My baby loves bananas... ;-)

In fact it's one of the first words she learnt!!!

Group pic... bye bye Khai Ma Beatrice! Enjoy UK!! Hugs to Uncle Lick!

Overprotective mum at work..

This was a lovely day out at Manukan island last month with Beatrice and Rick who were going away (again!) to UK. i pretty much didnt care that ppl were sniggering and pointing at me with my huge umbrella.. we dont know if besra tans like me or burns like martin and frankly, we dont care to find out! hehe.. fun time had by all.. weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! baby is such a water baby!

CHECKs this out!

This is another pic from Alex's post wedding file.. a few days after the big celebration we all went out for a simple dinner to bid Aunty Hin off.. she so lovingly flew over just for Alex's wedding so this was our way of thanking her... She represented all of my mother's sisters... speaking of aunts... doesnt baby look fabulous in her checkered outfit?? thanks aunty cheng for the pretty outfit! you can still see the scars on baby's face but it's much better now.. this pic was taken about 3 weeks plus after the incident.. anyway.. kiss kiss hug hug to anyone who's reading this especially my aunts!!!

Alex's Wedding in June

THE FUN BUNCH... A BEAUTIFUL BRIDE, DRUNK GROOM AND HAPPY GUESTS!!
GODMAMAS N GODKIDS... ADORA-BUBBLE!

Alex and Jo finally tied the knot.. what's more Jo is now 8 weeks pregnant! hehe.. man they work fast! lol... it was a brilliant wedding in the sense that i was the MC and i didnt make a mess of it.. lol.. the church service was simple but nice, and dinner was quite fun cos i tortured them to do the twist, pledge their love and even kiss for 20 seconds in public.. hehe. at least they have fun memories to cherish forevermore. Congrats again Alex & Jo and baby-2-b!!!

Better Late than Never! He he ;-)

Catch me, daddy!!!
Baby Besra and Baby Natalia my goddaughter.. playing with rubber duckies in da pool!

Another year has gone by and daddy has celebrated his 44th.. hehe.. we had another cool bbq party in front of our apartment. this time we started early at about 4pm so the kids could play in the playground and have a little dip in the blow up pool. last year we could fit 3 babies in the pool but now there's hardly space for two!! babies are getting bigger as we speak.. it's an amazing phenomenon! hehe..

baked a chocolate ganache cake for hubby.. he only likes chocolate so i guess i'll always bake choc cakes for him for the rest of his life! hehe.. well as long as he eats it then it doesnt really matter eh! tons of ppl came over to celebrate and i have to say, gosh lots of people love martin here. hehe...

all is well with baby.. the terrible twos are upon us even though she's just over a year n ten months. with nanny marji she's a proper little lady but with us she goes into 'manja' or lovingly spoilt mode. her shrieking at the top of her voice to get something she wants is quite embarassing. plus she wants to be carried to-and-fro apartments just for fun which is driving martin bonkers! hehe.. when she cries, she only wants daddy.. lol.. bad for me cos she clearly loves him more and good for me cos i dont hve to lug around her 16kgs everywhere!

besra is still very much into puking every chance she gets. we spoil her in a sense that we pick her up at the slightest whinge.. she has a knack for holding her breath and forcing herself to vomit (residual effect of my 7 month long morning sickness?) but we pick her up immediately or she spills her guts out everywhere making more work for everyone!! and believe me, cleaning up baby puke is no ride in the park! esp when she does it in the car (martin rightfully insists she wears a seatbelt and she hates it!) or like the other day at the Cat Show... noodles n milk all over the floor.. eeeeeeew!!! the joys of parenthood!

on the plus side her scars have healed very very well.. i'll include a close up later and u can see for yourself.. hehe.. i love my lil girl!!!

Check out my Slide Show!

My world is aligned once again... happy sigh..

Finally... gosh.. finally i see the light at the end of my five month long trek down this lonely tunnel. it's been a series of not very good news to put it mildly, since february early this year. for those not in the know.. i work as an english teacher with the govt.. but my life became hell when the ex principal of school T decided to block my promotion by demoting me. i fought the case at the top level (thru the director of education, sabah) and was relocated to another school nearby so as not to be further victimised. well the tales of woe continued because the principal of school P is best friends with my ex principal so i think they conspired to make my life a walking nightmare! the biatches cooked up a way to reject me from even entering that school so i was practically school-less for 2 weeks before the department intervened. they promised to absorb me into school P on condition i apply for an immediate transfer out plus agree to teach home science instead of my english language qualifications. sighs.. so i bit the bullet and accepted it on accord that i'd get another school closer to home (which they promised me!)

that was in march so by june i'd finally recieved the letter and it stated there school G which is in bloody beaufort.. 80 plus km from where i live! What the F*&%!!!! i'm not going out into the sticks just to teach english! honestly, fate hasnt done me many favours this year up until now though.. the principal of school M, a school which i've been trying to get into, has been a complete godsend! he personally took my case under his wing and finally after two weeks of sleepless nights, the ammended transfer letter arrived. when i reported to the school he gave me my timetable (all english subjects- phew!) and i immediately started teaching! hehehehehehehehe what a relief! i havent felt so helpless of my own fate my entire life until this happened. its really taught me to appreciate little miracles.

well, like i said, life is looking up. baby's scars are less obvious and seems to have healed pretty well considering. she's one smart little cookie and i'm so proud to be her mother. she's got such a loving and happy nature that it's truly infectuous. besra now has quite a large lexical corpus (jargon talk for vocabulary.. hehe) which includes: sit, run, jump, give, wash, wipe, eat, drink, sing, write, shake, clap, follow, hug, kiss, dog, cat, ball, juice, chocolate, book, frog, duck, truck, peanut.. oh and her favourite: 'NO". hehe.. very adamant little thing when she wants something. she's taken to screaming at a pitch that would have mariah carey giving her a stading ovation! quite embarassing when we go to densely populated enclosed areas such as restaurants and shopping malls. hehe.. baby makes me so happy i could burst but then again, i bet most if not all mothers say this! ;-)

martin has turned into an almost full time grass cutter aka human mowing machine. he's taken to waking up at dawn (well some days..almost!) and driving to the land, then proceeding to armour himself with full overalls, gloves, wellies, hat and full faced welding mask! quite funny but hey, it does the business. his RM250 toy, the japanese make strimmer seems to be working a treat. comes home drenched to the core and i think he'll be back to his fit and slim pre-marital look. now where's the bread and butter so that i can fatten him back up! lol.. anyway, the truth is he loves doing it and its doin him good!

anyway, you can expect more regular updates from now on... now that my life is taking shape again. i've joined a gym with my buddy aloysia and we go sweat it out before our lectures at uni.. u never know... maybe i will be slim one day! hehe.. anyway, fingers crossed nothing bad will happen anymore.. dunno if i could take it. sighs.. cest la vie!

Martin & his team..

Just a quick review of past fishing exploits that had to wait until now cos martin was too lazy to use his own camera hence had to wait on other people's pics to come through (thanks for that noel).

first pic is of team FishBorneo.com at the Labuan International Fishing Tournament last april where we came 3rd overall (no cheating: yay!). hooked 4 escolar (oilfish) biggest being abt 35kg out of the 6 winning fish we submitted. and a good time was had by all (again thanks noel).

other pic is of a gorgeous ruby snapper roughly about 10kg. me the poor fisherman's wife had to hack it down into fish steaks... martin brought abt 50kg of fish home that took me abt 4 hrs (till midnight!!) to clean, fillet and pack as you can see in the pic. (he really did marry the perfect woman! esp cos no one else could put up with his stinky hobby) oh and we finally invested in a chest freezer to keep his conquests fresh. thanks aloysia (lady in red shirt) my bestest buddy who helped with the fishmonger's dirty work.

overall martin has done quite well in tournaments this year.. next trip should be sailfish catching at kuala rompin, west malaysia.. with his good buddy Chris from england, noel NZ and another guy called David. Supposed to catch up to 80 sailfish in a day.. we'll see!

My lil devil angel!

How sweet she is.. even if she's dressed up like a cheeky devil here! i think this is a brilliant picture.. captures her spirit perfectly. this was before the accident but i assure you that she is just as playful and happy. Martin went to labuan for fishing last month (where he won 3rd place for the team event) and brought the horns home. they light up but sadly they dont flash. hehe.. anyway, really cute!!

Everyone has been absolutely great. baby's the proud owner of so many new toys, clothes and even a blanket hugging bear from auntie michelle. i walked around CitiMall yesterday looking for white pantyhose for baby (she's a flower girl for my brother Alex and Joanne's wedding next week) when suddenly i was pounced upon by some friends who had heard about poor baby Besra. It was great to catch up with Cynthia, Sophia, Theresa and my dear dear home science teacher Mrs. Gertrude. i could really feel the warmth and caring aura emanating from them all.. t'was very comforting!

Also went to a briefing yesterday about becoming a trainer and assessor for Aviation English. apparently they were warned by the internation civil avaition org that all aviation personnel needs a level 4 qualification in spoken english or they can't fly/work. that was in 1999 and the dept of civil avaition has done absolutely nothing since. Hah! now a private company has been given the momentous task of certifying 50,000 pilots and air traffic controllers BEFORE 9 march 2009. that's under a year! geez.. anyway.. whatever happens, it's a great way to make some spare dosh. money is always a good thing! hopefully it will work out cos it sounds really interesting and fun! plus u get to fraternize with pilots.. ooooooo weeeeeee! THANKS ROSLYN for opening up that window for me! HUGS!

oh and i cant end the blog without rattling off abt how annoyed i am with the new fuel price.. it used to cost 83 ringgits for a full tank in my lil vroom vroom which gave me about 550km. i filled it up yesterday and dammit: 115 bucks literally to be burnt up into thin air! sighs.. paklah and his great ideas! will just have to drive less and spend less on other stuff.. anyway, cest la vie!

life changes in a split second... sniff2

for all of you out there whom we havent contacted personally as yet, this entry will help clarify things. we're sorry we didnt call sooner but i think you'll understand it was a stressful time. we got back from our week away on sunday about 1 am.. slept and woke up in our cosy bed at about half 6 and i waited for baby to wake up cos i missed her so sooooo much. anyway we spent the better part of the morning opening presents and playing with her new toys and mickey mouse soft toy. it was a sunday morning like so many others.. one big happy family.

for all mothers out there who will surely understand, the unthinkable happened. one second i was on the phone and martin was in the room when suddenly our dog was on top of baby biting and growling. martin rushed out and threw cindy into her cage and i had dropped the phone, grabbed baby, screaming 'oh god no!'. it was a pretty harrowing experience cos baby's face was covered in blood and there was even blood in her eyes. i think she was really shocked more than in pain because i read somewhere that adrenalin helps numb the pain. within minutes we were on the way to the hospital. luckily she slept on her nanny's shoulder most of the way after crying for a while. there is nothing more horrifying than seeing your baby hurt especially when we feel so helpless to ease the pain.

at the emergency ward, baby was looked at properly and it was agreed that the plastic surgeon would fix the damage which included 3 deep punctures (two on forehead, 1 on chin) and other teeth scratch marks all over her face. if u look carefully one of them was about 1 mm away from her left eye. thank goodness the doc said her sight was unaffected. i dont know how i would have dealt with that. thank god for little miracles.

day one in hosp we had to wait 6 hours before they could sedate her cos she ate at 9am. it happened at about half 10am. by 3pm martin accompanied her to the op room and they cleaned the wounds. we expected them to give her stitches but they said they wouldnt until they were sure there was no infection from the dog saliva. she came out with patches on her face with some kind of clear surgical cellotape.

i have to say i have the bravest baby alive. sighs.. in the emergency ward, she sat quietly on my lap watching me cry then took her face towel and wiped my tears. god that made me cry even more. she didnt cry or touch her open wounds at all, instead she laughed and played and ran around as if nothing happened. god, i hope she never remembers any of it because trauma is one thing she can definitely live without. and in the following days she did exactly the same, laugh, play and ran around as if she owned the hospital and the nurses were her audience. she is truly amazing.

day 2 was for observation and injections while on day 3 doc said she was ok enough to have stitches. 36 in total. damn that's alot. 36 fine stitches which hopefully will fade over time. just listening to baby laugh out loud now while watching tv with daddy is amazing. makes you really appreciate the little joys in life.

for everyone who visited and send well wishes, gave baby presents, kisses & hugs, we are touched and thankful. who could have expected such a turn in events. as for poor cindy, she just lost it in a moment of madness. we could spend ages pinpointing where the fault lies but i guess there is no point. it happened. shit happens and in the words of shelley blew, build a bridge and get over it. cindy was taken to the vet and put peacefully to sleep. it will be some time before we are used to the new routine, but we are all concentrating on baby getting better soon. next monday she needs another session at the hosp to remove the stitches.. and that will be another trying time. just glad that it will be alright soon. fingers crossed.

Penang & KL 6D5N - Romantic Getaway!

This has been the first time we've made a trip without baby.. miss her heaps but baby Besra is in good hands. ie Nanny Marji and great friend Aloysia.. ;-) We left on monday 26th for Penang and spent 3 days there.. hotel was a bit of a dud.. crowded and old and dead fish everywhere on the so called sandy beach!.. but the tram ride to Penang hill with English Cream Tea saved the day! On Wed we flew to KL and stayed with Ashley the hot mama.. was great to meet up with her & family esp Ryan boy (who insists Besra is his girlfriend!) and Lyanna (Ash's gorgeous twin) as well as the lovely lili..was fab to catch up after so long. thanks Suanie for the great pic! glad to see that we are all plodding along happily almost a decade after graduation.

Thurs morn we went to visit Contessa aka titi at her place in Shah Alam.. her 2.15kg baby Baby Bayu Iman Rania was a little darlin! (will add pics later).. Now in Aunty Sharon's house in Subang Jaya.. will be flying home this evening and about time too.. Holidays are fine if u minus the fact the pockets get lighter (retail therapy!!) and taxi people try their luck on ya! hehe.. oh to be back in my own bed and cuddle baby again! weeeeeeee! and i bloody miss my car! Vroommmmmmm!

Marsha..our distant relative up close!

Went to langkah syabas resort last sunday (18th may) to see marsha.. hehe.. so cute. what made it more memorable is that all the girls got together after wayyyyyyyyyyy too long! hehe.. audrey & besra(1yr 8mths), vicky & krystel (almost 2) and luvy & natalia (2yrs 5mths)... soooo much fun.. and yummy english sunday roast! nothing beats a big chunko meat on yorkshire pud!!! weeeeeeeeeee we luv ya marsha!

Us with grampies! & my 2am ramblings..

Another picture taken from the day we had a mini party for aloy and jo. my mom belinda and dad jimmy were definitely enjoying themselves. it's the little things in life that we all cherish so much because life is indeed too short and if you're not careful, it'll pass you by in a blink. baby loves granma and grampa lots!!!

been thinking about it... friends mean so much to a person, especially true friends. it is sometimes logistically and logically impossible to be with every friend each day but that doesnt mean that we dont hold them dear at heart. since i've faced so many problems on the workfront, i've really come to know just who will step up front for you and who in my time of need, just shied away. anyway, to get to the point, some of you read 'the return from absence blog entry', and contacted me and honestly, i was so touched.. ashley and shui han.. you know who you are, big hug! miss you guys and will definitely catch up soon.

ah friends, a close friend of mine had a cancer scare recently but they managed to remove it. luvy, i'm praying to the powers that be that it wont recur. beatrice has had a tough time with her dad in hosp recently undergoing an angiogram. he's out now, doing well so my fingers are crossed there too. another best friend, vicky, is having family problems and i hope too that it will be solved soon, the giant step now that her family knows is a welcome relief so soon there will not be any more hiding away. so many lives which could all do with a bit more happiness and a lot less worries, you're always in my thoughts.

with the recent cyclone in myanmar with 60,000 either missing or dead and the earthquake in china yesterday killing abt 10,000... its just so frustrating that natural disasters rob them of their peace of mind. and it kills me to know that the junta militia is refusing aide simply because they are too stubborn and regimented at the expense of innocent human lives. all of which makes my problems pale in comparison. i guess it puts things in perspective.. that yes i lost out to a biatch ex principal who as good as engineered my being axed. and yes, its turned my whole world upside down and left me in a state of limbo. but hey, look what good came out of it (job opportunities left and right-- applied for teaching post at uni and was offered a position in a exams dept of education office). and gosh it makes you so thankful for the perfect little that you have like a loving husband (albiet an annoying one), a gorgeous and highly intelligent baby, a fantastic nanny for baby, a house-to-be and my various part time assignments with the Uni, college as well as the advertising agency (which is fantastic cos i'm starting to see my work published in the papers, as flyers, banners etc). the long and the short of it is that i'm definitely counting my blessings. nothing worse that looking a gift horse in the its mouth, so the one up there, if you can hear me, thank you for the joys in my life and please spread the happiness around as my family and friends would really benefit form them. oh an pls do something abt my ex-principal and the junta. may karma hightail towards them and bite down on their butts so resoundingly hard that they never knew what hit them! sighs.. if wishes could be made to order... hehe. anyway, i still believe in the intrinsic good of mankind, and that people only do bad things because they are trying to save someone else... u know like in le miserables: john valjon (wrong spelling i know) stole bread because he was desperately hungry. ok, enough rambling. time for bed. its abt half 2 in the morning and i couldnt sleep... now, i think i will hit the pillows and cuddle up to hubby. g'nite all!

When you gonna take me fishing daddy..

Look! I'm all dressed up in my mickey fishing shirt... hehe. This is one of baby's new looks.. simply adorable.. and you bet she gets what she wants when she pulls this face.. LOL. One day soon daddy's lil girl will be catching her first fish!

1st April.. Happy Birthday!

we celebrated Aloysia n Joanne's birthday on a sunday 30th march.. we had tons of food and good times! cheers to the two of you!! Good food, great friends, fantastic family, what could be better!!!

Play time!!! Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Peekaboo! Don't worry baby, mommy's gotcha!

Celebrated Aloysia's and Joanne's birthday on sunday 29th April
so had the family come round and baby had fun at the playground.
It was a nice homey, comfy and lovely day.
There should be more sundays during the week! *wink wink*

Baby's first trip to the University Aquarium

This was baby's first visit to see the big ol fishies in the big ol tanks. actually it was a small aquarium with small tanks but from her point of view, hey, everything's gigantic!! we had fun that day pointing out the fish and waving at strangers. it was an impromptu visit cos actually, we were checking out the beach at the campus where martin was supposed to have a fishing competition the following weekend. guess how many fish he caught on that day. nada. none. tiada. elek. hahahahahahah.. but he said it was fun anyway. fishermen are weirdoes and i married one!!!

Baby & Daddy at land..

This was taken the day they were measuring out our 40 by 40 ft house. Martin bought baby's shark shirt even before he met me. hehe.. how sweet.. dont they look so rugged together?? LOL.

What a trying time for me... sniff

hey hey... its been just sooooo long. i know. but life has been a mega crappy so you'll have to just excuse the absence. it all went downhill mid february after the chinese new year holidays. my ex principal as good as fired me for no good reason except that she openly admitted that she didnt want me to get my promotion. the biatch didnt even listen to my side of the story, in fact she said i deserved no explanation. so i took her threat and went straight to the top man (woman) in this case and she transferred me out to save me from being victimised more. well the new school i'm in now is not much better in the sense that the principal here is chummy with my ex boss and the moment i arrived she insisted there is no place for me so she wrote me a rejection letter. took 2 weeks for the transfers dept to sort it out and they finally agreed that she would accept me on condition that am transferred out in 2 months. sighs.. does it never end? now i'm not even teaching english... instead i'm a home economics teacher teaching cooking and sewing!! what the F*&%! anyway, things arent solved yet cos i'm waiting on the next transfer letter. hopefully i get the school that i'm aiming for that is in papar.. oh and one good news is that the pilings are done at our land in papar. next week or the week after they will start building proper. might just get a house by the end of the year by the looks of it!! weeeeee

anyway.. enuf abt depressin ol me. baby is gorgeous and smart as ever. talks, throws tantrums, cries when i go to work, feeds herself, runs and climbs and best of all.. walks up to you and kisses you right on the lips. the other day she made me cry like a soppy ol momma cos she kept walking away from me, then turning round and launching herself into my arms to give me a great big baby hug! weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ... so proud of my lil girlie!

as for my hero of a husband, he just won first prize for his 12.4kg wahoo in the sabah international fishing tournament last week. won 500 ringgits, and a fishing rod worth abt 250 ringgits but the shite luck was mr gadgetman here accidentally knocked over his buttpad along with his swiss army knife, letherman took kit, torch, knives etc which probably cost more than 2000 ringgits. he was not impressed, believe you me. anyway, proud of my man. he's upholding the Koh end of it cos my family of Kohs are so used to winning competitions and getting their names in the paper.. hence the pressure! LOL.

as for me, other than the appaling conditions of my daytime job, i've been having a brilliant streak when it comes to part time work opportunities. so far i've been published a number of times now for my work as a copywriter for a local advertising agency called Panache! on top of that i've been recalled to serve as a part time lecturer for uni of sabah plus for the past 3 months now i've also been lecturing at Inti college. i've also done script writing for corporate videos. on top of it all i've been invited to be the guest speaker for MUET (form 6 english) for audiences up to 150 people. feels so good to be appreciated. at least other people care a damn abt poor ol me eh. hehe..

ok.. will be including a few pics above. hope to update more regularly from now on. martin will be away for 1 week cos of the labuan international fishing tournament. fingers crossed for him at all times. ;-). hugs all round!

Besra has this incredibly cute habit of grabbing my phone and putting it to her ear like so... amazing how kids learn early on how to use mobiles! haha.. i guess they see adults do it all the time so they learn by mimicking.. baby Natalia used to do it too.. always an excellent source of entertainment and amusement.. my girl is the best! lol.. (no biased at all.. snort!)

BABY'S 2ND CHRISTMAS..2007

i know, i know.. christmas is long gone.. but i've yet to update my blog this year so this is a happy pic of baby n i at a seafood restaurant at christmastime taken by martin of course.. it was alex's engagement dinner party and we all had scrumptious seafood in their honour! here's to my lil bro.. and his beau jo.. hehe (it rhymes!) may you have marital bliss from the word go!!! cheers guys!

10 kg Dorado & 15 kg Shovelnose Ray

Another successful fishing trip.. Martin went off for another three days and when he got back last Thurs he had various lil reef fish n two of these beauties with him!

On the first night itself, he was abt to give up n hit the sack when in the wee hrs of the morning the shovelnose ray decided to literally wake him up. says it was a fantastic fight but a bit sad to have had to bring it in as generally dont keep sharks n rays as a rul its tail got wrapped up in another's line..

As for the dorado, it was caught in 75m deep waters.. just under the surface it took the bait under the boat and subsequently put on a good display of flips and lunges ... tangled up a few lines which upset a few anglers but hey, tough luck. finally succumbed... was a good one.

took the pair to the fish market n got one of the guys there to do the biz.. usually we go to my mom's house n i play fisherman's wife.. thank goodness i get to escape this time cos i wouldnt know what to do with the two monsters! hehe..

the dorado is good eating and the ray just tastes like a ray..but bigger n meatier.. anyway.. martin is a happy chappie.. n so m i. ;-)

A Disaster called Cebu!

As you can tell from the above.. haha.. Cebu was definitely an experience.. not as bad as i make it out to be, but definitely not a bed of roses either.. the only good things i can say about it is that the scenery was relatively nice (nice sunset pic by martin), i had great baby bonding time and it helped us understand baby's filipino nanny better... oh so much better! hehe..

to begin with we booked the trip during a travel fair so we got the tickets at a good deal. we hv a fellow englishman friend Richard who goes to Cebu Phil pretty regular (only 1 hr 50mins direct flight from here) so we decided to relax for a week in scenic Cebu.. lol.. anyway.. the moment we arrived the excitement started! our suitcase that was barely a day old was ripped but luckily nothing was stolen.. we then had to fill in forms and dump our belongings in bin bags to get it to the service apartments.. hehe.. till today Malaysian airlines hasnt sent us an update so we figure its a gone 'case', excuse the pun!

we met up with another english guy Steve who married a local, owns his own fishing boat 'Blue Sky' and a nice western cuisine bar and grill called The Marlin at the Cebu Yatch Club. The next 4 days were spent in and around the islands off Cebu called Camotes (ka-moh-taste).. again the views were great but the service dire and the food dreadful! they kept messing up simple stuff like french fries and tuna sandwiches!

everyday martin n the guys would go out fishing and come back empty handed.. looking in on the corals from the boat, it was so depressing to not even be able to see tiny reef fish.. guess the locals r bombing the reefs to oblivion (came up in the local daily when we were there). The only nice things to look at in the waters were the many starfish.. guess the locals havent yet developed a way to eat em! On the 3rd day we couldnt take the terrible service any longer (one place we waited 2 hrs n when we enquired they handnt even started cooking so we left with the ingredients!) so we jumped on the boat n looked for another resort.. it was almost night when we finally found a homestay.. luckily.. or i dont want to imagine having to sleep on the boat, all 7 adults n 3 kids at the same time.. would be really uncomfortable!

anyway.. a week of fishing and what did the men catch!? Almost zero! one pathetic 4 inch trigger fish and a 20-inch long spanish mackerel. 1000 USD down the drain.. besides that we discovered that the ppl there r pretty gross.. almost all the cab drivers tried to cheat us, one literally kicked us out of the cab, they all drive like mad cows in the mid of the road and beep, beep, beep their horns every 2 mins buldozing their way through traffic which drove martin bonkers! They opened the doors at traffic light stops n just spat noisily onto the road! ewww.. ppl take out their willies n pee on the walls of shops cos they cant be bothered to find toilets! and it looks like a cartoon town cos all the jeepneys like in this pic, are cartoon-colourful.. and we found out that the fuel they use they buy from shanty pitstops which sells fuel in old coke bottles which they then fill into a plastic container attached to tubes that are right beside the driver where the handbrakes normally are.. damn, if they drive and smoke ciggys at the same time i'm surprised there r still plenty of them around!

anyway.. to cut a long story short: other 'highlights' include getting body searched when entering shopping malls that sell guns, ammunition and knives anyway... so whats the point exactly??!?! god only knows! and marji our baby's nanny eats tons of rice 5 times a day for breakfast till supper because everyone there does that! they cant live unless they eat a mountain of rice on their plates plus a tiny bit of meat. eatin veges denotes they are poor ppl so they just dont eat veg if they can help it! yikes! and everything is either too sweet or too salty! haha.. all their bread rolls n cookies are drenched in sugar before baking and thats exactly how they like it!

right.. so that's enough abt cebu.. haha.. needless to say we wont be going back there anytime soon.. it was nice as a one off.. but i doubt its a 'repeater'... anyway.. this last pic is of baby n i at danao lake on one of the islands.. dont worry.. its only a wood carving..

28 Nov: My 30th Bash!

My mind had gone round and round in pointless cirlcles for months now thinking of how to celebrate my 30th (yes, i know.. i'm officially OLD now!) and in the end i decided against everything. in fact, i thought i was going to have a low key birthday...

but hey, my fabulous sister michelle organised a nice dinner with family and close friends at a really posh revolving restaurant on the 18th flr. was nice that for once i didnt hv to do any planning and organising and i could just sit back and enjoy being pampered..

at abt 4pm.. went to her place for a lovely body massage, manicure n pedicure as well as eyelash extensions! haha.. then was whisked off to dinner and luvy n hubby brought a gorgeous choc cake from starbucks called Ipanema.. my fave! tons of ppl showed up including hubby of course, my immediate family n soon to be sister in laws and ppl like Paul, Dom & wife and even Jenny who dropped by even though she couldnt stay for dinner.. me very happy! weeeeeeeeeeeeee

guess growing old is not so bad after all! hehe.. anyway, i know this entry is a bit outdated.. but better late than never eh.. curtains drawing on 2008 as december comes to a close.. i've got a bit more to report on what i've been up to.. see blogs above cos i wanna include pics n prattle abt them too!

Jailhouse Rock!

Baby girl is doin the jailhouse rock! If you concentrate real hard you can see a lil Elvis in her! haha.. so adorable.. thanks MamaBea for the cute bodysuit! Pic was taken in Cebu, Phillipines while on our first family international holiday.. nov 29th till 6 dec 2007.

Wild thang.. ya make mah heart sing!

Purrrrr.. My lil wild princess! Doesn't Besra look absolutely so incredibly cute! She's starting to really look like a really hot lil chick! Watch out boys, daddy's got a shotgun all loaded up! hehe..

Just walkin along the beach with my girl..

Words cannot express the sheer joy a child brings into a mother's life.. and a father's life too for that matter.. baby is just starting to walk.. with a lot of help but definitely gettin there!

Wahoo: 15kgs..(noncholant grin)

Last week martin went on one of the local boats for a 3 day 2 night trip inclusive of 10 hr travel each way. within 6 hrs of travelling out he hooked up this nice wahoo at 15kg which was initially not thought to be a wahoo because it didnt swim towards the boat as is the norm. instead, it gave him a great fight with some good long runs. weather conditions were calm but rainy as to be expected now that the monsoon season is about. we've now got a whole freezerful of fresh fish and if his winning streak continues, we'll have to buy a chest freezer soon!

my brother alex also went on this trip which was handy cos he speaks the local lingo.. at one point, martin did his catch and release thingy with one of the giant trevelleys he caught (not good eating apparently) and when he chucked it back into the sea, everyone, and i mean everyone on the boat gasped in horror and gave alex the 20 questions about his crazy brother in law! one guy sauntered up to martin after that and said that if he was going to throw such fish overboard in the future, he should just hand it over! haha.. crazy locals and their 'eat anything, eat everything' mentality!

anyway, the pic below with the snapper like fish was also one of the bigger catches. was definitely a good trip for them.. happy that he's happy.. ;-)

Martin's latest exploit! 6kg Saddle Tailed Sea Perch

This is Martin's pride and joy...

This whole mass of mud is martin's future fishpond! he's gotten the contractor to dig out a 5ft deep 40x40m (i'm guessing!) pond so that he can hv his very own fishing venue! that's us in the background.. me holding Besra and martin's green ford ranger to give the pic some depth.. hehe.. martin n his fish..go figure!!

Uncle Richard gave Besra some exotic plants..

that were around the same age as Besra which he got from somewhere overseas.. anyway, we went to our little piece of land and planted them and these are the pics! we're hoping to make it a birthday tradition where we take a pic of the trees and besra as they both grow taller and taller! Maybe one day the plants will fruit so we can actually tell what kinda trees they are.. as it is, no one's the wiser! hehe..

We are both recovering from runny noses.. baby actually snores cos of the congestion.. but other than that all is well.. she crawls like a lil bullet now.. cruises (walks by hanging on to tables/chairs) and watches Playhouse Disney tv all the time now! hehe. so adorable..