Bye bye October and welcome November (>.<)

Yuhuuu everyone...It's almost November and we have been having such a great weather here...all cloudy and windy though the sun still shines sooo bright. I am always looking forward to this month...first because of its friendly weather and second (the most important one) that I have 3 important birthday bashes in this month ... yay   \(^.^)/   Ooopsss....just remember my losing weight program wkwkwk

My simple interpretation of Sugar Skull

Anyway, how was your Halloween day? What did you turn into for this Halloween day? Did you get lotsa treats? This year Halloween party at my girls' school was quite special. My youngest had her class dancing performance during the party and the homeroom teacher asked them to come to school with spooky make up and she informed me a day before (barely gave me time to prepare). First, let me make a disclaimer wkwkwk that I am not keen into make up and I only have basic make up stuff and tools however I was excited to draw something different than the normal and ordinary witches and dracula (oh please...we got lots of them every single year). And I have been enticed by La Muerte (Sugar Skull) after watching The Book of Life

My first sketch but her forehead was too small LOL

Being an amateur, I quickly shuffled those YouTube videos of make up tutorial but this one is what I like the most. It is simple and cool   :-)   Since I don't have a large number of make up colour variation and tools, so I simply settled with eye liner and eye shadow in black and orange colours (yes - I went to get the coloured eye liner at the nearest convenient store and they only had the orange one). And ta...da....she looked pretty ok wasn't she?

Happy Halloween-kend 

Pullman Putrajaya Lakeside Hotel - Malaysia

The piazza

Hello everyone...how have we been doing so far? I hope October had been a good month for all of you. This is a latepost but I just managed to add some pics to this post. Remember when I went to KL few months ago, well, I stayed at Pullman Putrajaya Lakeside hotel which was pretty awesome.

Chic lobby

Across the hotel

Location:

Ok, the main reason I chosen this was because it was the nearest to PICC (15minutes of walking distance or 3mins of drive), where I had a conference at that time. Beside, it was pretty close to KLIA as well, only 15minutes of drive (too bad - the hotel did not provide free airport shuttle service). However, if you have nothing to do with PICC on your agenda during your stay at KL, then I would not recommend this hotel. It was far from the nearest shopping mall (another 15minutes of drive with scarce taxi available), another 15minutes of drive to the nearest train station (that connects you to the main MRT station) and a very limited choice of restaurant/cafe/convenient store available nearby (my suggestion, stock up your instant noodle in case you have a late-night carving). Lucky, the hotel provided free shuttle to the mall and train station though it only run at certain period of time 

The Chinese garden complex

The hotel:
Despite all the above, I loved the hotel. It was beautiful with diversed Malay's culture infused on the facade and the complex layout. This 5star hotel was vast (I spent 2 evenings just to leisurely explore the whole area - and of course took lotsa pics of myself wkwkwk). They divided the hotel into 4 areas, the Lotus wing with Chinese' red-brick style, Bunga Tanjung wing with Malay style, Rafflesia wing with Borneo wooden style and Jasmine wing with its Indian style. In the middle of it, it had big piazza that could hold your outdoor gathering activities. Each wing/tower had its own distinctive lobby

The Rafflesia' lobby

The room:
We got the room on the top corner of Rafflesia tower with unobstructed view toward the lake and the plaza...totally awesome (especially during the sunrise and sunset). The room itself, as you can see from the pics below were big and cozy. Basic amenities were available (though I did not get any toothpaste - I was kinda run out of it at that time). I loved the traditional bathroom door that was made from plaited bamboo sheets...so original and I just love the bed (especially I only shared it with my dear hubby)

Our big room

Panoramic view from our room...perfect!

The facilities:
The hotel has 2 restaurants, The Village and B'S but I only tried B'S for breakfast. I was disappointed with the meals provided. They had variety of meals however almost all of them were tasteless. Probably it was due to the number of guest at that time (full occupancy during my stay) but in my opinion, Pullman should be more professional in catering especially during the peak season. Beside the restaurant, the hotel also had a deli, a bar, and a small (with limited stuff on shelves) convenient store. It has 2 swimming pools which unfortunately I did not have a chance to try it out, a gym next to it and a spa. If you are bringing your kids along, they also had a kids club which was vacant all the time during my stay there ha ha ha  :-) The most important thing was...free wifi was available everywhere...yay. It made me stay connected during my stay there (meaning: I could directly upload my pics to the socmed ha ha ha).

Lake-front

Beach....yay \(>.<)/

The surrounding:
From another perspective, the hotel was very strategic. It was located right beside the lake with a view toward the Putrajaya watersport club. A walking distance toward the marina where we could cruise along the lake (another thing that we missed - should have notice the cruise operational hours). However, we got a very nice surprise during my lazy stroll, I found a man-made beach at the far corner of the hotel complex. Yes...beach at Putrajaya...sounded unbelievable but the white soft sands with coconut trees was inviting   >.<   I spent sometimes there just to squeeze my toes around the sun-warm sands. Overall, it was a nice stay and would love to bring my girls there. See ya...

Nite view of The Village - resto

The swimming pool

My pick from my library (^.^)

Hello everyone...how is your weekend started off? For me...i just woken up ha ha ha (yes - I'm not a morning person but I’m not that lazy as well). It was all due to my very late night...or should I say a very early dawn since I slept at 3.30am this morning. As you have all probably guessed, I blamed it on a manga series that I picked up few hours ago. Well I was a bit high-strung and desperately wanted a short escape…somewhere for the weekend. But my oldest daughter had (and just completed) her weekend classes, then Yamaha exam came along with school exam in tow…phewww. We haven’t been anywhere these last 3 whole months. So I find my escape on books and mangas and the one that I picked last night was a work of Miyagi Riko, titled Love Monster

I just browsed along the manga collection on one of the online manga web, looking for something light with good artistic…and Love Monster gave me that. I love the story plot, it was light with interesting twist and surprises here and there, enough to spice up the story. It was cheeky too in a sweet and cute way, not overtly…really perfect to lighten up my mood. The drawing was cute and clean, with cute pretty girl named Hiyo who was engaged to a very handsome and strong tengu monster of Kurou (on another perspective, the main storyline was a bit similar to Black Bird of Sakurakouji Kanoko). These 82 chapters (completed - including 2 extras) were able to put my sleepiness at bay. So if you are looking for something to read to fill your weekend…something that falls right with the Halloween season, then I would highly recommend this  (>.<)

However, if you are looking for something different (but still fit with the coming Halloween), then how about the final book of Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan? The Blood of Olympus just been released for few weeks and although the storyline was predictable (if you are a keen reader of Rick Riodan) but this book still offers excitement and surprises. Or you could try The Staff of Serapis, a very short book by the same author which Annabeth met Sadie of Kane Chronicles for the first time.
Anyway, whichever books or mangas that you choose for this weekend (yes – I realized that maybe the lot of you choose other thing), I wish you a great time. Happy weekend!    

Dracula Untold - the movie

Image taken from www.imdb.com

Hello everyone…how are you doing? Lately, I have been so busy that left me only a little bit of me-time and I realized that I haven’t been writing for almost a month (or is it more?). So…since I now have a limited 15mins or so, I would like to share with you about the newly released movie of Dracula Untold that we (me and my dear hubby) just watched this morning. Yes...personally I always think that morning is the best time to watch horror-scary movie LOL. I am a faint-hearted one and never understand the pull of those, horror-lover. Why I should pay to get frightened and stressed out? I have my own share of scary moment every night I need to go to the toilet (especially the dark void area under the stair…uuggghhhh). However, I have a soft spot for Dracula (or vampire – putting all blame toward Edward Cullen) and I felt that I just had to watch this one

Bracing myself (equipped with my pashmina to cover my eyes LOL), I settled down onto the cinema’ seat when the movie started to roll on. Surprisingly, I used the pashmina more to wipe my tear instead of neither to cover my eyes nor muffle my soft-scream. I LOVE it!!! Though it was quite scary on some part and my heart went bump-bump on another scene but I totally love the movie and wanna rewatch it. I won’t go further into the synopsis but this movie is another lovely interpretation of human side of Dracula (comparing to the famous Dracula of Bram Stoker). It unfold the untold stories about love, responsibility, passion, perseverance, and hope of Dracula and it was a beautiful interpretation for me. I love the special effect like when Dracula turns into a colony of bats or when the vampire bites the human. I was so engrossed into the movie that I could felt (luckily not tasting) the imaginary hot blood trickled down my throat and power soared thru me…whoaaa…you just have to watch it!