Ms.Redd's Shikakas

We've been driving up and down the West Coast of Malaysia for the past couple of weeks. Of course, we do stop for a couple of days back home in KL for rest and err, restocking of whatever necessary. I've not have any good rest since coming back into town, funnily enough working on the road is more calming and less tiring (physically). I reckon it is the lack of sleep whenever I'm back in this city called KL. Bahh!!

Nonsense and a couple of friends who had brought us around in the town of Muar

That's all the update you're getting :P

Have a good week ahead. Oh, and if I miss you during Christmas...well, Merry Christmas and have a splendid New Year filled with barrels of laughter!

Posted by Ms. Redd at 2:29 PM | 0 comments  

December has always been my favourite month of the year. I think the main reason is because I grew up having double celebrations in December, or if you include NYE then it's triple celebrations. I remember as a kid, I asked my mom how come during my birthday, my cousins had presents too, but when it was their birthday I didn't get any presents. Only years later did I realise that they had presents cos it was Christmas!

Being a Christmas Eve child, my birthday parties as a kid was celebrated on the exact day simply because the next day is a public holiday! When it hit midnight, all the kids would start opening up their presents and going to the respective 'Santa' aunties and uncles giving them hugs and kisses as thank yous. That is probably the fondest memory I have of Christmas.

Now we're all grown up, we do less of the hugs and kisses part. We don't get presents like how we did as kids, but Christmas is still just as awesome as it was 20 years ago with the family. I think it is the one day in the year where I feel contented to the bone. Even listening to Christmas Carols makes me happy. I guess Christmas is spiritual to me in some way. The season to be merry making, the season of giving. I think its the giving of love that makes it so awesome.

I don't know why I'm being so nostalgic bout Christmas!! Hahh.

On the other hand, I also love spending Christmas alone in somewhere foreign. I think that is when I get uber spiritual. Somehow, Christmas alone does wonders to my soul. Peculiar indeed, seeing that I enjoy Christmas with my family so much, and yet I also enjoy it alone. I guess no matter where you are, the Christmas spirit fills you inside out. It does to me at least.

What are you doing for Christmas this year? I'm not sure what I'll be doing just yet, but I think I'll be with family this year. Although, I kinda feel like spending it alone in Laos. Spectacular! Spectacular!

And not wanting to finish this post without any visual, here's my favourite chunky lil' cousin. Hope she'll grow up to be less chunky! haha

I like how happy she looks here. :)


My favourite shot of the lot.

Posted by Ms. Redd at 5:27 AM | 0 comments  

My apologies for the long hiatus. For those who don't already know, I am back in Malaysia and have been since two weeks ago.

Nonsense and I are back in Malaysia until err...further notice. Haha. Here's the low down on things. We went there in hopes of me finding a job with sufficient 'terms' that would meet the requirements of getting a work visa, but alas with the crap of the economy and a meager population of 4 million, that hope was not met. So, we're now back in Malaysia, awaiting for Nonsense's family to reach their full term PR before being able to sponsor us over. That, unfortunately would take at least about a year.

So, we're now back in Malaysia and while waiting out for the one year to past, we're back here working and being merry with familiar favourite faces. Though we were only there for 6 months, coming back here made me kinda sad. Not that I wasn't looking forward to the people, but more so not looking forward to the lifestyle. :P

I have a couple of stories and series of events to share since my last post, seeing that is has been almost a month ago. I'll try my level best to recollect. :)

I'll skip the part of our final days in Auckland as I've already posted the last of the photos.

We both left Auckland with a heavy heart and was onward bound to Gold Coast via Sydney. As we are both budget 'travelers', we decided to take the cheapest way back home, hassle free or not. We arrived Sydney on possibly one of the hottest day in Spring, apparently it was about 37 degrees. I looked over to Nonsense and said "imagine this back in Malaysia plus the humidity" and we both let out a sigh of disappointment. So, we left for Gold Coast about two hours later and arrived with a sigh of relief.

The last time I was in Gold Coast was probably 14-15 years ago now, my how quickly time flies. We were there only for a night to take the first flight out to KL via Air Asia. Luckily for us, the weather there was chirpy as a bird! We crashed in a motel for the night by the beach, which meant free and easy access to the beach. :)

I've a couple of photos of the beautiful sandy beach, but their with Nonsense so I shall not bother posting up. Instead, let's just focus on the N O W.

Currently on a mission and vision to travel all of Malaysia by end of January. Yes, I know it sounds like I just came back from a half a year long 'holiday' in New Zealand and now back to Malaysia for another couple of months worth of holiday. Truth to the matter is, Nonsense and I are going around Malaysia to take photos for work purposes. So, it is more work than it is play. Trust me, with all the planning involved, it is work.

Over the weekend with two back-to-back weddings, I've fallen sick. Oh how I hate being sick. The cranky weather doesn't help a single bit. I'll be back with more photos, but in the mean time you'll have to settle with these two.

This was taken over the weekend at one of the weddings with my long-time girlfriends, one of them is missing because she too is getting hitched next week and according to err, Chinese saying its not good when a newly wed or a soon to be wed attends someone else's wedding within a certain period of time of their own wedding. *shrugs*



This shot was taken when we were on our way to Klang from Sekinchan. From afar, we were asking ourselves how come the 'cloud' formation looked so strange. Only when we were nearer did we realise it was thick blanket of smoke coming from a rubber factory. I made this photo b&w just so you'll pay attention to their "job vacancy" board. I think they should now be looking out for Fire Fighters and not Supervisor Executive!

Oh, Malaysia...you're giving me so much to go on about! heh

Posted by Ms. Redd at 9:26 PM | 2 comments  

because I let mine do the talking most of the time with its crappy camera.

Happy Duck Family


Beautiful Pastel Spring Flowers


This is how Thais in Auckland measure 'pedasness'.


Big ass cruise ship that stopped over for a bit, think it was called Star Princess.


This was taken inside a lift at a hotel.




Deus Machina, a bike shop which has killer interior.


Freaky Ken Dolls

I'm sorry for my long absence, as I've been busy and away with work for the past almost one month. Anyway, updates to come...more on my life. Heh.

Posted by Ms. Redd at 11:57 PM | 0 comments  

Nonsense and I spent the couple of weekends out of town with some old friends/colleagues. The first one was at a place known for its sulfuric filled air, Rotorua. We drove down south for about a good 3 hours before arriving. I was the designated driver for the day (for our vehicle anyway). We started our journey at 7am! So, yes at some points of the journey, I struggled a bit to stay wide awake.

Some random giant dog along the way.

Our first destination was the Zorb for my friends to have a go at, since Nonsense and I had already rolled around in it.




Yup, how it works is you crawl into a giant rubber ball thing and it rolls down the hill. There are two kinds of balls, one which is filled with some water so you are free to tumble about inside, the other is dry where you're strapped on securely to a chair kind of thing.

After some tumbling down the hill, we went to town to look for a place to crash for the night. We couldn't opt for a simple backpackers for two reasons. One being the ex boss cannot stay in "those" conditions and two, one of them brought his mom and she was to cook for us dinner! So, yay to that of course. Yumm yumm...



This was the place we stayed at, from the outside we all though it was going to be really good and so we paid for it even without looking at the inside. Turns out the inside was pretty disappointing comparing to the exterior, ah well.... at least we had a kitchen. Nonsense cooked on one side, and the aunty on the other.



With the sun still up, we headed on out to the hills for some horse trekking before we started preparing for dinner.



Of course the views were crazy beautiful!



We couldn't take out our DSLR's so the better scenery were not captured as good as we would have like to. You guys just make to make do with these few.



After one hour on the horse, trekking up and down the hills around our asses and our legs were sore. Nevertheless, it was an awesome ride! When we got back to the err, apartment, dinner was under way. Definitely will bring me mom for the horse trekking next time, not sure if she'll want to though. heh.

We had curry chicken, chili fried egg, vege (all aunty's cooking) delicious of course! And Nonsense's Kumara chips. Kumara is the Maori word for sweet potatoe, it does taste quite different from the local sweet potatoes back home. Anyway...

On to the day we came back to Auckland, which was also the day it rained cats and dogs... we went to go look at some Kiwi birds. I tell you they are a peculiar yet cute looking species. We weren't allowed to take photos of them so, all I did take photos of were these :


The ferret is apparently one of the Kiwis' number 1 predator. Deng deng deng. K lah, that's all. I'm pretty tired from weekend getaways.haha.

Posted by Ms. Redd at 12:37 PM | 4 comments