older! again...

Our first birthdays as husband and wife. Born 4 yrs and 10 days apart, we're once again 'older'.

Ck fulfilled his wishes of being married before 30! among other things and I have 4 more years to check off the rest of my 'must do before 3-0' list. There were no big parties or celebrations this time round and for many birthdays to come I think. To me, birthdays MUST have at least some sort of cake, candles and a birthday song. For ck, he's a lucky man because he got it all! Provided by yours truly of course!

Breakfast in bed, a birthday lunch at his favourite restaurant, a birthday dinner/supper, a special birthday 'Baked Alaska' spiked with Rum & Raisins topped off with 'recycled' candles and Happy Birthday sign..

He even got to do a birthday treasure hunt for his 3rd gift! The only downside was that he had to work the whole day even though it was a Saturday...

I share my birthday with my grandparents' anniversary. They have been married for 55 years! Want to hear a scandal?!? My Ah Kong was my Popo's teacher! *eeks!*

Had to work that night so got to my grandparents place only after 9. Had plenty of cucur udang waiting for us. Anything with prawns is always good but to my horror.. NO CAKE! How can one have a birthday without cake?? There's this aunt of mine who's always baking some sort of cake for someone's birthday but this time round, NO CAKE!

"woe is me"

Mummy however had a surprise in store for me. No official birthday cake but she made a jelly cake instead! =) (by the way, her jelly products are for sale! call or email me)

Got my song, my cake but no candles.. My little cousin has the honour of blowing out everyone's candles til she's old enough to.. 'let others blow out their own candles!'

At 11.15pm.. 45 mins til my birthday was officially over, I finally got my candles! hehe.. Together with a proper birthday cake and song. (thanks I!)

So another birthday has passed and we both feel just the same.. except for the fact that we're older and perhaps wiser?? For ck, hitting the big 3-0, it actually signifies the start of life. (this applies only to men!) For me, *sigh*...

M asked, " So what's on your birthday list this year? Push up bra, eye cream n wrinkle cream? Multi-vitamins??"

me: "Eye cream, high metabolism and not so stretchy skin!"

M: "Welcome to the mid-20s". *grin*

Oh well...

two by two

Now that we're married, does that mean we should be hanging out more with 'coupled' friends? Or even married friends?

"common interest" - talking to each other about the other half.. hehe!

Ka-ching!

Money handling... who does it in your household? The 'man' of the house or the 'woman' who turns the neck of the 'man' of the house??

I never really got to see who did it among my parents. I know for sure with my maternal grandparents, it was my grandpa! Tyrant.. For a good cause too! 10 kids! I've got 9 aunts and uncles with the youngest two within my "hangout" group. In fact my unc married my ex-classmate! Making her my 'aunt'? Eeeek! Still have problems calling her auntie today.. Am being 'Ang Moh' and just call her by name! Hehehe..

Back to the topic. Money handling in a family. Should it be shared both ways? Or ultimately one person to handle all the bills?

Should the 'man' be taking full responsibility to provide even though the 'woman' works? Should it be shared out equally, right down the centre? Or 'man' takes some and 'woman' takes some regardless of cost? Surprisingly even in a modern age as this, tons of people don't see and don't like the idea of sharing.. Man = provider. Woman, what you earn is yours! I've seen quite a number of couples where both parties are earning and the equation above applies.

How about just plain ol' dates? Who pays 'most' of the time. When the non-usual paying partner pays, how does the usual paying partner feel?

I for one love my Independence. Love the feeling of earning my own money and spending my own money. Knowing how hard it is to earn money, I feel quite uncomfortable 'taking' ck's money. I'll go about finding ways to 'make up' for it! After all these years, I still feel that way. Unless! there's a

then I can do

What's your money solution??

baby in making

The last post sparked off an interesting conversation of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and our genes. Which brings me to the thought of babies..

Remember this childhood tease that we used on our friends and they on us when we found out whom we liked?

Ck and Chel sitting on a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G,
First comes LOVE
Then comes MARRIAGE
Then comes a BABY in a baby carriage

The questions that we were bombarded with when we were dating, were all in the line of WHEN we would be tying the knot. Now that we're married, (and not even for a whole day!) we had people asking us when we were having a baby! Come on.. Can't we even enjoy being married first??

So people listen up! We are not having a baby. Well, at least not yet.. And not for a number of years to come. How many years? At most 10 years. (I've been given a deadline by my darling husband! hehe..) I do know for a fact that my in-laws would love to have a baby to dote over "now". Including Uncle Cy! Sorry guys... Got to wait for MY biological clock to start ticking loud. Not just any loud volume but eardrum splitting "please let it stop!!" loud.

How many babies will we have??

ck: 2! Period! No more... No less...
chel: Got names?
ck: Charlotte Megan K & Tobias Maximilian K! or Charlie & Toby in short.
*chel thinks*: I can see the "name-butchering" by school kids & government employees already...
chel: boy or girl first?
ck: Doesn't matter.. As long as they're healthy!
everyone: Awwwww........

Back to the topic of OCD, I wonder how much of each one of us will our children have.. Even their looks! Ck wants our children to have my nose and skin. I want them to have his brown eyes. With him being 1/8th Mat Salleh, 1/8th Dusun and 3/4 Chinese, will they in some ways have traits of being 'non-chinese'? Just not tooooooooooooo hairy! Especially for little Charlie..

Will they look like us as babies??


What about their characters? Calm and level headed like ck or quick and hot tempered like me? Musically inclined? Athletic? Studious? So many questions! So many 'I wonder's!..

All I do know though is that everything is God given.. to His perfection! No babies yet but I do pray that regardless of all traits, little Charlie and little Toby love God. And that we can be good parents by example and as teachers of their lives. We are 'in a way' making babies now. Just by preparing ourselves in the ways we live our lives..

6 weird things about ck...

Without further ado...

1)
This is the first ever confirmation I am giving, & it will probably be the last too. I have to confess that I'm a geek. I enjoy all things Tech & Science! I wonder if I'm the only one who remembered & enjoyed the old 80s & 90s TV show, "Beyond 2000". When I was young & bored at home, I took things apart & I put them back together again (almost all of them successfully). I run Linux on the majority of my computers! I enjoy reading instruction manuals too... Did I just say that out loud???

2)
As previously stated, I enjoy reading. Not only instruction manuals, but blogs, newspapers, magazines, encyclopedias...
I read a lot when I was young, I hunted up & down the whole house to find something to read. If I had finished reading everything, I'd go back & re-read whatever I wanted or whatever I hadn't read in awhile. I loved reading so much I would bring a torchlight to bed so I could continue reading under the blanket after everyone had fallen asleep.

3)
Like my dear ol' bro, jadesimian, I can be a little OCD. Did he rub off on me? I dunno, maybe it runs in the family, I can see OCD traits in all the males in my family.
I like to do things in a proper order. Be it logical or even chronological, it's all about *order*.
E.g., Shopping List has 3 items, I go through it from top to bottom. Even if item 1 & 2 are on opposite ends of the store! I hope shopping malls don't get any bigger in Brunei...

4)
I also like to be efficient. E.g., "What's the fastest route to the store & how fast can I finish shopping there?" Just make sure that shopping list is in the proper order or my efficiency is screwed!

5)
I *LOVE* food (Eating it, not making it). All sorts of food too... Olives, "bahkuteh", lamb chops, rojak, mum's home-made spaghetti, Italian pizzas, ABC with everything in it, pork sausages, super-oily malay-style mee goreng, rum 'n' raisin ice cream, Roti John, wife's home-made cookies, Kuala Lurah (chicken wings & stingray), creamy pastas, snake soup, Belgian Chocolates, chinese herbal teas, Indian food, Spanakopita & more. Lots more. If it can clog your arteries, it's gooooooood!!! God bless the fantabulous cook who happens to be my wife! Only problem is my expanding midriff...

6)
Last but not least. When I was young, probably about 3 or 4 years old I think (too young to remember), I ran around the house in my underwear! And yes, there are or were pictures, but I honestly don't know where they are now. =D
'Nuff said!

Honourable mention & extra gem for those who know us:
According to sources, when chel & I were very young, we were both on the same plane going to Singapore! or was it Kuching?? =S

Ok, this tagging thing's gonna be killed here, I'm not tagging anybody! I'm weird like that...