The "Me" time

It is so difficult to find some "me" time these days. 

It's always work, homework, work, homework. Weekends are again homework, classes for the kid.

Repeat over and over again.

My second pregnancy has been nothing like the first. First was a breeze. Second is just full of up and down. First, everyone wants to know how I've been doing. Second, no one bothers. People are only interested in the firsts, I guess :)

So enough with the rambling. I have finally managed to put my daughter's first birthday album together. She actually had 3 celebrations - one on her actual birthday where we visited the KL Bird Park followed by a small cake cutting party at home, second was in Penang with my family where we took our family for a Thai seafood dinner and had a cake cutting celebration there. The third one was the actual celebration party where we invited a host of guests, hired a clown and set up a grand canopy+table set. We did spend quite a bit for that. But it was worth it, because when I showed the pictures to my daughter while I was doing the photobook, she was actually excited!

Ok, that's an off topic thing. I wanted some "me" time, remember? So what did I do? Yoga. 

Pre-natal yoga to be exact. I did attend one when I was pregnant with the first. It was a weekly class with a class duration of 1 hour at the Yoga Academy in Brickfields. It cost me RM150 for 4 classes then. I called them up again and it still costs the same. But the problem with it? The schedule. I can't make it for the Saturday afternoon class which is their only class offered for pre-natal yoga. So I searched for an alternative.

Lucky for me, I found two studios near home offering the class. I reached out to both through Facebook page (it was easier than calling) and one of the studios gave me the answers I needed while the other wanted my contact number so that they can get a consultant to call me. I decided to go with the studio that responded to my query.

Four classes, each 2 hours long and the classes are valid for 2 months all for RM140. That was good enough for me. Plus, it's near, very near, to home. The class is on every Sunday afternoon. Fits fine with me. I prepared some dish for lunch, showered and got to class today. But since it was my first time at the studio, I actually didn't know how to get there. Anand followed me of course, and we were 30 minutes late. But it was ok for first class I guess. I'll try to be there earlier next time.

Now, the class was just great. As I've been to other pre-natal yoga before, I feel the new class is just challenging and yet more fulfilling. I felt energized right after the class. Relaxed as well. I felt it was a well-spent 1.5 hours. The class I used to attend in 2013 was more into relaxation and simple techniques. Simple stretching here and there, and that's it. But today, I was actually sweating, it was an actual yoga that is for pregnancy - a good amount of stretching, good amount of rests in between. Not fast paced but easy enough to follow.

I'm glad I found this place and this class. I finally found some time to relax, and connect with my second baby :) 

Thank GOD!

Now, need to find a time for pre-natal spa. 

My Little Bookworm

Reading starts at an early age. How early? As early as you can imagine - from the womb. I used to read when I was pregnant with my baby. But after she was born, I was limited to baby books and baby-related articles online.

But, my husband and I also developed one more practice - reading to our daughter. She usually just grabs the books, tries to eat it, loses concentration or simply throws the book. Not that she is not interested in reading - it's the way babies are :) They think books are toys.

We kept reading and showing the books to her. One of my husband's favourite books as child was "Three Billy Goat Gruff." (Nah... never heard of either..) So, that's the book we always end up reading because the story gives so much of animation opportunities - like the different sound we can make while narrating and the different types of voices we can use to identify the characters.

And also, those were the only board books I bought for my daughter - so really there isn't much options either. :P

Recently, I discovered (quite fashionably late as well) that Book Excess has huge store at Amcorp Mall, Petaling Jaya. Who are these people? They are the parents of Big Bad Wolf book fair. I am definitely not a fan of BBW. I've been there only once, and probably due to the fact I was heavily pregnant at that time (I went into labour one day after visiting BBW), I didn't enjoy the walkabout that much and the titles offered did not fascinate me either. So the following year (last year in fact), I deferred my trip there.

However, their physical store was completely a different story. My, oh my! So many books - especially children books! I was ecstatic! Why? It's just one station hop from my office. I can catch my lunch and shop for books well within my lunch hour! It was just amazing! And how stupid I have been not noticing this before. Well, not too late I hope.

So I went on a shopping spree buying children books for my daughter. A great find was Roald Dahl set, and a classic bedtime storybook - We're Going on a Bear Hunt. I came back with loads of board books and stories and I aim to get plenty more. We're going to build a little library, remember? :P

Now, my daughter points to "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" title every night before bed time. My husband and I, will animate the words and sing the story to her (no, we did not make the song up. It's from YouTube by the writer himself, alright?) Well, she responds to "uh, oh!" and "oh, no!" for now :)

She will then flip the book and tries to read it on her own. It's really adorable. Really. Every single night.

Anyway, thanks to my generosity in supplying fresh titles to my tot, we have forgotten the old ones. We haven't touched those old baby books in ages! 

Today something wonderful happened. My 16-month-old daughter was busy walking around the house, and I suddenly found her scrummaging the area we used to keep all her older books. She picked up a book that I have not read to her for quite some time now - The Three Billy Goat Gruff!

She walked up to me, passed to book to me and gestured to read it for her. When I opened the book, she stopped me and gestured that she wants to sit on my lap. Yeah, I remember - I used to read that book while she sits on my lap! Aww... my little girl wants me to read her a book! It was just a warm feeling and I felt all those days showing her the books, trying to read to her while she tries to munch the pages has finally paid off. Now, she wants to read all the time. Well, she doesn't exactly "read'. For now, she's flipping the pages carefully and looks at the pictures.

A little bookworm in the making?

Not quite there yet.

But, we're getting there!

Happy New Year! Keep calm and eat cupcakes!

Here we go again! We are back at the start of another exciting year ahead. I am so looking forward to 2015 - it's the year where my resolution is to read more books, travel to more places and eat healthier meals!

Last year was hectic for me. I suppressed my need to travel to the very least. Anand and I took a short one-day breakaway to Malacca after my maternity leave and we also went to Genting Highlands with my mother-in-law and our daughter, Anooushka. That was it! Just two trips. Why?

Deciding to travel in a year filled with air disasters, natural catastrophe and wide-spread diseases was certainly difficult. What more, with a baby at hand whose immune system was still maturing - we did not want to take the risk. (Well, to be fair, Anand did suggest a trip to Bali for my birthday. But I just can't seem to comprehend what is there in Bali that everyone raves about. I just can't bring myself to even try to look the pictures online.)

So this is it. This IS the year for TRAVEL. Keeping fingers crossed :)

The new year's eve was at a cousin's place. They got a new house with a cool pool. It was a great get together with all those far and near and dear. I decided to be extra hardworking (ok Anand had to help though) and made cupcakes for the party (plus for my neighbours!).

Surprisingly the treats turned out well on that day and I loved how my cupcakes swirls behaved! I made my mocha cupcake + espresso buttercream and vanilla cupcakes + vanilla buttercream + rainbow sprinkles. 

My cupcakes nicely boxed and fresh from the fridge.

Just a few weeks back, I also did peanut butter cupcake + peanut butter buttercream + homemade strawberry jam filling. It was just heavenly...

Follow me on my Instagram for my next cupcake adventure!

The sinful bliss!

Baking, oh baking! How much I missed baking!

Anand finally transported my oven back from Penang. I now have a proper oven that I can use to bake for him! Armed with couple of baking books Anand gave me last year as gifts, I set out to accomplish the first mission - chocolate brownie, just because I didn't have a cupcake pan. My version had cherries and white chocolate in it! :)

The finished product tasted so good and it tasted even better with ice cream.

Then the next mission was to bake cupcakes. The cupcake book had a recipe for vanilla-flavored watermelon cupcake. Right out of the oven, after cooling and frosting, the cake tasted good. But after keeping it in the fridge overnight, it tasted even better! I can't even begin to believe I baked those cupcakes.

My third attempt was red velvet cupcake. The cupcake turned out well for a first timer but the cream cheese frosting was a disaster. There were various techniques out there and so happens the one I used crashed my dreams of sinking my teeth into the nice velvety cake I baked on the same day. The entire night I researched, trying to find where I went wrong. I attempted to get my cream cheese right and my second attempt went ace!

Now, 4th mission in planning...

Poda Podi

Thanks to YouTube, I managed to watch the movie Poda Podi online, with a clear copy quality. Well, technically it is still legal, right?

Anyway, it was a really funny movie and one that smacks reality on your face! So, what follows next is my review of the movie and it may contain spoilers.

Movie started off with the introduction of the female lead, Varu - a girl whose only dream is to win a dance competition in UK and she knows nothing else. She has a guardian aunt, who is a party freak like her as well. They dance, and party, and dance and party - for her all these define "happy" life. So while clubbing one day, she met with the male lead, STR who is actually quite a reserved man and is out there looking for someone (some girl to go home with).

That's where the first smack of reality comes in. STR prints fake Euro dollars and keeps it in his wallet to actually show-off he is well-to-do. Looking at this, Varu is immediately attracted - for the money of course. And she went all out to get him - they became a couple within 27 hours. Interesting! :P

And so, just like that they became a couple madly in love only to realize 12 hours later they can't get along. The way STR explained on how to know whether we're in love, is definitely funny! Anyway, to movie moved on with STR assuming marrying Varu would make her change to be a better woman - a woman that he wants. Varu on the other hand is quite sociable and mixes around generously (which irks STR in every way possible). 

What I don't understand here is, STR met Varu in a club - of all places. How can he expect a girl who loves clubbing to stay at home and become the traditional Indian wife that he wants so badly? If at all that's what he wanted, then he looked for the wrong place, didn't he?

So who's mistake is it for not living up to expectation, Varu or STR? Varu put forward an interesting challenge by asking STR to change the way he is and adapt to her, instead of her changing her way. After all, he should have seen this coming, right?

Well, unfortunately he didn't. They broke up and STR was happy to actually know it ended. Not for long though, they got back together and got married. They even had a child together - and STR believed it will be all bliss finally. That too didn't last too long, and this is where the entire story takes its twist.

The entire movie brushes the fundamental elements in a relationship - love, ego and tolerance. It may not appeal to everyone and it doesn't really have a strong story. It's just funny to see how some real life stories can be depicted in reel life, and the two - STR and Varu - carried it seamlessly.

So, Poda Podi paarkelamma vennama? Take a break, catch this. The comedy helps. :)

A treat for myself

There are few things that I never tried because I could never afford to try it. So this year, I thought of spending a little extra to pamper myself and try something new.

So, I went for a manicure & pedicure, and a nice traditional Thai massage. Both together set me back around MYR 200. I definitely felt good afterwards so, I think it was money well spent.

I was wandering around Gurney Plaza this year on Diwali day, after visiting about five temples. Having nothing to do and no where to go I decided to give myself a break and a treat.

First I headed to Nails Hansen - a nail salon in Gurney Plaza. What everyone should know by now is, I have never set foot in a nail salon in my entire life's existence. I don't know what they do or how they do it. And I didn't know either we have to set appointment before going into one. Well, I didn't.

So I walked in and fortunately for me, a customer missed her appointment and I had the slot available. I was ushered into the spa area and immediately two girls appeared - soaking my hand and feet into warm water and they went to work straight away. Five minutes later another girl appeared asking me to choose the colors I want for my nail... they had SO many! So after about 10 minutes or so I went for 2 shades, one shade for the feet the other for hand.

My leg was definitely in a terrible state. It was rough, peeling and my toenails were not really, ermm... clean? Well, thanks to years of abuse. So finally, my feet were scrubbed, polished, cleaned and they gleamed! I was really happy looking at the end result.

An hour later, I walked away feeling truly satisfied with my nails.

I then headed to Thai Odyssey, a traditional Thai massage center which is quite exclusive and nice - almost spa-like. I booked the traditional Thai massage and my, oh my! It was really rejuvenating after all the hard work the entire year! 

So, these took some sadness away from my heart and planted some smile on my face!

It's November...

An evening that began with...

Followed by...

Topped with...

Ended in

And not to forget...

... who kept me company :)

Travel + Photography + Gorilla Pod

Inspiration!

Top 5 Applications on my Android

I have a total of four (yes, four) Android devices out of which three are in constant daily use. 

I have two mobile Androids running Gingerbread and Ice Cream, and one tablet running Ice Cream. One more mobile runs Froyo. So here's a list of top 5 application that is a must in all my devices (and these are FREE!).

Feedly

This is my favorite application of all. A news reader with a simple interface and so easy to use. The best part is, it integrates nicely with my Google Reader account. On my tablet, this applications turns my news feed into a magazine-like browsing experience. Highly recommended if you have plenty of reading materials that you follow online.

Million Moments

I had to admit Android's version of Gallery, although not the worse, but isn't the best either. And that is why I love Million Moments - it's yet another application for photos but with ease of use and has a wonderful layout! I just need to create some labels (for example, "food") and every time I take a picture of food (more often I do), I just have to tag the picture with the labels. What the application does, it turns the labels into wonderful "photobook" like gallery.

Any.DO
Having too many things to track is no longer a hassle with Any.DO for me. I add list of things I have to do in this simple little app and it keeps track everything for me, and reminds me when I do forget. I can strike out things I've completely and a shake clears everything done from the screen! The interface is simple, easy and clean. New version includes sync-ing with your Google Tasks. My favorite feature is the phone reminder (keeps track of missed calls and reminds me when I have to return a call).

Dolphin Browser HD
Chrome is one of my favorite software on my PC, but on my Androids Dolphin takes the reign being the best browser for awesome functionality and ease of use (easy for me that is, but it could still be intimidating for those who even think IE is daunting). It's just a browser, but there are so very little browsers out there that works properly on Android platform, so this one takes home my vote for being the best one (crashes less).

StumbleUpon
Given an option, I would want this application to be my #1 favorite app in Google Play. Unfortunately, this is also the most unstable application out there, but then again, I can't live without it. StumbleUpon is something that was discovered by Sathyan on its early days and he always shares a lot of interesting "stumbles" that he stumbles upon. It's one of the apps that I'd recommend to people who messages me, "I'm bored". So, if you're always boring bored and had to do something with your hands in a good way, have this installed, choose your interests and have fun exploring what's out there in the world wide web! :)

So there you have it, now you know what Leena uses on her mobile devices all the time. It is interesting to note that there are people who are keen to find out what application I have installed on my Androids. Of course these are not the only ones I have. Probably when I have more time at hand, I'll try to come up with Top 5 Android games installed on my Androids. 

Had some time to kill...

... and decided to have these uploaded.

Dessert selection at Eastin Hotel, Penang

My Sprocket Rocket!

Lotus at a Buddhist temple, Thailand

Artisan sculpting Lord Ganesh's statue, Thailand

Close up of the dessert, again.

Copyrights reserved.

And it's finally mine!

Yes, after much anticipation and going through the agony of waiting for an awesome piece of technology product to be released, I have finally owned Asus Transformer Prime - on the day it was released in Malaysia. The sweet, sweet smell of the Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0 by the way, for the non-geeks out there) is just sublime. 

If you've been wanting to get your hands on one and did not go beyond a demo unit (probably because you were being asked to wait few weeks for a new stock or was not sure this is the tablet for you), I deplore you my friend. I truly am saddened by your fate.

Anyway, to further rub the salt here's a box picture of my new gadget which I named CJ7 (which stands for Cherry Jubilee flavor from Baskin Robbins. Why 7? Go figure :P)

 The box

And this is the real product - designed the way a tablet should be. My CJ7 is in champagne - exactly the color that I wanted. 

So I've been using this tablet for almost 2 weeks now and I simply love it. The camera is just good (8MP at the back), the extended battery power by docking it to the keyboard is smart, the display is just awesome not to forget the Gorilla glass thing. Tegra 3 wasn't much of a remarkable feat but it's nice to know my tablet is powered by a quad-core processor (which basically runs 4 times faster than any other tablets out there). ICS 4.0 is just delicious. MicroSD slot, and most importantly, SD card slot and USB port which means I can expand my storage to whatever space my external HDD supports! Really cool. Really, really cool.

I would recommend this tablet to any photogs and book worms out there. I can finally view my pictures instantly on a good display out from the SD card instead of using my PC to transfer my pictures to the tablet. And I can finally purchase ebooks to read on my tablet. I just love it.

So, is your stomach burning yet? Hehe...

On Gadgets

These past few weeks I have been getting lots of things. Topping up the list are gadgets. I'm a girl with loads of gadgets surrounding me all the time. 

Let me begin with the my Sprocket Rocket camera! It is actually a lomography camera which is something that I have been wanting to own for a very long time! When it finally became mine, it was surreal. So surreal that I am yet to use it because I'm still trying to grasp the fact that I now own a lomo camera! :) Here's a picture I took from the web of my lomo camera. It came with rolls of film as well.

For the couple of months I have been working on a plan for a backpacking trip. The challenge is, I am definitely bringing my Nikon D7000 with me (why wouldn't I?) and I definitely need a tripod. But the Jusino tripod that I have is too big and heavy for me to bring on the trip. So I decided to get a Joby's Gorilla Pod from Amazon.com. Here's a picture of the tripod

I think this is probably one of the best photographic equipment ever invented for people like me of course. It snaps to anywhere, like poles and chairs, etc. Definitely will be useful for those self-portraits for my lonely travels. :)

So this post is dedicated to Puspa (since she wanted me to update something for her reading sake :P)

Mayakkam Enna? (Why Dizzy?)

So aptly titled. Well you will go dizzy for sure after watching this movie. It is so full of twists!

[SPOILER ALERT!] :)

First of all, let me warn you - what follows next may contain spoiler bits, so if you're planning to catch this movie this weekend, stop reading and go do something else. And come back some other day when you think you've finally finished watching the movie. There you go spoiler #1 - it really is a movie that felt it took days for me to finish watching. Of course it was for only three hours. It just felt that long - days long. So long that at one point I thought the movie ended - but it was just the intermission. Even Lord Of the Rings didn't feel this long!

Ok, moving on to why I decided to watch the movie. I am such a choosy person when it comes to movie. When I spend money for entertainment, it has to be worth it - worth my money and my time. So there must be some form of ROI involved. This movie is about an aspiring photographer, how he met his wife and how the two of them - as husband and wife - stood through the test of time.

What I liked about this movie is the visuals. It's exactly like viewing from the camera's viewfinder. For me, the world looks surprisingly different from a camera's viewfinder, so this movie can definitely show you how that world looks like :)

Secondly, the movie somehow reminds me of my relationship with Sathyan. :) Of course, minus the physical abuse and drinking habits and the violence and verbal abuse. There you go, spoiler alert #2. There is this one song in the movie that shows what kind of things a photographer's wife would do (or rather had to do) and I just couldn't stop smiling.

Also, the movie portrayed how crazy we photographers are! Yes, you want to know how crazy we can get? Watch this movie and find out. The first part of the movie was really entertaining - very funny! Especially the first song - voda voda voda :)

Alright, moving to what I didn't find quite amusing - the second part of the movie is quite eerie. Suddenly it turned to something sad and scary. And a lot of things started not to make sense. I felt the director was trying to imply that even if your husband abuses - physically or emotionally - you still have to be this good wife who had to endure everything and stay in marriage. I'm totally against this - I don't think anyone should withstand abuse in any form. The movie went on to show that if you stay long enough good thing will happen. 

Yes, in the movie world, not in mortal world like ours. People will never change, they are what they are and that's how it is. Suck it up and deal with it rationally. If you have always been afraid of cockroaches, you will always be afraid of cockroaches. Do you think one day you will wake up and find out suddenly you are no longer scared of those damn, good-for-nothing God's creation? I'm sure you will not. Well, I won't for sure. So there, spoiler #3 - Leena hates cockroaches. :)

Overall, the ending was heartwarming. My advice is, if you plan to catch this movie (in case you're still reading despite the warnings), do it at the cinema. The reason is simple - you will never watch it in full from a DVD - you'd be too tempted to fast forward. Haha :)

Next on my list, Nanban! :)

It's Friday! I made it alive!

Work has been tight and Friday came today as a breather. Finally I had no meetings (had one but got cancelled) and I was not on-call. Of course I had lots of things to follow up and resolve, but today seemed much brighter than any other day.

I thought finally I could have a "free" Saturday tomorrow, but nope, that's not the case then! I have to go for work on Saturday and Sunday. I've been working for every single weekend for the past three weekends. On a brighter side, I'm glad I have my work to keep me occupied. It seems like a better thing to do than sit at home and look at the blank walls and... look at another wall. Haha...

Since it was Friday, Puspa and I decided to make it a day to ...erm.. celebrate... because...ermm... it's finally Friday, of course! So what did we do? We headed to Secret Recipe and bought a slice of cake each. Yummy!

Android Invasion!

Whenever I open some video on Android device review, I always see a really cute Android toy. Making me want it so much. Using Google, I found out there is an official distributor in Malaysia who accepts online orders!

Cool, huh?

I placed my order for two. One is the standard edition - the good 'ol green Android. The other one was an individual box from Android mini collectibles series 2 - which was kind of a mystery buy because every box looks the same so the sellers could not choose (hence I could not choose either when placing the order). So what did I get out of the 16 designs available? The Iceberg Android! Cool has a new meaning now, haha!

Pictures below. Hopefully I'll have more spare time this weekend to take more shots of my droids.