Our Winner is...

We are a little behind and our apologies for not getting online and posting on our winner yesterday for the CSN giveaway.

Our winner for this giveaway is...

*drumroll pleaseeeee*

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Isabella, Angel and Sadie from Beaded Tail

Congrats girls.

Please ask your mommy Sharla to email to us. We will forward the gift certicate to her then. Hope she'll find a wonderful cat tree for both of you. Have loads of fun with it this winter and hope it will keep you girls occupied.

For the rest of our friends, thank you to you for your participation. Our thanks to CSN Stores for hosting the giveaway.

Catch up with all of your again next week. We are still on the road and doing a lot of Chinese New Year visitings :) We'll run over and visit all our bloggie buddies next week. 

And for the big big race tomorrow... May both of you win Pip and Bunny! We love you both. Don't forget to tune in to their race tomorrow. Gotta run now. We gotta go chase some lion danves :)

One More Day...

One more day of working and WOOOOOOOhooooooooooOOOOoooo! We are going on the road again to see Piper and be with family for Chinese New Year. This time, we didn't put up any decorations here at home for Chinese New Year as Jaiboo is not home this year. It should be a much cooler Chinese New Year this year as we are still getting rain in end January.

We usually have very very hot days during Chinese New Year. Last year was terrible. We were sweating like pigs. My poor nephew who flew in from winter had a shock and had to experience intense heat thus lost some weight from the amount of sweating he did. *LOL* He was just woozy and lethargic from all the heat. This year, he decided not to brave the heat again.

Since we are getting ready to hit the road, Dommy is all packed. His yellow Delsey luggage is all ready by the door and he is jumping up and down all the time. He cannot rest and will not sit still. He sleeps with one eye open and any slight movement on my side sends him into a jumping frenzy again. He knows we are going somewhere but he doesn't know when we are going. I should have not taken his luggage out so early... hehehe

i follow her everywhere now.. just in case she forgot to take me along for the roadtrip

Yes.. he is a hoity toity doggie. He travels in style and has his own Delsey. Delsey does make some of the most durable luggage around. One of my sister's old Delsey luggage's been around for more than 10 years and it is still rolling beautifully. This luggage travels out of country every other week. It is very tough.

We shall be away next week for our celebrations. But before we go, we want to leave you all with a little something from CSN.

Here's how you can be in the running for this gift certificate of USD45.00 valid at any of their online stores. To enter to win the gift certificate, just leave me a comment on this post. Its that easy :)
This giveaway ends next Wednesday night at 11.11pm (Malaysian time) and I'll announce the winner on Thursday morning.

This giveaway is only valid for our US or Canadian readers. Our apologies for the rest of our friends from other parts of the world.

The All Weather Friend

A good friend is cheaper than therapy.  ~ Author Unknown

At certain stage of our lives, we keep certain friends. Sometimes we have the convenient friend and if we are lucky, we have the all weather friend for life.

I have a couple of friends which are probably more like my sisters and some of them are the all weather ones. We've gone through good times and bad and sometimes extremely "happy times".

The "happy times" were the days when i would sit at a counter stool and sip some spirits at some watering hole in town with them. Sometimes over a pint of kilkenney, the floor would suddenly seem very far from where we sat on the stools. But that was like when i was in my twenties. The days of no care and no responsibility.

The all weather friend will do the obvious crazy with you. I remember the day when we found out that we have locked our car key in the car (don't ask me how we manage to do that) but we decided to drink first and worry later. *LOL*

The all weather friend was also the one who will stay with you under the stars to wait for the meteor rain all night but not seeing anything the whole night because of cloudy nights.

The all weather friend will also keep promises to perform your last rites for you if you should conk suddenly one day no matter where they are at that time.

I have a certain all weather friend. We have spent many good years together. We have also spent many years apart in different continents but still manage to pick up where we left off.

My all weather friends are never angry or bitter with me. We always have good laughs each time we meet up. And who really needs therapy when we have friends.  I should count myself lucky to always have friends and family on most part of my journey in life.
I read somewhere today that there's a Rent a Friend thingy on the web. For a fee, you can have a friend for an hour.

A Cat Tree for...

We have our winner for our Happy Giveaway sponsored by CSN Stores. Both Dom and i did a draw with all your names written on pieces of papers.. and our winner is

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Marg from Margs Pets

Congrats to you Marg. Hope your cats will have loads of fun with the cat tree :)

Hope all of you enjoyed this giveaway. Thank you so much for participating :) Thank you again to CSN Stores for sponsoring the giveaway.

urmm.. can i have my treat now? i did all the hard work of drawing a winner

A Family That Eats Together Stays Together

A family that eats together stays together. Most cultures have a belief that families should always eat together. There was a rule in our family that everyone had to be seated before anyone could dig into the food. Before that, the youngest of the young would have to invite everyone who is older than him/her to eat. Then the 2nd youngest and so and so. It was a rule since my grandma days. It is quite a sight to see everyone asking everyone to eat.. hahahhahahaa

When i was little, dining tables used to be smaller. I remember my grandma's dining table which is a round marble top with pretty sturdy wooden legs. I had my first birthday on that table. Grandma was holding me while i was right smack on the table with my siblings and cousins surrounding me and my cake. The antique table is still around. My aunt is having it in her house. They still have their dinners on that small round table.

In our household here, we used to have a rectangle dining table which sits six people or more but we only had six chairs. It is also the same table that my mom used to chase us round and round with a cane when my sisters and i tipped her balance on some days. It was like a game of chase because my mom never got to us *LOL* We are pretty smart and run into the rooms to lock ourselves in any chance we could. But mom being mom never really wanted to whip us with the cane. She only wanted to scare us by chasing us with the cane.

One day our rectangle dining set went away and mom finally got her dream dining set which is a round dining table with matching chairs. The table can be opened in its center and extended to a larger table accommodating more guests in the house. I call it the "James Bond" table because it has a hidden side to it :)

I know that it was her dream set because she wanted it for a very very long time. I remember her face glow with pride when the dining table came into our home. Her needs were always shelved to accomodate our needs first. My mom was most patient to get to her dreams. Her needs were very simple.

Personally i prefer a round dining table. Its the nearness of family members when everyone tries to get themselves stuffed into the tight circle to have a meal that keeps them all together. Families should always try and eat together once in a while. With our current hectic pace of life in the city, meals are never eaten together. People grow more distant and families fall apart.

CSN Stores contacted me recently to host another giveaway for you guys. Everyone loves a giveaway sometimes right? I know i do :)

Here's how you can be in the running for this gift certificate of USD65.00 valid at any of their online stores. To enter to win the gift certificate go to any of the CSN websites and leave me a comment on this post on what you will get if you win!

This giveaway ends this Friday night at 11.11pm (Malaysian time) and I'll announce the winner on Saturday morning.

  

Footnote: There may be international shipping charges in the case of Canadian addresses.

A New Bed for Sky

Yesterday was the end to the Pretty Giveaway sponsored by CSN Stores. Both Dom and i did a draw. And our winner is...

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Sue from The Portuguese Water Blog

Congrats to you Sue and Sky. Hope Sky will love his new bed :) Thank you again to CSN Stores for sponsoring the giveaway.

Sue.. please drop me your email. CSN Stores will send the gift certificate to you to shop at their online store.

The cup with all your names :)

What am i supposed to do with this cup? It ain't smelling like food/ice-cream Curly says...

He just messes up all the papers (with your names) and munching on some of them too.. he's no help

All this work is too tiring for the Curly...

Hope you all enjoyed this giveaway. Thank you so much for participating :)

The Pretty Giveaway

The weekends are here! I was writing this post earlier but i got side-tracked and ended up watching too much tv. Yes. That has become quite an addiction lately.

My weekends are for sorting out stuffs in this old house. We have accumulated so much stuffs that we don't use anymore. Cupboards are kind of falling apart in some places. And beds are getting thinner and thinner too. I feel like i am sleeping on springs sometimes :D

Over the years, we have given away some of the old furnitures which are pretty sturdy compared to the new furnitures now. My parent's old wedding bedroom set was given away quite sometime ago to a new family who were just moving into the neighbourhood. I can still remember the shape of the bed and the drawers on the left and right with the funny knobs. There was a glass panel where the headboard is and inside the glass panel, my sisters and i used to keep a lot of stuffs. It was like a parade inside.

The bedroom set comes with an awesome vanity and a cupboard (which is still around). I call it the awesome vanity as it is really awesome. I haven't found a vanity quite like that shape and pattern till today. It comes with a tri-fold mirror and the whole mirror can be folded back down to keep it safe and clean when its not in use. Its a weird shape vanity that you keep at the corner of a wall. It fits perfectly in a sharp corner. Now i wish we didn't give it away. That was my mom's vanity.

But with all things old and new, we have to give something up to make space for something new. Changes are good. They are necessary be it for life or work.

CSN Stores contacted me recently and offered me a giveaway on my blog. They are one of the top 3 online retailers of home and office goods. They have a huge range of stuffs for our furry friends too.

Here's how you can be in the running for this gift certificate of USD60.00. To enter to win the gift certificate go to any of the CSN websites and leave me a comment on this post on what you will get if you win! This giveaway ends next Thursday night at 11.11pm (Malaysian time) and I'll announce the winner on Friday. 

We'll do an old fashioned way of drawing for a winner :D Now we got to get back to our very springy bed and sleep. My sister is coming home with PP tomorrow and we are going to head off to see Anne. I'll tell you more about Anne when i get back next week.

Footnote: There may be international shipping charges in the case of Canadian addresses.

Nothing Like A Good Night's Sleep

Did you have a good night's sleep yesterday? Do you go to bed tossing and turning for a few hours before you fall asleep? Or are you so tired each night that the minute you lay your head on the pillow, you sleep immediately.

Few things that could help you get a good night's sleep each night (if you are having trouble sleeping)

1. A good firm comfy bed
2. Less caffeine in the late evening (but my sister can sleep very soundly even after a cup of coffee while i can't)
3. A clear mind 
4. Soothing music or a boring book..:p
5. A foot massage
6. A warm bath

Those are some of the things that could help you get a good night's sleep. Counting sheeps or cows jumping over some clouds helps too to a certain extent but a good ventilated room with a nice bed always helps.

I am going to do a review on some products soon. So come back here ya. I'll tell you more about it then.