hari ini dalam sejarah

i woke up early this morning because mom said she needed to go to my cousin's houses in taiping, doing a bit of a raincheck before she and my dad fly to Mecca for their umrah.excited and didn't want to push my luck, i dressed tentatively for the event.well, as a manner of speaking, i literally WAS because you see, ever since i came back from KL there has been only two futile visits to my dear hometown. as i was driving and nearing Taiping, i tested my luck. i asked, can i go to Taiping Sentral with kakak and kak yang?but my mom quickly brushed me off.she said she needed work done at home and couldn't manage to stay long.mind you, my dad is leaving for his important presentation in Kuantan tomorrow for four days. to date, he has managed to move from one state to another in a week's time.wani said he could do 4 states in a week, his busy scedule includes lunch in Melaka and dinner in Sabah once. my admiration goes to him. :)




so okay, mom said i couldn't go, i didn't. i have missed shopping a lot, well, who wouldn't?last time i took Mid for granted,ain't i? i have missed a few beaded accessories, coats and cardigans when they were in fashion and now the reality stung. but truth be told, i'm perfectly content to just sit aound in Acik's house, just to be with my cousins. but when we arrived, i persuaded mom to go and send her medicine to Angah rather than asking Acik to hand it for mom ( that way, i can go and visit Kak Yang as well waaaaaaaahhhhhh i'm geniusssssss). mom said it will only take a while, but i trust my darling Mak Ngah to keep us heated in conversations later hehehehe :)




so off we went to Angah's. he's been having his Gout and is pretty much in a good shape though he has lost a lot of weight.when we arrived, Kak Yang was still asleep.awful awful.Kakak and i went to knocked on her door and thankfully she responded.her room was massive and packed with stuffs, a strong reminder of my own in Penang hahaha :). i was happy to see her though, and then she asked,


"shira nak beli gelang kristal tak?"



ooo..i asked to look at it first, and my oh myyy was it beautifulll.there was a carton full of the accessories and the glistenned stones really gets me.i bought one straight away. it was green and i was proud to wear it.

it was a clear beauty. i love it so much. turns out, i get to buy something in the end after all.

a satisfying find. got it at a steal. cousin's price, as Kak Yang calls it :)

on the way back,this time mom's driving because she needed to run some errands, i asked mom my most procastinanted question of all: mom, are we having trouble with money?

i've wanted to have this talk with her since i got back home and being dished with many Oprah's slap of reality. TVs now talked about managing money a lot, particularly in this economic crisis. Oprah even talked on how to save more to the tinniest details, her guest speaker Suze Orman ( i have to remember this ecklectic woman) has shown ways for parents to maintain a normal lifestyle in these "turbulences" despite credit card debts and unpaid loans, mind you, this includes a hard tell-off to some parents. its affecting America tremondously, by the looks of it, and it rained on its dependancies as well, one of it being Malaysia.i guessed, since everywhere people are being shut out of work, nesseccities needed to be forked out even,it must have had affected our family at some level.

mom said, we still managed.She and Dad both work with the Government in the Education sectors, so they'll never get cut-off short. whatever it is, you have to have educators.and from what i experienced growing up under their noses, my Mom, especially, is a real saver. a big margin of her salary goes to the kitchen.my family enjoys home cooked food even if its just a dinner with sardine and eggs.honestly, she's never heard of Secret Recipe until i came home one day from uitm and treat her to it.her latest whiz with money is this : a baking oven. because we fed of breads a lot, my mom decided to bake her own breads, and not only that, she made puddings,pizzas, and hotdogs fresh from the oven too.so currently, there has been no need of cadburies, vochelles, mars bars and pizza hut deliveries in No.8, Jalan Ilmu 3, Taman Ilmu, Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang.. :)

fashion?asked her, and she'd go bummer. she doesn't even know what D&G stands for, let alone what Salvatore Ferragamo is. she shudders when we went to The Gardens once. boy oh boy.

however she has nothing to lose at all. she has turned approximatley 49.5 kg this time, thanks to regular exercise, cutting of carbs and Jus-mate (a diet drink). having gained her dream weight, she said it never matters now what she puts on her back because she feels fabulous! even if it is an RM15 sweatshirt. mind you, i got boys my age wolf whistling at her when we went to town together!

she said to me this, in the car on the way home

"you have to feel great to look great. its a pity really if you let brands define you. boost confidence in wearing it is one thing, smart in choosing yet turning up decently and carrying it well is another"

personally, i consider myself half a brand junkie. to date, i have one garment from TOPSHOP(sale), one from MISS SELFRIDGE, two from MNG (sale) , skincare regime from CLINIQUE, a blouse from Bangsar highstreet, a handbag from MNG and ROXY (sale) and a pair of wedges from ISETAN which i successfully mend when it got broken with a hard reminder that thats my parent's money going to waste if i throw it away. most things in my wardrobe are courtesies from F.O.S, ROMP, COMMA, chinese thrift shops in Penang, carboot sales in Shah Alam and Time Square. what i'm trying to say is, i love splurging on CLEO items and people see me sporting MNG shopping paper bags in malls, but i love even more two-for-one price bits, half prices, and shops that can offer me the best bargains with equally best finds.

apart from that, there are other things in which i tend to save moneys from:

• when shopping for foods such as biscuits and candies in Mid, i always opt for the cheapest ones on the shelves. this goes for toiletries as well, i really don't mind TESCO shower foam, or like the one i use now, EVERYDAY BODY SHAMPOO.yes, even when i'm out shopping with my parents.
• having a computer whiz of a boyfriend, i get to watched movies from CDs he burned instead of buying a pirated one now.
• would never buy accessories that cost more than RM15 a piece.in fact, RM10 is the minimum now, since i've been misrepresented by VOIR.
• actually take a long time to consider buying something,its not only when i get back from the mall and still dreaming of it that i haven't bought it. luckily, that impulse seldomn triggers. the last time it hit was at the blouse i bought at Bangsar which i saw two weeks earlier, and that was until the last piece they have!
• i used to blow a lot on trimming my hair, highliting the strands, rebonding treatments, colouring and bob job. mom says its a bit rich coming from someone who wears scarf.so now, i'm doing my own hair, using the cheapest product i could get :) it bothers me a bit that my hair would end up rusty, but at least i cover it. and hairs do grow back, right?

i know for a fact that being girls, we can never be smart enough when it comes to shopping. somehow, the mannequins manage to lull us into stores. being caution to the current financial issue has really blown me off my guards, and although my parents can still afford it, it wouldn't hurt to make a change right? just like wani when she saves up her allowances by packing her own lunch.there goes my wonders as in how she could get her own things.

glad my JPAs still rattling... :)