But now it seems like 99% it is confirmed and going to materialize… and hence the strong feeling of apprehension…

Daddy will be going off for a full 6 months… It is a good career move. Daddy should go.

Actually, he can either go for either 6 months or 2 years. If he goes for 6 months, then the family will need to stay behind. If he goes for 2 years, then the whole family can go. So… 6 months or 2 years?

It has sort of been decided that it will be 6 months. Why? It is more practical. There is no need to uproot the whole family. We would not know how the family will adapt to the whole new environment. And if we cannot adapt, we would need to live with it for 2 whole years. There is no turning back. Also, there will be so much more things to arrange here. Who to take care of the house? Who to take care of Dewey, our furkid? Do we sell off our cars? What will happen to my online business? Do I put it on hold for 2 years?

On the other hand, if we do not grab this chance now to spend some time living overseas, will we have another chance in the future? We only got one life… so should we not live it to the fullest? Being together as a family, we could be strong for each other and face challenges together? I really want to try and experience what is life like overseas… Is grass really greener over there? Or is it all just an illusion?

Besides that, I am scared… to be “alone” for 6 months… I know, when crunch time is up, I will be able to face it… I am strong enough to do that… Just that, it is going to be difficult for me. But if it is going to be difficult for me, it is going to be even more difficult for daddy. I should be strong to support him, and not being difficult.. but it’s hard…

I just pray and hope that I have the strength and courage to face whatever that will come… soon…

And now that I have blogged about it, I feel better. Still apprehensive, still scared… but better.

So, I finally decided to move this first blog that I started to Blogspot too…

And here is our new home…. Snakes & Ladders

Come visit us there! See you!

Anyway, I went to LHDN this morning… To those who does not know what is LHDN… it means Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri… which translates to the Income Revenue Board… aiyoh… income tax la… apa lagi!!!!

What they say is true… in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes… and this morning’s excursion to LHDN is to deal with both. My brother passed away last year and of course, his taxes were not filed. Many people say that I am stupid to go and pay tax some more when he is no longer around…. but then, me being me, I want to close things up proper. I don’t want this to come back and bite me in my ass 5 years later on which I am sure I would not be able to dig up whatever documentation they need. And my parent are old and they would not know how to deal with this. So, better now than later… for you see…. nothing is certain but death and taxes… they will sure dig it up if I don’t deal with it now…

So, the reason I went there is because I want to find out how do I go about filing my deceased brother’s taxes properly and also make sure that the status in their database is updated… Sure enough, the status of his file is still active although my sister had already visited the LHDN last year to close his file. Now they demand for letter and copy death certificate… again… so, I will deal with it some time next week…

Anyway, my concern is this… I just tell them the story that my brother pass away n blah blah blah… and they did not even ask to see the death cert or any kind of identification!!! And since I got no idea on what password my brother used for e-filing (that is filing of taxes online), they just reset his password for me… ALL WITHOUT PROPER IDENTIFICATION!!! And then instructed me to go to a room where there are a lot of computers setup for the public to file their taxes online. There are a few officers there to assist. And since I am unfamiliar with the screen and do not know the password that they have reset, one of the officers assisted me to logon… and this officer did not ask for any identification either!!!

So, do you see the lack of security now??? All a person needs to know is your IC number, present it to the officer in charge, create a cock-and-bull story about being related to you but you are now deceased and they can now access your tax file…. online… scary thought???

OK OK … now I really have to go and pack up… otherwise, I will never be ready in time!

And so, without hesitating, I bought the book… hoping to recapture that little piece of childhood fantasy…. I have not read it yet (again I mean.. .. as I have read it many times already during my childhood)

If you have a secret garden, what does it look like?

We meant to start him off in the beginning of the year but well, you know what they say about good intentions… we procrastinated… and procrastinated… and then comes CNY in February… so we said after CNY… and well, to cut the story short, I finally contacted Teacher Lisa beginning this week. Want to know more about Teacher Lisa? Here is her blog, Touching Lives Through Music, which I plagarized and use it am the title of this blog entry…. hehe.. not that this blog entry has got anything to do with Touching Lives…

Anyway, Teacher Lisa was an engineer and she has also just resigned from her job last year (around the same time as me) and decided to teach music full time. I have conveyed to her my wishes for Joel as if Joel shows an interest in music, I want him to enjoy music and not stress him out unnecessarily with exams. I went through the stressful time with my piano exams when I was a child and I definitely do not want that for my children. Hubby is of the same mind as me (Thank God!)… And you know what is the worse thing??? After laboring over the piano and theory for more than 8 years, I suck big time at sight reading and aural… And not only that, I never grasp the basics of music playing… meaning, I could never play without notes in front of me… and even with notes, I need a lot of time to practice to get it right (remember, I suck at sight reading??)… Until about 5 years ago, I took up a Play By Ear course, only then I discover how to improvise and play music without notes… all by using chords only… and when you know the secret, it is not difficult… it is so liberating!!! Really… I did teach a few students but then the workload from teaching part time and working full time plus I just had Joel was too stressful… I stopped teaching as I could not cope… but now, since I am full time selling online, I got more time on my hands and have started to tinkle on the ivory keys again .. no not teaching but just playing for my own enjoyment Will I teach again? Hmm… not sure, depends on what God has in store for me… hehe… I would love to teach again but then, we will see…

So, some of you might be wondering why am I not teaching Joel myself then? I guess that it is easier that I let other people teach my son while I guide him at home… It is just like you are a teacher in school… but you don’t home school your child right? I think the theory is something like that la… although that is not a good analogy… since kids go to school to socialize too! Anyway, we shall see how it goes… if Joel absolutely abhors music, then I guess we will then just stop his lessons….

And I do admit I have a short fuse… a really short fuse compared to hubby… and therefore, my bad behaviour?

Sure, I do pull a long face after being told off by hubby… I mean, who likes to be told off? But I do see the sense in his words…

So, from now on, I will try my very best not to repeat my mistake and be more respectful to my kids. It is not going to be easy but I am going to try. After all, I would not want my kids to copy me. I would like to grow up to respect others too!

It is not a Catholicism/Christianity blog where there are teachings and preachings. Just a journal for myself. If you want to know, then you are welcomed to read it. If not, it is OK too….

And it is aptly named “Journey of Serenity“…. It is named after my favorite prayer… The Serenity Prayer.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.

**Reminder to all: Sorry if words in this new blog offends but it is my most sincere thoughts, some which I find difficult to convey in speech, and thus this blog also serves as an outlet for me to express myself. I try to respect but I do understand that at times my thoughts may seem offensive. If so, I apologize in advance…

:O :O …. I got nothing else to say….

When my kids grow big enough to go into primary school, if I am not wrong, they have this little project for “tokoh negara”….. If my kid should choose to select this leader for their “kajian”, it makes me wonder what will my kids write about him…. hmmm…. Do as I say, don’t do as I do?

Being a good citizen (hahaha ), I went and paid up immediately…. LOL, the process was so easy. The security guard directed me to the counter “Khidmat Pelanggan” and they have a form all ready for you to fill up to appeal to reduce the fine.. So, I just fill in my name, address, phone number and the saman number… and just sign on it…. There is a column to fill in the reason for appeal but since the Khidmat Pelanggan did not tell me to fill it in, I just left it blank…. Haha… they must have seen all kinds of excuses had it been filled in… hmmm, maybe things like, I don’t know that need to display parking coupon? Or maybe my pet dog ate the parking coupon? Or maybe my pet lizard was exercising on the dashboard and accidentally pushed the coupon to the floor?

Anyway, I am glad that my fine was reduced to….. RM5 , instead of RM30… which would certainly burn a hole in my pocket….

Scroll down to see the sexy princess…

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Princess Perut Buncit!!! Hehehe… doesn’t she look cute and sexy?

View from the back….

And here is the sexy princess with handsome prince…

Got this 2 piece swimsuit for her in a sale… RM11.75 nia… cheap boh??? Ogival some more leh… aiyah… no need to buy so expensive one lar… she is going to outgrow it in a few years… she is going to need this for our short family getaway that is coming up soon… hehehe… her first time in a swimming pool… wonder if she is going to like it… hehe…

PS- If you notice, my blogging style changed a little bit in this post… hehe.. I start to use not so proper English… including slangs… how do you like it?