The Trip Home

It's funny how emotions can be a bit of a roller coaster ride. One moment in January, I was disappointed that we couldn't return home to celebrate Chinese New Year with our families. Come February, I wasn't prepared for the trip home and before I left Kuala Lumpur a week ago, I felt miserable about leaving everyone behind.

We were worried that our plants wouldn't survive without us but gawd! We returned to see them flooded, probably due to a dripping tap. They are strangely, still alive and breathing. Phew!

Enjoying her strawberry
ice-cream.

I spent a week in Kota Kinabalu doing absolutely nothing besides spending time with my parents and cheeky niece (and her parents). I never knew it could be SO tiring just spending an afternoon taking care (and playing) with her, let alone doing it 5 times a week! It's no wonder my parents are always exhausted by evening, and can't get their chores done properly.

Besides playing with her teapot, xylophone, bubbles, blocks and plastic cups, my niece loves her books. She never tires of them and makes everyone read them to her. I bought her new one, The Very Itchy Bear, which she doesn't seem keen, though. *hmmfh*

As the only grandchild for both sides of the family, she gets endless attention. Everyone wants a piece of her! :)

The second and third week was spent in KL. The first part required a LOT of work in preparing my youngest sister's wedding. From tidying the apartment, to decorating, to buying things, to driving my mum here and there, to squeezing a lunch meeting and a short trail run with friends, I was exhausted.

A fab trail run in FRIM with some crazy buddies from the GCAM group.
They are so freaking fast now - they never cease to amaze me!!

The most important thing, of course, was that the special occasion brought the whole family together. The tea ceremony in the morning of the wedding was a tearful one, goodness gracious, with yours truly bawling and sniffling like I was the mother hen who couldn't part with her baby. *embarrassed*

I am second from the left, standing behind my other sister.

Joanne and I had breakfast
at Yeast in Bangsar.

I was also the emcee for the wedding dinner reception, together with my brother-in-law's elder brother, but  I was completely knackered from running around and doing this and that. I couldn't even go to the loo in peace midway through the dinner!

It was great to see my relatives again, especially a younger cousin whom we haven't seen for such a long long time. He turns out to be a good-looking hunk, and at first glance, you'd think he was a Korean superstar. :D

Once the wedding was over, I finally had a bit of time meeting some friends and ex-colleagues for a quick catch up. It was good and all smiles. A shame that I wasn't able to meet everyone and had to cancel on some people. Oops.

I lost a bit of weight leading towards the wedding (yay!) but gained it all back before I returned to Melbourne. It must be the food and drinks with friends! :)

Met up with some Dutamas Runners for drinks.
Paul must have set the resolution really low on his phone!

YB and I managed to squeeze in a climb/run/hike to Gunung Nuang as part of our training towards our upcoming event. I'm glad we managed to get that done as 1) it was quite an experience, and 2) the upcoming event is REALLY tough and we need all the training we can get. I'm sure some of our friends (still) don't understand why we needed to do what we need to, but we hope that eventually, they will.

It took us 6 hours+ to climb up and down, including a lot of stops. We met loads of people along
the way and so we were chatting to them and I had to deal with a bee sting.

Managed to catch up with Sean, too. From traditional Thai massage to ramen to coffee and ramen again! Mmmm, I want more ramen!

Mussels with white wine.

A week has gone by and those 3 weeks in Malaysia now feels like a dream. I have other worries now, which takes the shape of a trail marathon in April (eeks!), and a long list of things to do. I have been nagged and reminded (and nagged again) so sigh, I shall not procrastinate any longer now.

That list includes some recipes which I can't wait to try.

And some shopping.

And tidying. Which I loathe.

Really.