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*

Post Wedding Equals Plump Wife?

A few days ago a male colleague casually said to me, "Oh hey, how is it that you're still maintaining your figure after marriage?"

Taken aback, I merely replied, "Ahhh, the husband's always out station for work so I don't need to take care of him."

He took it to mean that I was referring to my meals and I just left it at that. I needn't explain myself to him, but I'm not sure what I meant, anyway!

To be perfectly honest, I wasn't comfortable with his observation or his statement. A few months ago, he commented that although I am now a married woman, I was still dressing up like a single one.

Not too pleased with that, I told my lady colleagues about his statement and they laughed.

 Too sexy for him, you think?

So you can imagine how disgruntled I am with his latest remark/query. How on earth does a normal man imagine a married woman to be - fat and frumpy? Covered up from head to toe because she's all curves?

Hmmfh.

Research showed that most women tend to pile on the pounds after marriage, while the men would pile on after a divorce. (See The Telegraph's article.) Reasons why post-marriage weight gain was common in most women is because:

• They generally have a larger role to play in the household so they have less time to exercise - they have to take care of the kids, the husband, the house, etc.
• They get pregnant - post natal weight is not easy to get rid of
•  They may fall in love with the kitchen and start to cook more to feed the family. The more appreciated they are, the more time they'll spend in the kitchen cooking up a storm!

To cut a long story short, women have a tougher task of balancing their time between themselves, work and their loved ones.

My question is, why did he ask that question like it has been puzzling him for ages? (Holy shit, is he observing me at work?? Stalker alert!) It made me ponder whether most married men are like him, expecting married women to be roly poly with cheeks so chubby that you can't tell whether their eyes are open or not and they waddle instead of walk.

Grrr.

I don't have kids yet, so who knows, I'll be fat by the time I have my litter of Wong-Teo runners-to-be.

I watch what I eat and don't indulge in all the fatty and carb based foods on a daily basis. I do not believe that without rice or noodles, oh, a protein-based meal is insufficient to keep me full until the next meal.

I discipline myself to workout, which is harder than watching what I eat. It is bloody tough when I'm tired and I'd rather be a couch potato but the minute I have second thoughts about working out (on the day I'm scheduled to do so), I force myself to get changed and do it. Be done with it.

I am lucky to have a husband who does not expect me to cook every single meal at home and serve him day and night. Thankfully he also does not expect me to put on the pounds to blur my beauty and figure (if any!) to discourage attention from men.

Not forgetting the fact that he enjoys to sweat out as well.

I am lucky to have a family who are conscious with what we/they eat that these good habits and concerns are the basis of my foundation.

I once dated a guy who hated working out and didn't allow me to work out at all. His reason was that if I built muscles, my body would be hard and not very nice to hug at all.

Yeah, sure. He probably thought I was aspiring to be a body builder or something. Geez.

So no prizes for guessing that I piled on the pounds from just eating and not working out. And looking back at the pictures of myself then, I cringe and wished that part of my life could be obliterated by the delete button on this keyboard.


I am not super slim or slender with a body to die for, I am just normal. But I am glad to be fit and healthy which most people fail to realise that it is the first and foremost objective that they should be looking at when working out.

If you're telling me to be flattered that this guy at work basically thinks I'm hot for a married woman, then he should just compliment me by not saying anything because it's bordering sexual harassment.

Just say something simple like, "You're dressed up nicely today. Looking good!" and that will suffice.

But not while your eyes roamed up and down my body, of course.*


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*Gawd, I hope he doesn't do that!

Wedding Chaos

It's been more than a year since this draft post was left here to collect dust.

Our wedding reception(s) were held last year and I guess you could say that we were glad they turned out pretty well, despite a little hiccups here and there.

For the KK reception, it was cool that most of our guests adhered to our purple theme. I thanked them profusely then and there, although many of the guests asked why wasn't I in purple.

"Ah," I'd reply, "I need to stand out from the crowd!"

For the Ipoh reception, I was sadly disappointed with my hair & make up artist from Keep Gallery. Don't use them!

I looked pale and dull for the morning ceremony and my hair didn't complement my features and wedding gown. I was really, really, really upset but hey, the show had to go on.

It didn't improve for the evening dinner either.


I ordered a pair of custom made shoes (just two weeks before my KK reception!) and she managed to use the remains of the lace from my gown for the shoes.

The pair cost RM200+ in total and well, I must say I wasn't too impressed with the workmanship but what's a girl got to do at the last minute, eh? Nevertheless, the lace on the shoes made them very pretty.

I took them out the other day to admire them and thought I'd wear them last weekend.

But behold, my feet couldn't fit in!

Either the shoes shrunk or my feet have grown fat!

I'll probably give them away to my mum or sister.

Or force my fat feet into them again ...


The entire wedding preparation was hectic and crazy, and we surely wouldn't have been able to do it without the help of our family and friends. There's no harm in asking for help if you can't handle it on your own!

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p.s. YB and I keep lamenting that we need to get married all over again, just so we can keep our weight in check! We've gained some weight, argggghhhhh!