Valen’s Vanity Square

Finally this week I’m able to take a break from work. Not that I’m going anywhere again, just that I am not engaged for any assignment this week.

Last week was a very tiring week for me. Didn’t really get a chance to rest after 5 days of continuous work. Even weekends were busy - visited the elephant conservation centre in Lanchang, Pahang, on Saturday, and went to the park in TTDI for exercise on Sunday. I can finally take a breather today!

Will try to sort out the photos taken in the past weeks - photos taken at Awana Kijal resort and during my weekend animal encounter, haha! This week I’m also going for my facial at New York Skin Solution at MidValley. Gosh! It has been one month since I went for my last facial, my skin really needs a rejuvenation session.

I’m also planning to buy, amongst many things, a netbook this week! Saw some netbook best buy at www.buy.com, but I still prefer to touch and feel the real thing, and get all my questions answered before I draw out my credit card, haha! Besides that, am going to find out the price of Estee Lauder’s Advance Night Repair serum, which I found to greatly help to maintain my skin condition despite my sleeping routine went hay-wired last week.

Although I am enjoying a week off with no work on my plate, hopefully this break is not going to be a long one, and that there will be new assignments coming in next week. Otherwise, how can I cope with the long shopping list of mine? Haha!

Whew! Finally finished a writing project deadline today after working on it for 4.5 days, day and night, all work and no fun! :P

I had been sleeping at 3 am for three nights (or morning?) in a row! Now I have dark circles under my eyes, haha, but luckily my skin is well-behaved and I did not suffer from any acne outbreaks.

That’s why I didn’t have the chance to transfer the photos I took during my holiday last week to my laptop or even to blog about it. And tomorrow I will be joining hubby for a trip to some unknown place for elephant and bear watching! Well, this might not sound fun to youngsters who usually like to speed up and down on skateboard ramps on a fine Saturday morning, but I think it’s a very educative activity for young children and adults and older people… like us. Haha!

So I better call it a day now. Gotta wake up early tomorrow morning. Before I go to bed, I must first let my skin rejuvenate with a lavendar facial mask, so that I can wake up with a glow tomorrow, and the elephants and bears will love me. Haha!

Holidays are always too short, agree?

Just came back from the very nice Awana Kijal Beach, Golf & Spa Resort Saturday night, already thinking of a revisit at the end of the year, haha! It was really the best beach hotel I’ve been to so far.

We did quite some activities there. We drove out mainly for food. Other times we were roaming around within the resort, either reading under the shades by the beach, having coffee at the lounge, or playing carrom and table tennis at their activity centre.

We didn’t get to test their driving range because we were lazy to wake up early, he he. The best experience would be the spa, of course!

I will write about it in my coming post, because now I have to get back to work. More work -> more money to spend on holidays… hopefully at Awana Kijal Beach, Golf & Spa Resort again! Haha!

Sometimes my friends wonder why I always travel despite I’m a housewife and work from home. Well, that’s the nice part of being a freelancer, being able to move around and go anywhere as I wish!

Well, that’s not entirely true. My freelance job doesn’t require me to travel. I travel relatively more frequently than regular housewives due to hubby’s job. He’s in the insurance marketing line, and he has to take care of 3-4 branch offices scattered from the west coast to east coast of Malaysia.

I’m a Mrs. Follow. Haha! I follow my hubby whenever I’m allowed to and will not interfere with hubby’s work. In his industry, he spends a lot of time in meetings, discussions and planning events. In my ‘industry’, I get to plan my schedule so that I can travel even if I have assignments to deal with. Haha!

I think hubby and I have a ‘good combination’ here, such that we can be around each other as much as we could despite our duties.

Feel so lucky!

Jeez, my favourite seat in Starbucks at Berjaya Megamall, Kuantan, has been taken up by a middle-age men!

Yeah, I’m now here at the cafe, a cup of latte on my table (may be I’ll get some dessert later too), and typing this blog post. I don’t like where I’m sitting now, it’s facing the cafe entrance and I feel quite ‘exposed’ as people can easily peek at what I’m doing with my laptop. But this is the last seat with a power point nearby. Oh well, I would just have to bear with this for another 2 hours, do what I need to do with the internet, and I will be internet-free for the next 3 days! (I’m going to miss the web…)

Now, I can’t help thinking of the white sandy beach that I will be seeing tomorrow, haha! I also wonder if the resort has a lounge with nice sofa sets, or a nice open-air area with beautiful patio furniture sets. Sometimes, just lazing around on a comfortable and cozy sofa doing nothing can be as just relaxing.

If I want to create a tropical vacation feel in my own house in the future, I would definitely place a set of patio tables and chairs in my garden. Okay, that is if I can afford to buy a bungalow before I get too old to appreciate all this, that is. Haha!

Today is considered quite a relaxing day–stopped all communications with clients and am mentally preparing myself for my east coast holiday tomorrow! Haha! I haven’t started packing my bags though, will leave that till tonight. (I’m kind of a last-minute person.)

On normal days, I usually emphasize on anti-aging care. For a trip like this, i.e. staying by the beach, my skin care regime for the next few days will primarily focus on UV protection during the day and hydration replenishing at night.

Am planning to try out the driving range at the resort and chill out in the bar at the beach. May also want to try their jacuzzi pool. I haven’t been in one. Hope the water pressure is not powerful like pressure washers that are used to clean building walls, haha! I definitely can’t do these activities without my sunblock on. Light exfoliation will be important at the end of the day to make sure dead skin cells (killed by UV rays!) are removed before I quench the thirst of my skin with a facial mask.

Just pray that I don’t come back from a trip all tanned up and with a face full of zits! Haha!

Have you ever wondered what does the barcode on product labels mean? Do you know how to read a barcode?

While we can always leave it to the barcode scanners to check the price of a product in the supermarket, knowing how to read barcode while shopping for groceries can actually be fun and educational. And you can use this skill to impress your friends. Haha!

If you want to learn how to read barcodes, i.e. how numbers are derived from a series of thin and thick whie and black lines, you can read this article “Read 12 digit UPC barcodes” on Wikihow.

There is a rumour saying that the first three digits of any UPC barcode represents the country where the item was made. Apparently this is not true. So, what do the numbers on a barcode really mean? You can find out the answers here.

Now, I’m going to immerse myself in the world of black and white lines…

The couple staying opposite our house has a white female cat. I call her the Cat Princess, because her behaviour is forever so demure and elegant, unlike other cats. Haha!

When her masters are not at home during the day, she will just hang around in the house, sometimes take a breather in their front yard. She will never cross the front gate, no matter how curious she is with what’s going on at the other side of the gate.

Perhaps she just wants to make sure that there will be someone there to rescue her in case she gets into trouble. When her masters come home at night, then it’s her party time–time to go for a stroll in the neighbourhood, it’s her only chance to get to know some street cats. Haha!

I don’t know how much her masters spend on cat supplies every month. But if I had a cat, I will sure spoil my cat with fancy and cute cat supplies like these:

Kitty Cuddle Pal

Kitty Snuggle Sack

Kitty Window Chaise

Cheese Chase for kitty

Aren’t these kitty stuffs cool?

(The cat supplies above are available at JeffersPet.)

Came back from Penang on Sunday, and now I’m all ready for my REAL holiday!

As usual, before I get to enjoy several days off from work, I had to rush to complete some project deadlines or settle follow-up emails with clients. Not to mention that I need to clear a big pile of laundry that came back with us from Penang! Haha!

Hubby’s car had also worked hard for the past few days. Before the trip to Penang, it went to the workshop due to some weird noise generating from the absorber. Luckily it was all ‘healthy’ last week to take us up north and back to KL. Well, it will be taking us on another trip very soon. Although it is not some fancy car with fashionable and fierce led tail lights, we are happy as long as it ‘behaves’ normally.

Sadly, my skin is not ‘behaving’, blemishes are popping out all over. I think I had too much good food in the past few days, haha! Char Keoy Teow x 2, Assam Laksa, prawn mee x 2, and DURIAN! Delicious for the palate, bad for health and skin!