Dear diary,

Outside the 9 to 5 8 chaotic work cycle, lately my mind is brimmed with my family’s new home – the furnishing works, of which lights to install, which wallpaper to use, which wall to break down. This is an exciting task – we want a cosy home, one that we can host mini Sunday brunch for our friends and relatives.

It’s very difficult to define one style that I’m pleased with right now. Before this I was pretty inclined towards English Country. But now my interest keeps expanding. *pulls hair* Somehow I think modern Balinese will be quite nice for our Eastwind abode, something like the showroom we saw.

Here’re glimpses of my source of inspiration, preliminary ones.

♥ I like the brick walls and the white window frame.

♥ Love those dark olive frames on the left.

♥ More like a display item than a bookshelf.

♥ I like the arrangement of window panes and the natural sunlight they brought in. Love the wooden flooring too.

♥ I like the artwork, think it’s cool with a sense of humour.

Maybe I could string all my “likes” up and that’ll be a concept on its own.

It’ll be a busy weekend I’m sure, with my time pre-filled with work-related events and Homedec Expo I’m planning to get some ideas from, and hopefully, good bargains of furniture pieces.

IKEA is so easily accessible I agree, that’s what I did for my current room, which I’ve been quite happy with. But somehow,this is a family home project, not a room for an 18 year old college student. No, can’t believe I’m not 18 anymore. But still IKEA is quite handy when it comes to accessories and creative yet affordable pieces.

Sister in Simferopol, please express your thoughts.

Dear diary,

Been using my SZ Vaio laptop for 4 years now. It’s still in good condition (performance wise), except for some hardware problems.

Since my relationship with it is gonna be over soon, here’s my tribute towards it.

SZ was the higher range of Vaio back then, the 8k range. The specs was really good, back then. And most importantly, it has the weight of a net book, well almost, it’s 1.85kg. Throughout the years, I’m pretty sure to have made full use of its mobility – presentations, interviews & starbucks momments. I was very outgoing .

Plus being a heavy-user, I’ve did video editing, audio editing, flash websites, The Sims 2 and torrenting so that means I don’t switch off my com for weeks. I’ve upgraded the RAM and only reformatted the com once if you’re wondering. Not too happy with Sony’s after-sales support and hardware quality though. But, I’ve forgiven them.

Don’t ask me why didn’t I get a PC instead. I’ve enjoyed the laptop’s mobility incredibly much.

So it’s April my favourite month and you know why. I’ve received a new laptop as my 22nd birthday present, partially sponsored.♥

Vaio CW, pink.

The hunt wasn’t easy, did a lot of research, browsed a lot, but i’m not complaining at all.

I was contemplating between Toshiba Portege and Sony Vaio S Series. Both with the exactly same specs but different shades of pink. Toshiba Portege is slightly heavier and I think, it has better built-in speakers, compared to Vaio S. Vaio S has better design though, very sleek.

Toshiba Protege vs Vaio SR (RM3100 vs RM4200)

My final hunt was during PC fair, I totally changed my mind and went for Vaio CW 26FG (RM3999). Because the specs is darn good, for that price.

- Intel® Core™ i5-520M Processor 2.40 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 2.93 GHz
- Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
- 4 GB (2GBx2) 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM
- 500GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
- 14″ wide (WXGA++: 1600 x 900) VAIO Display, LED Backlight
- NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 330M GPU with CUDA™ Technology (512MB dedicated video memory)
- Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Combination Drive with dual layer write capabilities
- Entertainment usability: 16:9 aspect ratio screen & HDMI output connector

That aside, it’s also because they didn’t have pink stock for Toshiba. Plus Vaio S’s promotion was quite sucky, no value for money.

So my vaio came along with a pink laptop bag:

And many other freebies – keyboard protector, mouse, 4gb pen-drive, Sony MP3 Player, Backpack, mouse-pad, screen-cleaner kit, table-lock.

Not too bad a deal

Now I can haz windows 7, I can play The Sims 3 without lag, I can…have bigger internal disk space.

♥ ♥

Dear diary,

I’ve never laid interest in history. But this film has enticed me to read up on what ‘actually’ happened between the Nazis and Jews.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, adapted from a novel.

Unlike the typical war movie, it tells history through the perspective of an eight-year-old. So that’s what makes it all different.

I wish I came across this film while I was doing my media studies back then. It would have been so good if I’d included excerpts of this film to reinforce my presentation on the chapter of Propaganda.

The secret is, I wept at the ending. It’s truly a heart-rending tale. I highly recommend it.

Dear diary,

There’re times when my workaholic traits kick in and I would have my dinner quite late, alone.
Usually times like this I would just take-away. But seems like lately I’m being quite passionate about cooking, obviously, if you look at my previous posts. Indeed it feels healthier to have home cooked meals. Plus, lately someone stocked up the fridge with fresh greens.

Anyways lately I discover this fast and easy dish, could be a brilliant idea if you want something quick and minimal.

This dish includes rice to keep me full; veg and meat to give me the nutrients i need.

Dear diary,

One hot Sunday noon, I peeped into the fridge and found some readily peeled anchovies.

Hence decided to stir them up with dried chili and a great deal of finely chopped onions and garlic. Yum!

quite a  flavorful snack, nice to munch on while watching movies at home.

Chilli anchovies in the making.

Recipe (warning: highly based on my personal logic, observation and minimal references):

1. Fry anchovies and put aside.
2. Chop garlic and onions finely. Pound them together with dried chilis and sugar.
3. Stir fry the ingredients and anchovies.
4. Garnish with some mint leaves and serve.

To turn 22 on the 22nd, this only happens once in a life time. Happy Birthday to me.

There was once I went shopping with lovely. We passed by Q Jelly and I dragged her in to take a closer look at the jelly cakes.

I randomly told her “I want this for my birthday”, pointing at one of the displays.

She just smiled.

7 months later, today, she came home with a jelly cake and a birthday card, “SURPISE”, she said.

I’m touched by not how yummy the cake was, but how you remember the random silly things I said and you made them come true for me.

Lovely, is my mom.

Dear diary,

Daddy came home with a box of chocolates. It’s Guylian, cream of the crop in the entire chocolate realm, in my opinion.

Heavenly goodness.

Dear diary,

I vividly remember, one of the sluggish weekends of March, I caught a flu bug and was feeling sick and weak.

Just so happen that it was the eventful weekend of Guinness St. Patrick, Hot Air Balloon Fiesta and work wise, it was the crucial week of pre-pit stop event.

I’ve missed all those, except I was adamant enough, to drag myself to the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta, because I really didn’t want to miss the photo-opt of this annual outdoor carnival.

But in fact, I missed the photo opt because I was there nearly noon and the crews were already dismantling the balloons.

In the midst of this halt and disappointment, I managed to capture a cropped, faded red-blue hot air balloon.

A noteworthy perspective.

Dear diary,

I wasn’t paying much attention while watching the movie “Kaiji”. I just didn’t need to.

I want to watch it, only because it’s a Japanese film. The genre does not appeal to me, so do the casts.

Thought Kaiji’s acting was a bit exaggerated or maybe that’s his character in the show.

Certain scenes were extremely draggy, somehow this mismanagement of duration turns a supposedly touching scene into a very annoying and fictitious phase.

Despite all the not so favorable comments above, some parts are actually quite clever and it’s not too bad a weekend watch.

Dear diary,

Jaspal. A brand that I assumed is out of my league.

Anyways, even the non-sale Topshop or Forever 21 or MNG could be out of my league. Not to mention dresses from Bebe, Ted Baker, Coast London etc. And can you imagine that I’m working in a context heavily saddled by these brands. o-well.

Not that I do not appreciate these labels. Just like any other girl my age, I fancy them, I study them, I want them. Except maybe I’m still in a state that I rather save, than buying brands.

And that is why, I bought something from Jaspal, using a gift voucher, feeling absolutely contented.

It’s a charm bracelet, a very impulsive buy; which later on I realized, the charms seem a bit over-sized, especially on my skeletal wrist.