Valen’s Vanity Square

Most of us living in the tropical countries tend to have a beautiful winter holiday dream, because the climate here is warm and humid all the year. Our face gets oily fast, and our hair stinks if we don’t wash at least once every two days! A get away to a winter wonderland, or even a ski vacation, would be like the best holiday ever that one can have.

On the other side of the world, those living in the countries with winter, seem like to take a break from the cold and snowy weather, to enjoy the sun and beach here. Around this time of the year, we usually see a lot of foreign tourists in the country. Beach and island attractions, like Batu Ferringhi in Penang, or Pulau Langkawi, will receive a lot of tourists.

May be this is what we call “the opposite attracts”? Haha!

For me, I would skip a winter vacation. I prefer an autumn holiday, such as visiting Germany in the October month, which is their October Fest month! Lots of beers and pretzels! Yummy yummy!

Women who drives should learn how to change a flat tire, how to check the car water pump, etc. Yes? No?

While I prefer to be the passenger, but if one day, if I am forced into become a driver (e.g. sending kids to school), I may just have to. However, the first thing I’m going to learn is… … … of course not those hard labor work, haha! I will first find out where all the car repair workshops are in the areas I will most likely to drive around.

Lucky for us, car repair workshops are many in KL and PJ. It’s just that one has to identify a few shops that are dependable, honest and charge reasonable fees. It’s not troublesome at all, like if you own a recreational vehicle, you must go to specialized car mechanics to get rv repair services.

Oh well, if one day my car broke down in the middle of the road, I will just ring up hubby and shout “Come help me~~”

Didn’t know an online shop selling industrial equipment and supplies can be so tidy and neat, well-organized, clean and that is not just colored in plain white, black or silver! Well, I was casually browsing (and wasting time!) on the internet, clicking here and there, just to see what people are doing with their websites, be it blogs or online stores. I would like to get some topic ideas and design inspiration for, emm, building more blogs for myself? (Blog-creation addiction, that is, haha!)

If you have not noticed the new image in the sidebar, which is a link to a new sub-blog of this, then just go ahead and take a look. It’s a blog all about acne. I think this site is being dumped with to big a variety of issues and non-sense, haha, so I’m opening up a sub-blog just to focus on the acne treatment and acne skin care topics. If you have not visited, here’s the link -> http://valensvanitysquare.com/acnetreatmentsolutions

Just woke up from my beauty nap *yawn*… well, it’s not going to do much good for my skin though, coz I only went to bed 4 am this morning!

I was rushing to complete a writing assignment that was due today, but I got stuck in the middle of writing, didn’t quite understand what this speaker was trying to convey through his presentation! And the internet line was so darn slow, it really slowed down my online research. Whatever, I had done with the work by lunch today, that’s why I have the luxury to take the afternoon off for a ’skin repair’ sleep, haha!

Speaking of repair, now I remembered that the contractor worker was supposed to come to my house three days ago to replace the cracked tile in my bathroom! They came to mend the horrendous cracked walls 2 weeks ago, but they ran out of the matching tiles for the bathroom. And they were paid already! Hmmm, what are they thinking? That we would forget about it after they took our money? Jeez, have to remind hubby about this, if money is paid, work has to be completed!

I foresee myself to be a clumsy woman driver, if I ever drive, that is. Hubby has been nagging me to take up driving refresh lessons. His ideal ‘plan’ is so that I would drive him to work, drop him off at his office while I could go do grocery shopping or my facials, and then back to pick him up from work in the evening. Yeah, an ideal plan indeed. But I’m so enjoying my life as a passenger next to the driver’s seat, so I have no intention to become a driver myself, haha!

Hubby had tried to entice me by agreeing to pay the down payment for a second-hand car, but even I would agree, I don’t think he can’t do that now coz he may need to use that money to help my FIL buy HIS car. While it will be a second-hand car with affordable price, there are miscellaneous charges to take care as well (e.g. road tax, vehicle insurance), and those can accumulate to a significant sum. Luckily it will be just an ordinary sedan. I wonder how much is rv insurance for a recreational vehicle (like one of those mobile home buses), it must be an exorbitant sum!

Anyway, don’t think FIL will get his car soon, coz his fried noodle business is not doing well. It’s a problem of location. If he decides not to run his stall, then there’s no need to get a car. But that doesn’t mean that he’s given up his food business ‘empire’ plan, he’s making a new plan to sell his true secret recipe in another location next year. What an ambitious old man!

When we were in the shopping mall yesterday, we went into a couple of fitness equipment shops to check out the price for stepping machines. Hubby is still undecided - to sign up for a gym (which he may not have time to go and waste paying the monthly fees) or to have an exercise machine at home.

I made it clear that I don’t allow bulky treadmills in my house, but I can accept a stepping machine, which takes up much lesser space than the former. And I can use it too! I don’t like doing treadmills coz I tend to slip or lose balance on it, haha! Stepping machine is suitable for me, because it’s gentle on the knees. It would be quite enjoyable to watch TV and exercise at the same time, haha! Furthermore, I heard from hubby that there may be a trip to Mount Kinabalu in the first quarter of 2010! So it’s time to start some physical training, including strengthening up the muscles of my legs!

We did see one stepping machine that looks sturdy and has a reasonable price tag, but we didn’t buy it yet. At least we know how much it cost and if hubby gets his bonus next month, he knows how much to allocate for the purchase.

(Another reason that hubby wants to have an exercise machine at home is so that I can use it too, coz he said I have already ‘expanded’ in my waist and butt, and wants me to lose weight! Grrrrr!)