Happy Chinese New Year...!!!

Wishing Everyone a
Happy & Prosperous
Chinese New Year...!!!

Vanessa in Kuching for Chinese New Year

On Thursday morning, I sent Vans, Adeline and Adrian to KLIA for them to catch their flight back to Kuching for CNY. I will miss having her around for 2 weeks. I still remember her family came over for CNY last year, it was an eventful one. So I guess I have to take car of her car, the cats in Adeline's and also their car. Probably have to spend a nite or two there, if I have time.

Meanwhile, getting ready for CNY is proving to be different once you grow up. More is expected of you, people ask that dreaded question every year, "When are you getting married?". But this year I will have an answer for them. Its the final year of receiving and not giving ang pow, so we'll grab whatever we can and next year it will be our turn giving it out =)

38 weeks to go

And we have done the following :-

1) Secured the venue for the Wedding Ceremony
2) Secured the venue for the Reception Dinner
3) Secured the services for pre-wedding potrait photography
4) Secured the Pastor for conducting the Wedding Ceremony
Pending (Major) Items :-
1) Basic furnishing of the house (grille, electricals, lighting, kitchen, furniture)
2) Secure the services of a event photographer
3) Buy "THE RING"
4) Tailoring for Vans' gown (must) and my suit (if affordable) =)
With less than 9 months to go, I think we are pretty much on schedule. Well, I always have my wedding coordinator and my "hing tai" (brothers) to help me out. Cheers!

Higgly Gown

After visiting ThatSpecialOccassion booth during the wedding fair at Prince Hotel. The offer which Anna gave me was irresistible, 10% discount or more attractive price if i let her design my evening gown as well.

Ken has agreed to have my wedding gown made-to-measure after considering the rental cost of the gown on the wedding day itself, more and less the same, but the difference is i'll get the one of the kind gown which is custom-made for me hehehe..... Still can't stop giggling until now... so happy.... finally i can get my own gown even though i will opt for the buy-back option. Another advantage is, i can either have two gowns (one provided by the bridal house) for my photography or i can have the discount voucher if i were to use my own gown.... hhhmm... not bad not bad.....

So now will have to start searching for the design on internet, mags etc. Found a few that i fond of but will discuss with Ken first. If anyone of you happen to come across any nice gown and you think it suits me, your suggestion is most welcomed.

Long Weekend

Well Tuesday was a public holiday so we decided to take monday off to make it a long weekend. We had loads of plans in mind. Since we needed to do some shopping we popped by at Midvalley early on saturday morning so that we won't spend 30 minutes rounding the basement for a parking space. We checked out all the electrical shops and also the Jusco and Carrefour to mark down all the prices for comparison and budgetting purposes. We both sneaked into Lovely Lace and found a "ring pillow" that was pretty appealing, and decided to buy in advance, although we still have about 9 months to go. Initially our plans were to checkout an event photographer and gown designer in the afternoon, but we were told that they would be at a wedding fair in Prince Hotel. So after a few phone calls we drove our way over there and were pleasantly surprised by the entire setup and ambience of the place. We managed to speak to Anna Lee of "That Special Occasion" which promised us a 10% discount should Vans decide to have her gown tailor-made and more discount if she decides the same for her evening gown. Anna also manages a few event photographer that we are pretty comfortable with, after seeing their works. A few other companies were there too, but those are luxuries which we cannot afford now so we'll just have to live with what we have first.

Sunday was more relaxed. We popped by Times Square to check out an evening gown that Vans have been eyeing for a while, but it was no longer there, so she tried some off-the-rack wedding gowns and we found one that was quite special, but the price was a bit off our range so we decided to KIV first. Perhaps Anna could design something similar, at a lower cost. We then picked up my mum from church and headed home for jam tart lessons. We had a fun time baking close to 200 pieces of jam tarts (yummy). As mum is patient and experienced, she told us to take note of some factors which will affect the final outcome of the jam tarts and we noted them down.

Monday was set aside for more adventures. We started off in Cavenzi. From the moment we walked in the malay guy bombarded us continually with promotions after promotions, in the end, we walked away with a shelf and a bedroom set (Bed, Mirror & Side table). This is our first piece of furniture, and it felt a bit weird. Next was Home-One, Mines Shopping Center and then we went to our new house to check out some measurements, just to make sure the hood, hob, washign machine, fridge and stuff can fit in. We were interupted by the renovation contractor for our next door neighbour enticing us to do our grills, plaster ceiling, kitchen cabinets and stuff. So after discussing and getting a price for the grills and plaster ceiling, we were quite attracted by the price but decided to KIV till after CNY before deciding on anything.

Surprise of the week - We found that we actually have a bit more than we thought we have, but still short by ..... a lot :)
Discovery of the week - All electrical items are controlled items, 9 our of 10 shops sells at the same price.
Achievement of the week - Bought our first piece of furniture

Ken's RR Leadership Course

Ken will be going for his RR Leadership Course tonight. He told me it's a 3-month short course, it's going to be every wednesday night 7pm to 10pm. Which means our usual wednesday night dinner will be called off until further notice.

He won't have any wednesday off until end of the course, except for the wednesday during CNY. But i won't be around, so that doesn't make any difference. But all these doesn't matter and most importantly Ken will be enhancing himself with another new leadership skill.

Will pray for him that he is able to cope with the tight schedule on wednesdays.

2006 Resolutions

Vanessa's~~~
1. To slim down for wedding photography and actual wedding day

2. Be a more dearly gf (wife after Oct) to Ken

3. To be more decisive and independent in decision-making, especially those related to my(our)life

4. To be more patient and focus on my job

Ken's ~~~
1. To save enough money for the wedding

2. To look at things from others' viewpoint

3. To be more systematic and plan for the furnishing of our home and the wedding

4. Formulate a middle and long term plan for both of us as a family (plans to have kids :p)

5. To have a clear career path for the next 5-10 years (plans to retire :p)

6. To adopt a healthier diet, and stay healthy

2005 in Review

We had a memorable 2005, now just a quick recap of our year.

Jan - Ken decided it was time to move on from his job. Found a new job and resigned.

Feb - Chinese New Year, almost the whole of Vans family came over from
Kuching. It was a memorable one.Mar - 2 full years for Vans in Maxis while Ken started a new job with Sunway Group.

Apr - Vans got her own car and started travelling to work alone after
almost 3 years of being chauferred :)

May - Had a fun time in Sunway Lagoon and Sunway Petting Zoo, free tickets :)
June - Started this blog to record our journey through our wedding preparations to the actual day.

July - Ken proposed on his birthday, and Vans accepted.
August - We broke the news to both set of parents, even flew to Kuching.
September - Spent some quality time together in a Langkawi getaway.
October - Got the keys to our new house! Booked the venue for our wedding reception.
November - Ken graduated with MBA from Paris Graduate School of Management.
December - Hong Kong and Disneyland trip. Booked the photographer for our potrait photography.
All in it was an eventful year but now we set our sights on 2006 as one of the most important events of our lives will happen this year. We pray that when we end 2006, we can look back and remember all the great memories, great experiences with friends and important lessons learned. HAPPY NEW YEAR...!!!