The Prodigal Daughter Returns

Yeah....I'm back in tanah air tercinta.....back for good?? OR....

Until the next good offer comes along??? OR...

Until somebody foreign, good looking, successful, rich, sensitive new age kinda guy, independant (and not overly attached to his family especially his mom) whisk me off my dainty feet (yes! size 5.5 can still be considered daity okayyy) in his private jet (oh alright...., I'll settle for Business Class in commercial aircraft) and take me back to his homeland far, far away from here......(maybe to his chateau or palace perhaps??).....

Who knows eh??? There is always a possibility of that happening.....hahaha!!!!


And so for the time being, I'll stay put, be a good daughter, sister, aunty and employee. Oh...and also employer, since I have also just engaged a full-time domestic helper in the house. Oh yes....we are moving up..


Coming back to the office here is not much different either. I'm back in the same office with same colleagues. For the past weeks I've had more laughters (in the office here) than I had for the past 2 years in HK office. Can't say it was a bad experience, there were some good times too and some good people that I love. But its just different.....in KL, my colleagues are my extended family.

Yeah, have to say that it is good to be back......by today, my third week of being home, it feels like I've never been away!

The weather has been relentlessly hot and scorching since i arrived. Had I arrive in July it wouldn't have been too bad when its the height of summer in HK but i left HK when it was just a pleasant 20-24degrees celcius and arriving in KL, it was 32degrees! So hot!!!!

Having the fan and aircond in full blast only made matters worse. The moment you are out of the room or out of shower, you are engulf in hot, dry heat and you will just start to sweat like in sauna. Urgh!!! Sooo uncomfortable!

But....as usual........just as I was about to get used to the heat again....it started raining. S0 at least it's quite cool again. Sometimes, the rain came down in heavy downpours and windy...in HK, it would have been classified as Typhoon 3 or more or the coloured warning flags would have been hoisted.

In KL, noooo such warnings and the next thing you know....flash floods and horrendous traffic jams!!!

Talking of traffic jams, how can I forget!!!! After 2 years, an election and a new Prime Minister, it is still the same.......Federal Highway is chop-a-block with bumper to bumper vehicles day and night.

There is also a new highway behind my house, technically just next to my bedroom window. It is called Duke Highway that links somewhere to somewhere----- I can hear vehicles whizzing pass around the clock. But thanks to HK, I am used to the noise now.

My parents, poor them are still trying to get used to the traffic sounds and complaint can't sleep....I, on the other hand....despite the noise and all, cocconed under my tatty old blanket and comfortable mattress......can sleep all night long and all day long...........

I guess that is something that my parents realised never change about their one and only daughter whenever she comes home......she can sleep like a log.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

And the prodigal daughter is finally home!

PS: Dear Karen.....Thanks for the title :)-

The Central view with Kowloon in the horizon from the Grand Panorama

MTM friends at Ma Restaurant (the Art deco building at the back is a heritage building)

Thanks for coming along Rick & Wilson




A great day with the greatest companions

Shek-O, one of the best beaches in HK

Night views from the Peak

The standard HK pose

A sweet ending to a perfect day

My 2 weeks worth of properties prior to leaving

The farewell committee

Farewell Hong Kong....I'll be back !!!!!!!!!

Farewell Hong Kong

Prologue....Good bye Hong Kong.

How time flies....after 2 years enjoying life as a single, independant, successful (hhmm...hmmm...) woman of the millenium in the vibrant city of Hong Kong, I am being called back home to Kuala Lumpur.

I didn't expect to be sooo well-liked to deserve even a party but surprisingly.....I was in for a few pleasant surprises. There were a few rounds of farewell parties that I did not expect to have and I came back with a bagful of little gifts and trinkets from well meaning friends and colleagues.

A million thanks to the my friends, colleagues and ex-colleagues for brigthening up my life especially the past 2 years. Thank you also for your kind notes and messages to bid me farewell and made my daily life bearable. To the 'local' friends, I'm glad to show you the parts of HK that you didn't know existed (dinsum at the canteen mosque, Ma's restaurant...). Live and learn my friends....

However, can't truly say that the past 2 years have been perfect and rosy either....but I shall not dwell on the bad times or the individuals that have crossed my path the wrong way...Those are best forgotten. Live and learn.....remember the good times, forget the bad times.

I was very happy and deeply touched with my final moments in Hong Kong....

Beautiful days with clear blue sky + company of my beloved and trusted friends = Priceless memories......

Not even the prospect of potential quarantine due to the swine flu could mar good spirit.

Fare'thee well Hong Kong.............

Ms Wannabee left Hong Kong on 03 May, 2007 on CX 721 with fond memories of her favourite places, shops and friends. Fear not......this is not the last of her. She will be back again!!!!!!!!!!!

The farewell festivities......

As John Denver said,

All my bags are packed ...I'm ready to go....

Well....most of my bags are packed and I'm ready to go but I have a few more days left....the bulk of the items have been packed, picked up by the movers and most probably sitting in a container on some ship heading to Port Klang. I only have 10 days worth of clothings, couple of shoes and 2 bags with me waiting for my actual departure which should be on 3rd May.

We finally moved out of the the Vantage Park apartment a week back. I'm used to moving up and about all my life so it wasn't that melancholy. However, a week before we moved out, we had our last small dinner at the house. That was quite funny coz earlier that day the table had been sold and picked up and when our guests came....it was dining a'la Japanese style.

Luckily I had my big Shinco TV box and that doubled as our dining table. The irony of it, we started our first 'dinner' do on that table box 2 years ago with Samantha and friends who came over from KL as our first dinner guests and we had our last dinner using that box as well.

As they say.....back to basics.....

Finally we gave our respective house keys (sob..sob...) back to our landlord and got our rental deposit back (hurrah!!!). Thank GOD for that!!!! It helped to pay my income tax. I managed to break even my stay here. Mind you, i should have saved so HKDDDSSSSSS after being here for 2 years but unfortuntaely....i feel that it is my duty to contribute to the HK economy. Its a win-win situation....i'm happy that I have managed to helped the independant boutique owners of HK and some friendly and pro-active sales girls got to make their commisions....they have earned it.

I'm glad at least I'm not in the red....(let's leave the credit card out of this okay....)

And so....the past week have been a whirlwind of catching up with old friends and colleagues. I was soo touched with all the efforts and gentures that some of my old close friends have made. It is a pleasant surprise when you never expected anything and suddenly...Voila!!! The faces you never expected to see, came all the way and surprise you.

Janet and Carmen...thank you girls! You came all the way and I truly appreciated it very much....Thanks heaps Kaman for arranging everything and giving me the idea that it will only be a quiet evening for us. Julie truly rocked the evening. Wished Naomi was there too. And had there been Philip, Sandra and Robert....we would have laughed the whole place down that night. This is the dream team to work with and among my FAV people in MTM....too bad they are not in MTM anymore....

This was followed with an indulgent and luxurious brunch at the Watermark with my 2 bestest 'girls', Kaman and Karen. A beautiful place, classy setting, delicious food, great company followed with a productive quick shopping spree .........Ms Wannabee is happy!!!

And so...the farewell do's shall continue till Ms Wannabes's last day in Hong Kong.....


Kaman and Karen showing off thier 'gifts'...

My and my girls....

Note to Self.....

Things to do before leaving HK:

Clear all outstanding taxes,
Clear as much credit card debt as possible,
Get a netbook (if not a laptop),
Get an external hard drive (with sdd instead of hdd).

And if there are still some balance HKD$$$$ left….

Get that aviator from that new shop!!
Get an Agnes B’ or that cute and practical looking Anya Hindmarch tote (hopefully).


The things I’m going to do when I am back in M’sia:

Get a car, maybe a small non-guzzling petrol type,
Get the whole house wifi-ed…it is the 21st century after all,
Get a new shower screen for my bathroom---am sick of washing the shower curtains all the time,
Start giving money to parents on a more regular basis..yes, must do this more often now that am earning a little bit more than before,
Give as much attention as I can to my nephews and my one and only darling of a niece…
Touch base with old friends and relatives…

In between….hopefully……..

Continue with piano lessons until I get to play that Twilight soundtrack on piano,
Resume yoga/pilates ,
Start dieting...eerrr.....exercise properly and regularly (until I can fit into that old bikini)?

Easter holiday...Being sick, packing and shopping frenzy

A week more to go and it will be exactly 2 years in this apartment. Then we’ll have to vacate this place. I’m moving to Bard’s temporarily until I leave KL and Whaisee will move to Linda’s before leaving for her Lijang trip.

At first we decided not to bring anything home but since I could not get rid of my bed..ohh what the heck…..might as well ship as much things as we could. The shipping cost??? Thanks to my generous employer, hopefully I don’t have to pay anything…,just be bonded to them for the next 5-10 years. Hahaha!!!

We’ve been having Easter holiday since Friday. I did not leave the house for the past 3 days…Amazing huh! Well…partly due to my not being well on the first and second day and then we got busy sorting out our stuff and packing our things for the impending move. It’s amazing what you accumulated for the past 2 years…..there were so much stuff that we both accumulated!!!! Clothes, shoes and books, and more clothes, shoes and book and also bags….

But there’s more……since we are going to ship our things back, we decided we might as well fill up the whole container. Whaisee and I decided to buy a few kitchen items that we could ship back as well. Household electrical goods…costs cheaper here compared to home.

And so we each got ourselves some basic kitchen items….I even got my mom one of those deluxe size rice cooker that can feed 20-30 pax. At least when we have family gatherings, she doesn’t have to use 2-3 pots. The cost? 1/3 cheaper than home. Whaisee got herself one of those super-duper food processor and mixer. And each of us also got our coveted pressure cooker. Much cheaper here…really!!!

In between a couple of stops at Dermalogica and Ikea in Causeway Bay, by some miracle…we found another gem of a shop. It was an optical shop. This was the highlight of my day. I got myself a new pair of glasses….not just any glasses but a Prada, something which I have been eyeing for the past few months! Am in cloud nine…. Not only that, Whaise got a 2 pairs of matching Aviators for her and hubby. It was soooo worth it!

Excellent service, very very reasonable $$$$....this shop has just got another loyal customer…..

Ms Wannabe!!!!!!

A productive shopping day……..
Ohhhhh what an adrenalin rush!!!
Ms Wannabe is fully cured from her ‘ailments’........

Modelling around HK

Fancy ice cream anyone???

A couple of weekends back, I met 2 interesting blokes. They were friends’ of friends and holidaying in Hong Kong for the first time. Thanks to Bard who included me in…we had a fun weekend showing them the beaten tracks of Hong Kong.

As usual…we started the day with a hearty dim sum breakfast. There were no specific agenda or game plan so we decided to try the tram route all the way to the southern end in Shaokeiwan. After an hour of tram ride, we headed to the Museum of Coastal Defense…very interesting place with exhibits that dated back from the past few hundred years.

I saw a few things that one only sees in films…a huge cannon (more tan 10ft long!) and a real medium size torpedo. Yeah…a real torpedo!!! Surprisingly…the whole area was guarded by vigilant, serious looking middle aged female guards….

This is my first time going out with ‘real’ photographers. I guess this time…these 3 guys could pass off as ‘real’ if not ardent photographers. Good thing I left my super compact handy camera back at home. It would look really 'toy-ish' and embarrassing compared to these guys’ super duper hi-tech DSLR cameras…they spent every minute ticking away!

Zainal is the photographer sifu (master) and there were Joe and Bard, the protégés. And yours truly…Ms Wannabes became the model du jour. Poor guys…they had to make do with me since I was the only rose among the thorns.

Yeah….…. I'll be lying if I say I didn't like the experience. Have to admit it was really fun posing, smiling and pouting in front of the camera. Throughout the 2 days…I kept hearing technical photophraphy jargons from the sifu to his protégés while they took pictures…shutters, aperture, tv, speed…bla, bla, bla…..

Apart from Shaukeiwan, we also took them exploring our fav spot near Shek O (Deep water Bay). They loved it! Despite the fog and graying mist………the natural beauty of the place……took our breath away. Now they know that Hong Kong is not just a scattered mass of concrete jungle…..

We continued the next day exploring Mui Woo in Lantau with Rahim joining us this time. Each rented a bicycle and after some wrong turns finally found the Silvermine Waterfall. The light drizzle on rain drops did not stop us at all.



Again, it’s the photo taking time…under the patient tutelage of the sifu, the guys were snapping away at waterfall…trying to capture the speed of the fall, the splashes, the flow of the water in all its glory….. Even Rahim got the bug and started snapping pictures using his brand spanking new, multi touch-screen mobile phone/camera.


And of course….I was the highly sought after model of the day again……Haha!!!

Over that weekend…..I think….I have also learnt one or two tips on photo-taking:
- When taking photo of a couple (male and female), the basic trick is to focus on the female;
- When capturing sunlight on water….look for the ‘bintang-bintang’;
- Use high speed when capturing water flow, lights…
- Bla, bla, bla……..

There were more but I wasn’t paying attention nor was I interested in all those jargons.

I was happy to just sit and smile prettily and leave the photo-taking to the experts…

Thank you guys!!!!!!!!

Bard (partner in crime, fellow model)
Zainal (the gentleman sifu – such a gentleman to escort me home in the middle of the night)
Joe (volunterred to be my ‘manager’ and a fellow ocd)
Rahim (that quiet, patient and enigmatic guy)





City slickers in the village

Picturesque village scene