Hi April!

Dude where did March go?

April is already mid way too.

Where have I gone?

No where really but I'll update soon :D

Have an awesome and amazing day today!

Run 2014

I've decided to run again after a year of not exercising and I'm now up to week 5 of the Couchto5K program (go upload the app if you want to start running too).

My running goal for 2014 is to run the full marathon at the Penang Bridge Marathon in November.  So I've only got less than a year to train!

What I used to do back in Melbourne to keep myself motivated is to register for local runs. It's a good way to force yourself to continue training.

The first run I registered for this year is the Women's Run in March. Excited that I'll be running around Esplanade whilst celebrating International Women's Day 2014!

Wooooooohoooooooooo, Go girl power! 

Credits: Deltaevents

It's a 6km run for only RM 25. It's a bargain yo. Men are also allowed to register, they just need to partner up with a registered female runner.

So head over to the site to register.

The ANZ Café Tour 2014-The Mugshot Café

Last week, I randomly found a list -29 Heritage Cafés in Penang on FB. When we were living in Melbourne, any day off or weekends you’ll find us in a café. Whether it be for brunch, post bikram treat or just for a cup of tea or chai latte (or coffee for some of my coffee addict friends).

The café scene in Penang is booming! (I think we might be a little slow on this but whatever....) So my sister and I decided we'll go to each and every café of this list. Which means we get to check out Penang at the same time.

Last Sunday, we stopped by The Mugshot Cafe. With all the tourist in the shop, I felt like a tourist too.

Attached to The Mugshot Café is the Rainforest Bakery which was unfortunately closed (closed on Sunday). They supply the yummy bagels they serve at the café.

I ordered the smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel which was delicious. It was toasted in an oven at the entrance. Didn’t even take a picture of it, cause I ate it all within seconds!

We did however ordered the meatballs twice! First round was beef then it was chicken. Both plates were cleaned within minutes.

I’ll definitely be back here. Especially when the bakery is open to check out the bread! They also serve homemade yogurt with a variety of flavours.

Go check it out, yo!

The Mugshot Café

Address: 302, Lebuh Chulia, Georgetown,Penang

Opening Hours: Daily, 8am-9pm

Today she’s one!

On the 13^th of January 2013 at exactly 11 pm, I was admitted at 40 weeks (EDD 14th January).

Contractions had started at about 2am but it was nothing compared to what was happening from 8pm.

At 8pm I could barely sit!

By 11pm- hello, 4 cm dilated.

So the nurses tells us,

"Okay let’s go to the labour room"

A: “Huh, what?!” 

In my head: “Yo I’m not ready for this”

I’ve been in and out of hospital hundreds of times but always as a doctor, never a patient.

Survived the first few hours without screaming at the husband, until I gave him a lecture about the percentage of oxygen:nitrogen in nitrous oxide (one of my pain relief which didn't do much).

Homie was giving me a hard time about taking too much gas, but hello…my belly was about to explode. So I cut him some slack and asked him to sleep instead.

The next few hours was spent either standing or on the toilet seat.

The worst labour pain were between the hours of 4-5am. The contractions were about 5 minutes apart by then.

The nurses broke my waterbag shortly after I told them,

A: “I can feel something between my legs” (note to self: dude you have a baby in your belly!)

FYI: I’ve never been a fan of O&G. Despite delivering a few babies, the thought of labour (especially your own)…..ouch!

My awesome obstetricians, Dr M walked in at about 5.30am ready to prep.

I had an audience (hello family!) who were all standing behind the curtain. They also told me later that I sounded like a whale (how nice).

Everything happened very fast after they broke my waterbag. Lucky me had to push about 8 times! (Blessed are the mothers who deliver after 2 pushes!)

Our beautiful baby girl, SA was safely delivered at 6.30am on a Monday 14^th January 2013.

And today she's ONE!

Oh, what a year it has been.

I have been blessed with an awesome baby- Alhamdulillah! 

O Allah, blessed us through our children, 

and keep them out of danger, 

and help them to obey You, 

and bless us with their good deeds. 

Amin

Guess who's BACK?

ME! 

Goodbye takingtheyearoff, hello aliaanz.

Goodbye twenties, hello the-big-three-zero (not till October though, but who's counting)

More personal as I make my way through 2014.

This is my year!

More updates soon.

"i'm going to make a change for once in my life"-man in the mirror,michael jackson

i was fortunate to have read this blog post early last year and want to share it with as many people as i can especially my close friends.

be inspired:http://yourjoyologist.com/journal/to-the-point

it inspired me to do the same.

i choose to delete words that i felt were negative.i remember there were 5 but i can only recall 3 now-the mind works wonders :)

the ones i can still remember are:
"stress"-i used to say this all the time.being a highly emotional and at times dramatic person,everything was "stress-ing" me.but not any more :)

"lazy/malas"-i'm a laidback kinda person but sometimes too laidback for my own good!

"boring"-used to be one of my favourite words.i know for a fact my father hates it.

i still have to make a conscious effort sometimes but a majority of the time these words doesn't even pop up in my mind anymore-and i'm much happier!

so here's my tip if you decide to do the same:
-decide on the words you want to "delete"
-make a conscious decision that in whatever circumstances you would choose to replace that word with something more positive
-tell your family and friends about it
-take baby steps if you have too: abbreviate the words like *S for "stress"-eventually you won't even want to use it.

so now i choose to only allow positive words to come out of my mouth-it's totally possible and one day i will achieve it.

change is good :) i support and encourage it.

the choice is yours!

"All I know is that eliminating these words makes me feel freer, more in control, and more honest."-Tricia

happy :)

one of my friends at work said this to me last week,

"why are you so happy and bubbly ALL the time?"

my answer

"why not?"

you control how you feel and so what if i choose to be happy ALL the time.

yes,work/people/situations can be difficult at times but i've decided if you choose to be sad/stressed/angry etc, you achieve nothing! so why not be happy ALL the time.

i deserve it.

and you deserve it too :)