Valen’s Vanity Square

Heard that it was raining cats and dogs, lightning and storm, in KL yesterday. Here by the beach, it was bright and hot!

Yes, this year we decided to spend our CNY away from the city, and to enjoy some sea breeze and pool dipping in PD, at our favourite hotel Thistle.

Due to holiday season, the hotel is packed with guests, mainly families, coming from all over the country. We booked a standard room, but was upgraded to Deluxe room and some more with a pool view. How cool is that!

The only downside is that our room is located at a lower level, so it is near to the pool and lounge; it can get quite noisy. And early in the morning, excited kids from other rooms run about in the corridor, getting ready for their morning swimming pool activities. We woke up even before the alarm clock rang!

Last night, we went out searching for seafood. Heard about a seafood restaurant located at quite an secluded area, so by relying on our garmin nuvi gps, we managed to find the restaurant and had our dinner before we died of hunger.

Now, we are just chilling out in the room. Soon, we will be heading to the pool for a dip, plus some reading and drinking. Hehe…

An overseas holiday is always tied up with lots of souvenirs upon returning.

Luckily things are cheap in Bali, hehe. I spent all cash that I brought, mostly buying stuffs for family members.

Souvenirs include Bali-produced coffee powder, t-shirts, womens sandals, cotton canvas bags, fridge magnets, multilayer cakes, and body scrubs. Hubby also bought a piece of canvas painting for house decor. I didn’t buy anything special for myself; whatever I bought for others, I get the same thing.

But I did bring back nice photos of the places we visited, and is currently concocting plans for our next Bali trip. May be next time we will chill out more at the private pool of a villa, or by the pool side and beach of a resort hotel. And, of course, to watch those gorgeous surfers riding the waves!

Just came back from a very short holiday at the Thistle Hotel at Port Dickson. Short but lovely!

Love the environment, the room, the pool, and of course the presence of my cute one-year plus niece. :>

Had seafood at both cheap and cut-throat price, haha! Although we seemed to eat a lot, fortunately we also had the chance to workout and sweat away some calories. Went to the gym during the first evening. On the second day we went for a up-hill walk to the light house, and spent some time at the pool in the evening.

We went for one pool to the other. First, had some fun splashing time at the common pool with my niece, then later on moved to another pool at the Cumulus bar by the beach with hubby. That area is strictly for adult only, ahem. I didn’t bring my swim suit actually, so had to buy one from a nearby bazaar. Luckily I did! The pool at Cumulus bar is really cool; it’s a small pool, but one can just soak and relax in the pool and watch the sun set….

Somehow, life seems to be more healthy during this vacation - we eat but we were physically active as well. How I wished my life could be just like that day in day out, haha! But as we have now returned to reality, it will be a struggle again to squeeze some time out from a busy working schedule for exercise. May be I should just get an Xbox 360 and put on that zumba dancer fitness game, so I get to exercise and have fun at the same time!

But then again, may be I should just save the money for my next trip to PD again.

Colleague has gone off for a week-long holiday. I wonder when my turn will be.

Knowing that I need to launch one publication two months later and another one in Jan next year, I doubt I can afford to be away for one week.

Oh well, may be after things have settled down and are going steadily on track, I can then arrange for a getaway that is more than 3 days. Think positively, this will give me more time to plan for a longer overseas holiday and to save money for it as well!

May be I could plan a trip during the summer in one of the European countries, and do some treasure hunting at one of the beaches or national parks. You know, just like the Famous Five. I could probably arrange for some metal detectors gold hunting excursion with hubby. And we would come home a bit richer than before. Haha!

For now, the only holiday I can look forward to is a 3-day trip in August, and that is to the nearest beach attraction, PD, a place with nothing much to do actually. No gold, no treasure. Haha!

It’s going to be another long weekend this week, as Friday is a public holiday. It’s great to be a Malaysian.

For those living in KL city, the nearest destination to spend a short 3 days 2 nights holiday will be at Genting Highlands, where there are theme parks, amusement parks, casinos, magical performances, shopping outlets and restaurants, so one can eat, shop, have fun and entertainment all at the same time. And the weather is cool up there on the hills. Don’t have to sweat like a pig even when walking outside the hotel.

I hardly go to GH though, despite it’s only a 45-60 minutes drive from where I stay. Hubby says he’s not a kid anymore; he finds no purpose visiting the game arcades or the theme park (the ticket to which is quite expensive too), he’s not interested in gambling, and he complains that the food there is expensive.

Well, I do agree to his points, but I still think that it’s the cheapest and nearest holiday spot to chill out once in a while, and the hotel room package is very cheap during weekdays.

I know there is one of the many holiday spots in US that also combines excitement, entertainment and shopping altogether is Branson, in Missouri, US. Of course, they have more to offer there such as outdoor activities in the nature - boating and fishing in lakes, camping, hiking or birdwatching in the hills, etc. Probably hubby would change his mind about GH if they took away the casinos and replace them with these activities, haha!

If you are interested to spend a fun-filled holiday in Branson, you can always check out the internet for the best deal on Branson vacation packages.

For me, perhaps I have to come up with some really good ‘reasons’ to persuade hubby to take me to GH one of these days. ;P

Good times always pass by so fast. It’s already the last day of our holiday, and we’ll be driving back to KL tomorrow.

All we have been doing these few days are eating, sleeping, watching TV, reading or surfing the internet in the room. We have not become couch potato, but bed potato, haha! There’s also free wireless connection here at Flamingo Beach Hotel, so I didn’t have to go to Starbucks in order to get online.

The only time we leave the hotel is when we need to eat. We also have enough drinking water in the room by boiling water taken from the bathroom. I know some people tend to just drink the water right off the tap, but I don’t know if the hotel is using a good water filter system, so I better do it right and safe instead of regretting later.

Everything is great with this holiday, we feel so relax and really unwind from the usual daily hustle and bustle. The only down side about this holiday is that it has make my lose weight plan even tougher! But what the heck, just have to work out harder when I get back home.

Hubby and I are planning a short trip out of town next month some time around the National Day.

After considering a few places, we decided to revisit Penang, the island where we had stayed for 2 years. Looks like short holidays in Penang will be some sort of annual thingy for the rest of our life, since it’s like a second home to us. In fact, we went to Penang twice last year! One was hubby’s working trip, the other was to attend a friend’s wedding.

Usually I would be the want who make the hotel reservation online, after checking the room rates and reviews. It’s important to check hotel reviews before deciding which one to stay in, just like people who want to lose weight should read diet pill reviews before they know which product to use. I don’t want to end up in hotels that are poorly maintained, and worst, with spooky things going on….

But this time hubby is faster and smarter; he found an online hotel booking website that charges about 10% cheaper than the one I normally use. Okay, so hubby is getting more internet savvy these days. Haha!

Anyway, we have booked for three nights, a sea-view room, with the newly refurbished Flamingo By the Beach Hotel at Tanjung Bungah. Initially we planned to stay at Batu Ferringhi, but all the hotels along that beach are very expensive, except for the Hydro Majesty Hotel, but we had stayed there twice. Now we want to try a new hotel. So, Flamingo is it.

The first thing to do as soon as I arrive in the office tomorrow morning is to apply leave!

Wanted to watch the movie ‘Valentine’s Day’ after lunch, but tickets were sold out. In fact, almost all movies at all hours were fully booked!

Well, firstly today’s Wednesday, the movie tickets are 30% cheaper. Secondly, many Chinese have yet to return to work, like hubby. So the best thing to spend time is to watch movie. But it’s difficult to get tickets on the spot during holidays, you usually have to call earlier to reserve tickets or make a booking online.

Okay, no movie for us, so we thought we could get a cup of free coffee at Secret Recipe cafe. They are having a promotion of buy one piece of cake and get a cup of coffee or tea for free. We didn’t manage to have that either, coz the promotion is only available from 3pm to 6 pm. It was only 2.30 pm then, so we decided not to wait. Save money, and save myself from gulping in extra calories, haha! (Otherwise, I won’t be writing this post but looking for weight loss help on the website www.quickweightloss.org now.)

But it’s okay. I bought a CD of Kay Tze, I will entertain myself learning new songs later. Planning to go karaoke-ing this weekend. But this time I’ll make to call and make a reservation first!

The day just ended with another feast of dine and wine. Well, I just got home from a dinner with the parents in law of my brother in law. You must be wondering what do my brother in law’s parents in law got to do with me, right? Well, they really have nothing to do with me, this is just part of the custom after you got married.

And after eating so much over these few days, but not eliminating every day, my jeans and skirts seem to have gotten tighter than they were before CNY, haha! I think I have another two dinner occasions to attend before the week ends. Eeeks!

It won’t be a surprise if you see colon cleanse products selling like hot cakes after this festive season, coz I think everyone needs to clear all the junk they eat over the holiday, hehe.

Luckily, there won’t be any family gathering tomorrow. I’ll be cooking like normal and eating like normal tomorrow. Suddenly, I’m craving for a bowl of hot old cucumber with pork ribs soup…