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..

Happy Birthday BESRA AI-YING WILES!!!

Our lil girl's not so lil now isn't she.... sweeeeetie pie!

Weeeeeeeee! Besra & Natalia in the pool! Mommy's lil angels.. awww!

Gorgeous Besra in her Pink-Polkadot 1st Birthday Dress.. ;-)