfront area. It was late and really dark at the river. We had rojak buah before getting on the sampan. The sampan driver said that there's buaya in the river, I don't know how true though. And we got splashed by this fisherman's boat and soaked too. I went to Top Spot smelling like river. And we had our dinner at Top Spot too. The butter prawn was glorious, masya allah. Yummyy. Oh. I totally forgot that I'm fasting. Haha. Happy Fasting dear reader! (If there's any..Hehe) 

 On the sampan. We had a good time cam-whoring

 My lovely ladies

The sampan

Dinner at Top Spot with Tina's Family

Pictures by Tina

New List of Places to Visit!

I love travelling. Can never get enough of travelling. Alhamdullilah, my family and I are blessed with the opportunity to travel around the world. And I'm thankful that my parents take us travel with them too, hehe. I always have a list of places I'd love to go to. I think some of the places that made an impact in my mind mostly because of the history. I'm a huge history buff. And I read a lot of history books, listen to alot of pod casts and watch documentaries. So, I came up with the list as my check list for future travels :) 

Vatican City and Rome, Italy

Wow. I think I've had a thing for Vatican City for a bit too long now. But still haven't had the opportunity to go there yet. I think when I read 'Angels and Demons' by Dan Brown, I started to read and do my own research on Vatican City. Do you know that it's the smallest country in the world? How cute is that! Haha. And they have their own police, the Swiss Guards, who wears the funkiest outfits ever. Oh wow. Vatican City and Rome deserves a whole new blog post just to talk about all the places I'd love to go to. But just a short list now, St Peter's Square, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Sistine Chapel, Pantheon, Colosseum and so much more! Oh and I have great collection of mini ancient Roman and Greek statues too. 

 St Peter's Square ( Source : Here )

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 The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo in Sistine Chapel ( Source : Here )

 The super cute outfits of the Swiss Guard! ( Source : Here )

Bavaria, Germany

There's only one reason that I'd want to visit Bavaria, which is about an hour plus away from Munich, that is to visit the Neuschwanstein Castle. Oh my god, it is the most beautiful castle I've ever seen ever. It's the inspiration behind the Disney castle, the castle they have at every Disneyland and also the Disney logo. It is so intricate and god, I have no words for the castle. It was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria. It was built quite recently too. I mean, not that old. Gosh I don't remember the exact year but I know it's somewhere around 1800-ish. But Ludwig is pretty eccentric. He has an elevated dinner table, so if he needs the table to be cleared, it will just disappear through the floor. Amazing! I was in Munich once, but didn't have the chance to go and visit :( 

 Neuschwanstein Castle ( Source : Here )

 The Interior ( Source : Here )

Florence, Italy

Florence is a pretty new addition to my list. Quite recently, I had a thing for Renaissance Art, again. So, been doing my researches on the Medici family, the patrons of Art, as we studied in History Form 4. But what we studied in school was pathetic. There's so much more to the Medici family! There was a series of massacre that was orchestrated by the Medici here which I think is super interesting. So, I always wanted to visit the Duomo and all the Renaissance paintings there.

 The Duomo ( Source : Here )

Moscow, Russia

I just added Moscow in my list of to go places after I went to Copenhagen, Denmark. At the same time when I was in Copenhagen, a friend of mine was in Moscow and St. Petersburg. So, I was looking at her Instagram photos and I thought, well, Copenhagen is at the same latitude as Moscow, (I even surprised myself when I knew this! Must've been one of the infos hidden somewhere in my head) I'm almost there! I mean, I made it to Copenhagen, a little bit more I can reach Moscow :)

( Source : Google )

And I like reading about the Romanovs Family. If you've seen 'Anastasia' the cartoon movie, where this princess escaped the massacre that killed the whole royal family of Russia, you'd know who the Romanovs are. And the sinister witch doctor, Rasputin (Listen to Bonnie M's song, 'Rasputin') and please, he is not the lover of the Tsarina.

The Romanovs family ( Source : Here )

Oh, interesting fact, to me at least, there are a number of ladies pretended to be Anastasia, the youngest princess of the Romanovs family, but years and years after that, they did a DNA testing to confirm the death of Anastasia by using the DNA of Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh as in the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. Cool rightttt? Hehehe. 

New Zealand

This is one of the countries that both me and Asyraf always wanted to go. We've been planning to go to NZ for so long. Both of us loves greenery and open spaces, with all the mountains and beautiful lakes. Plus, I can visit the set for Lord of the Rings filming that was filmed there. Trust me, I'm obsessed over LOTR. So if I ever get the chance to come to NZ, I'm the happiest girl ever :)

Hobbiton! ( Source : Here )

 ( Source : Here )

I'm so gonna do this! But I bet Asyraf won't. Haha. ( Source : Here )

( Source : Here )

London says Hello

London have always been a pretty special place for my family and I. The pictures were taken in 2010 during my Summer Euro Trip :) 

 Lloyd's of London by Richard Rogers

 Random graffiti near London Eye

 Favorite place in London. Tate Modern!  

 Took this in Barbican Centre

 Somewhere in Canary Wharf. Such a pretty sight!

 An old factory where they placed a super awesome installation and a cafe inside

 St Peter's Cathedral. The best time to come here is at night and hang around on the Millennium Bridge. Nice view too. One of my fondest memories of London 

 Brick Lane. This is taken from Idea Store. 

 One of the Architecture Exhibition at Bartlett, London during their Summer show