We Are Open

Yes!! After many months (months ke?) of sweat, tears, screaming, tired limbs, anxiety over lack of funds and so on, IREE Touch is now officially open.

Yes....you may come and try out our services. Foot spas? Massages? Jacuzzi? Weight Management?

Macam-macam ada!!

The website is 99.9% ready. It should be up very soon.

*sigh*

Never thought we would be able to accomplish this but it sure feels good.

Here's to satisfied customers and good business.

More Stuff She'll Be Telling Her Therapist Later in Life

"OK, name me some animals that start with the letter C".

"Cat!"

"Caterpillar!"

"Crocodile!!"

"Very good. OK, what about animals that start with the letter B?"

"Bear!!"

"Bee!"

"Beef!!"

"Huh? Beef? That's not an animal lah Kaklong. That's the cow's meat."

"Noooo...beef is an animal."

"Mana plak. Beef tu daging lembu."

"Nooo...beef!! Like Beauty and the BEEF!!"

(pause)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA...............

Note: Everyone laughed for like 10 minutes and as a result Kaklong merajuk habis. Siap nangis. Alahai, anak ibu ni, sensitif betullah...hehehe...

Getting to The Finish Line

We're almost there...

Can't wait...

But still, obstacles lay ahead...
Grrr...takde mata ke apa orang ni?

The volcano erupted again. Prumpramprumpram ngamuk kat orang tu. Lantak le ko. Sometimes this is the Malay culture, buat keje ala kadar je.

Reliving Our Loss

When I first read this article, I nearly bawled my eyes out. Never mind that it was lunch time at work and there were people all around me. Not only was I feeling the pain of the mothers and fathers of these beloved children, I was also reliving my own experiences.

Snippets from the article:

“It’s the worst news that anyone could get — that your child is going to die. These horrible feelings aren’t going to go away with a termination."
The loss of a child is something you never get over with, regardless of whether the child ever got born or not. For me, losing two in one year was ultimately devastating; there are times where I watch the girls playing together and the sight makes me silently grief for my unborn children.

Many have family and friends who are mystified as to why a couple would continue a pregnancy knowing their child will die. Loved ones often fear that by continuing on, the parents are simply delaying their grief or torturing themselves. What will they say to strangers who casually ask if the nursery is ready? And what if bringing the baby into this world causes the child suffering?
After hubby and I found out the condition of our third child, we initially wanted to continue the pregnancy. Correction, I wanted to continue the pregnancy, despite my HG. But then I got to thinking, what would I do if I went back to work and people started asking me when the baby was due? What would I say to those who asked whether or not I knew the baby's sex? How would I react if people asked me if I was excited to have another baby? I started thinking about all those situations and it made me so sad. Plus, our doctor also said, that if our baby would live to full term, as soon our baby was born, he/she would have to be placed in an incubator and be hooked up to all these machines to keep it alive. What quality of life would my baby have? Could I be that selfish to put our baby through that, just so I can hold our baby, look at our baby and breathe in our baby's intoxicating baby smell. Part of me was but a larger part of me accepted fate and decided to let go early. But still, part of me wonders...

Other families may have religious reasons that guide their choice. Sometimes parents may hold out a hope that somehow the terminal diagnosis was wrong. And others just don’t want to be the one who decides when their baby dies.
Hubby and I consulted the Mufti to confirm what we were doing was the best thing for us. We consulted the best doctors to ensure us that the diagnosis was correct, and that there wasn't even 1% chance of our baby surviving. Even after all that, the decision to let go was not easy. After having felt the baby kick inside of me for a few weeks, the decision just tore me inside.

Some have wondered why she’d put herself through a pregnancy and birth when she knew she’d go home with empty arms. “It isn’t all for nothing,” she says. “You can still love that baby, protect that baby and give that baby a peaceful goodbye. That’s not nothing.”
If I wasn't suffering from severe HG at the time, there would be a greater chance I would have just continued with my pregnancy. Call it blind faith, call it Mother's Intuition, I just feel that those few hours, days, weeks, with our baby would have been the most precious our family would ever have together.

Sigh....

I just realised something; Thursday is hubby's birthday. It's also the anniversary of the loss of our baby.

Hi there Baby. Ibu still misses you and thinks of you always. We all love you and hope to be with you in Heaven when our time comes.

Don't Mess With Me Right Now

I've been on an hormonal roller coaster ride since last week. I just can't pinpoint what or who has been pushing all my wrong buttons. The slightest thing has caused me to head to the nearest toilet to vent my frustrations out on the biggest roll of toilet paper and curse maniacally at the mirror.

How I wish I could just haul up people by the back of their pants and give them a swift kick to the butt. Or take my Berry Berry lipstick and make an "X" mark on their Mark & Spenser shirt.

Sometimes I can be such a wuss.

But yesterday I totally lost it. I was tired and felt a major migraine coming on. Just one remark, one stupid joke and I blew erupted like a volcano.

On the way back home, I cried and cursed and vented enough to make the worst pirate blush. All those cursed words I prohibited hubby to say in front of the kids? Yeah, yesterday, they were totally legit. I was screaming and yelling and my whole body was shivering from all that frustration. Hubby was scared for his life.

As a result I slept early last night. Who knew going half mad was such a tiring process.

Bandung Honeymoon - Day 4 and 5

Day 4 was slightly relaxing. Not because we were both sick of FOs or shopping but because it rained heavily in the evening and made it impossible for us to venture outside the hotel. So of course we stayed in and did the next best thing.

That's right, we watched E! Entertainment Indonesia version. Hehehehe..

That morning we did quite a lot of shopping. Correction! Hubby did a lot of shopping. Initially we wanted to go back to Jl. Riau but in the end, we headed towards Jl. Merdeka. We stopped at Matahari shopping mall and did some window shopping. I bought a pair of slacks. I would have gotten my first pair of shoes but the only pair they had that fit me was stained. Hubby was looking for some jerseys, alas he didn't find any he liked. We had lunch at McDonalds; one thing different from back home was that they had a lot of rice meal sets.
Also their sauce tasted a bit funny. Their drive-thru system was rather funny; one girl would stand outside and wait for cars to drive up. She would take their order and then walkie-talkie it to the guys inside. She would then run inside to get the order and then run back outside to bring it to the customers. A lot of running!! Hahaha...I wanted to take a picture but didn't want to be so obvious.

After lunch, we headed to Merdeka Arcade where I tried on hundreds of jeans but couldn't find any that fit!! Grrrr...ini yang kena diet ni!! At last I bought some underwear, like how pathetic is that. Hubby bought a M&S shirt and a T-shirt.

After paying for our stuff, we headed to Istana Sepatu. There, after 30 minutes of trying every single shoes they had displayed, I finally found one that fit. And it was sexy!!And only cost Rp115k (RM40). Hubby was very patient with me coz I guess he had started to feel sorry with me. Sib baik jumpa le jugak satu pasang.

As we headed back to our hotel, we walked by some boys selling snakes. That's right, you read it right. SNAKES!! They has some really good looking ones, some were even beautiful. One of the boys (I forgot to get his name) even posed for me and let me hold his python.

Not that "python", the SNAKE!!

Hubby bought some DVDs, like American Pie 7?!! WTH?! Apa-apa je lah. We walked back and reached the hotel around 3pm.

As it rained most of the evening, we finally felt hungry enough to venture out for dinner around 8pm. We ate the the Simpang Raya Restaurant. Before bedtime, we cut off all the price tags from our purchases and packed our bags (which had grew from 1 to 4).
On our final day in Bandung, hubby and I did some last minute shopping at the FOs near the hotel. We stopped at Up Town FO, where I found another pair of jeans (yeah!!). Of course, hubby did too and his HAD to be DKNY. Urgh, that's it. Next Bandung trip will not be with hubby.
I did however cheer up a bit at Solution FO. I found a pair of sexy CK shoes, that fit!!

We had called for a taxi to come and get us at the hotel at 11am. Turned out the taxi fare from the hotel to the airport was only Rp21k!! What did that human leech charge us the 1st day we arrived? Rp150K!!! Argh, when I think about it...takpelah, benda dah sudah.

But yeah, a note to all future Bandung travellers, if you plan to travel by taxi, ONLY TAKE BLUEBIRD TAXI. And make sure they use the meter. However, unless you're travelling with small children or old people who can't walk far, your best bet for getting around would be the angkutan.

I'll talk more on my key learnings (hah!!) in Bandung. Till then, be good people.

Bandung Honemoon - Day 3

So its Day 3 in Bandung. Again, we had the same breakfast early, though I was starting to feel 7am was rather to soon for me to have rice. I did however change to my preferred cup of tea, instead of coffee.

Today our plan was to travel to Rumah Mode, yet another must-go-to factory outlet. Apparently people go there to shop for jeans. Great, I really needed to get me some. Did I mentioned I only had one pair of slacks on me? And it wasn't actually all that clean anymore, with all that trodding through the rain the previous day.

So off we went to find the angkutan to Rumah Mode. Our hotel receptionist told us to walk to the nearest traffic light and wait for any angkutan that had Cicahuem-Ledeng written on it.


It took us 20 minutes to get to Rumah Mode, thanks to the kind people in the angkutan who told the driver where we were heading. Rumah Mode was a bit more classy than the other factory outlets we had been to, you had to pay for parking.

Unfortunately I didn't find anything I liked at Rumah Mode. There were tons of jeans, yes, but a lot of them were carrot cut. Not my style. I found one pair of red, sexy Fendi shoes that I really liked but unfortunately they didn't carry my size. Awatlah kaki besar sangat macam pesawah?!!! Hubby bought a pair of Prada shoes but couldn't find any jeans he liked either. All in all, Rumah Mode was a bit of a disappointment for us.


Fortunately along Jl. Setiabudi (where Rumah Mode is located) there were other outlets too. We walked uphill to look for a place to have lunch first. Based on my online research, there was a popular restaurant nearby called Sunda.


Indeed, after 10 minutes walking uphill, we found the restaurant; Rumah Makan Sari Sunda. The restaurant has a very traditional feel to it and reminded us of the restaurants we frequented in Bali. There wasn't any halal signs on the walls, so before we were seated, we asked the waitress whether all the food was halal or not. Fortunately she assured us everything was halal. We were asked whether we would like to have our meal indoors or outdoors. I wanted to eat overlooking the garden, so we headed outside. It had started to drizzle again so it made the atmosphere kind of romantic also.

We both ordered the fried rice with fried bean curd and roasted chicken. I had my usual ice lemon tea without the ice (heee!) while hubby tried the ice cendol. While we were waiting for our food to arrive, I took pictures of the garden and the restaurant. The garden was very nice but because of the rain, we decided not to venture down. There were a few huts in the garden where groups of friends could have their meals there and enjoy the scenery.
There even had a sand pit for kids to play in and a swing, which would have been nicer had it been the wooden kind.

The food was nice but the drinks were a bit too sweet. We had to ask for a glass of plain water to make it bearable. All in all, we spent Rp71.5k (RM25). Nice!


It was still drizzling as we made our way out from Sari Sunda. We made a quick dash to the nearest factory outlet (can't remember the name) and checked out the shoes. AGAIN, I failed to find any my size. I was starting to get frustrated. We headed next to Zenith factory outlet, across the road and a few doors down. Finally I found a pair of jeans I loved. Unfortunately they weren't of Guess or Versace brand but still I was just desperate to spend!! Hah! Hubby, of course, found jeans je liked also, but his HAD to be Versace. Bleh!!


The was a signboard outside of Zenith pointing the way to Deluxe Bag's. Ding, ding, ding!! It had started to rain a bit heavily so we made a dash for the outlet. It was there I bought my beloved Burberry bag. Sigh. Finally a purchase I was happy with. I love it, I love it, I love it!!


We then headed to Donatella, the place for shoes. You know the drill. Nada. The nice thing about the place though is that they had a nice room for prayers. Yeah, no need to head back to the hotel. We then took an angkutan to Cihampelas (Kalapa-Ledeng), another famous road for factory outlets.

Indeed, the outlets were outrageous here. For one thing, they were all named after Superheroes! There was Spiderman, Superman, Batman, Catwomen, even Rambo!! Hehehehe. They all sold the same thing, clothes, jeans, handbags, the usual stuff. We made our way to Cihampelas Walk, which was a huge shopping mall.
My back was starting to kill me so we decided to find a place to have dinner and rest our feet. We headed to the food court where I had bakso while hubby had kueh teow. Hubby bought a few shirts but I was just too tired to try out anymore clothes. We headed back to the hotel at around 8pm.


Day 4 -and more shopping- coming soon.