Turning Forty Eleven Years Too Soon

No I'm not really turning forty just trying to be ahead of the curve. Why do I have to wait 40 years to turn 40?

I am talking about the concept of turning 40. Just this past weekend my friend who is turning 40 next year told me about his extravagant plan to celebrate his birthday by conquering the peak of Mount Kinabalu. In case you didn't know, that mountain is the highest in South East Asia.

I keep thinking what's so great about turning 40? Many have told me that it is really something compared to turning 30. So I decided to examine why people above 40 think that blowing 10 extra candles is so great and how The concept of turning 40 can be applied in my life.

1) they just don't give a f&$@ what other people think of them and their decisions. Subject (this kinda makes me feel like I conducted a proper experiment on them) almost always do what's best for themselves without worrying much of what people think - okay I think I can go full blown(alomst) on not caring about what other people think. My limit is my mom and sibblings and also things that could majorly jeopardise my career. Emphasis on the word majorly coz I definitely don't like to be someone I'm not but sometimes I have no choice.

2) subject is self sufficient financially and emotionally . After working for more than 15 years most people are financially ok so they don't need help from others and therefore they can apply point number 1. They've also learned that they dont necessarily need others to comfort them coz people suck anyway and that they are the best at comforting themselves - I think I can work on being financially more stable faster so I can 'turn 40' but the emotional part might be tricky. I am a fragile soul and it may take some time (or maybe even 11 years) for this to happen

3) they feel more attractive and comfortable in their skin. I think there is strong correlation between this and point number 1. 40 year olds vary from hot milfs and dilfs to my-god-you-look-like-you're-past-the-expiry-date. But do they give two f's and feel insecure? No way! Whatever mirror 40 year olds are looking at please give me one. Haha - okay this should be doable even in your teens. Key is to love yourself including your body. Love every scar you have coz each tells a different story. Let me side track a bit, I was asked by my mom today about a scar on my elbow and I kid you not i remember exactly how I got it. Over twenty years ago, my nanny's son put up a tent behind their house and i tripped over one of the ropes from the tent. But I certainly had a lot fun playing in the tent. See! Every scar has a story. If it's a good happy story cherish it, if not learn from it or if it's traumatizing block it out of your mind.

4) enjoy life. People above 40 seem to enjoy life a whole lot more coz they worry less compared to youngins. Well it's probably because of point 1 and 2. - okay some things in my life is really not worth worrying so I shall apply this concept immediately

5) accept that people are made differently. You know the saying sugar and spice and everything nice. Well for some people god forgot to add sugar, sometimes spice and sometimes everything. People above 40 tend to cut them some slack and don't let these ppl annoy them. When they don't like someone they just limit or simply don't allow the person into their lives

6) be patient. People over 40 have the patience as if they have another 100 years to live - Us gen-y's just want things now now now. I'm not saying that it is completely wrong to want things fast but sometimes things take time whether it be your career, relationship etc. So just roll with it and you can easily apply point 4. Of course I still need to work on this but there's progress for sure.

A lot of these points overlap and I may have over simplified the life of people over 40. Of course some are unfortunate and dont feel the same way . 

So my wish is to speed up my ageing process (not physically but mentally) so if you have any tips for me lemme know.

Okay so I failed my CFA exam.. now what?

I started pursuing the CFA exams last year to keep myself occupied coz it seemed that my weekends were pretty full of just partying and recovering from partying. Well that's a lie. Maybe some weekends I just sleep a lot and then try to recover from sleeping too much, if that makes any sense.

For those who are not familiar with the acronyms, CFA stands for Chartered Financial Analyst. It is relevant for people like me who is working in the financial market. There are three levels of exams and you are required to have relevant working experience before you can become a charterholder. Which means the institution I work for will have to spend a bit more ink to put the designation on my name card when I qualify.

I took my last exam in June and recently I got my results and I failed. I was sad but I wasn't severly affected by it coz I've had a similar experience with my actuarial papers (google that if u didn't already know what that is. It certainly isn't related to agricultural).

Those who are close to me probably knew I was going through some tough time so close to the exam. But I refuse to put the blame on the incident coz even I knew I was slacking from the beginning.

So what now? Here's my plan. Oh my mentor have been asking for my strategy for passing this exam at the next seating and instead of giving it to him I am writing it here. Maybe he should blogstalk me.

Anyway, here goes.

1) register for the next sitting. I believe that leaving a gap that is too long(in my case if it'd be 2 years if I dont resit for the exam in june next year) would make me lazier and maybe even give up the whole thing.

2) refocus on the reason why I took this thing in the first place. Mmmm initially i just wanted to kill time and I got killed instead. So maybe that wasnt a good reason. I guess now my main motivation is just to make more money.

3)Make my home study friendly. By that I mean, get a desk, set up my study room. Previously I was just studying at the  dining table. Weehee desk shopping. And if I study in a closed room I can keep cats away from bookjacking me (refer to evidence below, not my cat but I definitely adore him).

4) start early.  Yep, this is definitely necessary. I started way too late for the last exam and so I failed to cover everything

5) Get organized. I was losing notes and some of my books because I was so disorganized. This happened when I took the first level as well but I definitely can't half ass the second level.

6) Protect my zen. You read that right. When I first heard Redza Minhat(he's an indie actor who is also a charterholder) said that we need to find our zen when the exam day comes as in don't be too excited or too scared but just chill, I thought okay this guy is just pulling his artsy fartsy act. Turned out when the unfortunate incident happened to me so close to the exam I completely lost my zen, which i didnt know i had before. So this time, I shall guard my zen like it's my firstborn.

So those are my strategies for the next exam. I hope people who are taking the exams or any other exams would share some tips with me.

I shall update you guys next year on my progress with regards to the exam.

K-fit KL

K-fit made its way to KL recently and I thought I'd give it a try. For those who don't know, K-fit allows you to use a bunch of gyms, classes and facilities like pool tables, swimming pools, driving range and even the ice skating rink at Sunway pyramid for RM 99 a month.And you get RM 50 off your first month and another RM 20 if you refer a friend. You can also terminate your membership anytime you want but if you terminate it halfway through your billing cycle, your membership will only end the next month.

I find it convenient and much cheaper than a gym membership (I used to pay almost RM 200) for my gym membership which I gave up more than two years ago. Of course nothing beats using the office gym for free but since they don't offer any other classses but zumba and personal training I prefer to use k-fit for now.

Since a couple of years ago I have been having issues with my knee which the doctors diagnosed to be patellar tendonitis.It is the result of overuse from all that running I did before (the standchart runs, penang bridge, putrajaya night marathon, you name it). here's a picture from the Port Dickson night marathon in case you didn't believe me.

I scheduled my first appointment last Saturday for a beginner's yoga at Classic Yoga in USJ. Finding the place was pretty tricky coz I looked it up manually on waze when Kfit already have the address linked to google maps( of course I only realized this later). Anyway, google maps sometimes says address not found when you click on the map shown on Kfit's site. 

See!! You can just click on the map on the right side of the page.

But sometimes google map just shows you the whole world(fail!) and by the whole world I mean north and a bit of south America. Turns out the studio is very close to one of my favorite pan mee place. Maybe it'd help if Kfit gives landmarks around the place you're looking for.

Anway, try to leave for your class earlier if you don't already know the location. You dont want to be a no show coz there's a fee for that. I am yet to find out how much it is.i find this to be a motivation for me coz i cannot back out at the last minute just coz I'm feeling lazy.

When I got to class the instructor was the one manning the desk too(guess it's a one woman show) and she wasn't shocked that I came under Kfit but she said Kfit was supposed to email her names of attendees who are attending her class. Oh well that's between her n Kfit. She also mentioned that under Kfit i can only go to her studio four times a month. If i need more yoga than that(or ooga as my niece would say it)  I can always go to other studios.

Her class was easy enough for a beginner like me and I enjoyed it thoroughly that during the relaxation part/cooling down, I fell asleep. When I woke up, everybody was already rolling their mats. Oh well. So i will definitely go back to Classic yoga and will definitely try more activities under Kfit. I'm thinking that I should make at least two appointments a week to make it worth it. Maybe I'll go for a swim at PJ palms, maybe the driving range and a few of the gyms.

I will write an update on my knee after more yoga sessions. Let me know your experience with Kfit if you have any. And if you're gonna try it use my code please so I can get referals discount (My code is :QEIVM).

Horsing around with 25 Questions

One of my close friends, Sarah, decided to play this 25 question game and tagged me. So here goes.

1. Do you have a middle name?

Not really. My name is already long enough so I'm glad I don't have a middle name.

2. What was your favourite subject in school?

Math for sure. Followed by chemistry. Least favorite was physics.

3. What's your favourite drink?

Coffee or green tea latte

4. What's your favourite song at the moment?

The one that goes "I keep going to the river to pray"

5. What would you name your children?

I like classical names like Embun. Or if i were to go with a hipsterish name maybe Amerina.

6. Do you participate in any sports?

Not anymore. i used to play lots of badminton.

7. What's your favourite book?

1984. I suggest you check it out. it's out of this world. I also love fight club, great gatsby and wetlands. You need a strong stomach for wetlands.

8. What's your favourite color?

Turquoise. 

9. What's your favourite animal?

Dogs for sure. I love bulldogs, pugs, boxer, pitbulls, shih tzu

10. What's your favourite perfume?

Lady Dior

11. What's your favourite holiday?

Halloween of course. I was a Zombie school girl last year.

12. Have you graduated from high school?

Yes

13. Have you been out of the country?

Yes

14. Do you speak any other languages?

Malay, English and a bit of mandarin like I know enough to save my life

15. Do you have any siblings?

Yes! Three elder sisters

16. What's your favourite store?

Not much of a shopper but i love lovisa(sp?)for accessories and sephora for makeup. wish we has Ulta here in Malaysia. For online shopping my go to site is zalora, from which i only buy stuff that is on sale.

17. What's your favourite restaurant?

I love that thai joint in section 14 pj. not much of a fan of high end restaurants. Another good joint is the. food court in old town pj. omg yum!!

18. Do you like school?

Nope. I disconnect from work pretty easily but not from studies.

19. Who are some of you favourite youtubers?

none. i watch all the make up and hair tutorials but can't remember the names

20. What's your favourite movie?

Total recall. like the old one

21. What are some of your favourite TV shows?

The Mindy Project, Orange is the new black and breaking bad.

22. PC or Mac?

PC for sure

23. What phone do you have?

Samsung s3. time for a new phone i think.

24. How tall are you?

5'3"

25. Any pets?

i have two cats. Michi and Henry

Fussie Cat for those fussy cats

About a year ago, shortly after I moved in to my apartment, I came home to a tiny little kitten meowing her hearts out at my door. At that point I was still pretty much a dog person but that poor kitty seemed like it was in trouble. I often wonder how the little kitten ended up on the 19th floor.

Well I took her in and she acted like she belonged at my place. One thing lead to another and she became my beloved cat named Michi. I got another cat soon after to keep Michi company. Michi's cat is a grey male cat named Henry.

Anyway I just thought I should share my thoughts on keeping cats in an apartment. It will be slightly tougher compared to keeping them on a landed property coz your cats are gonna run, play and shit in your barely 1000 sqr ft home.

When it comes to food I recommend Royal Canin Indoor cats. The food is low in energy so your cats don't need to run so much to burn off the energy. I put my cats on that for a few months. I've seen it work better on other people's cats. Maybe because mine are still too young that they will run a lot no matter what I feed them.

Be prepared to pay around RM 100 for a bag of 4kg and don't expect your regular supermarket to be selling that brand. 

Another important thing to have is good cat litter. By good I mean it keeps your place smelling shit free. I've gone through quite a few brands including Tidy Cats, Fussy Cat, Speedmart cat litter that comes in green bags, Premier and another brand that they sell at Sogo supermarket which sounds like English gone wrong (it was like happy katty with some Japanese writing on it).

Anyway, the best brand was the happy katty but I am too lazy to get it from sogo coz sometimes it's there sometimes it isn't. the next best is Fussie cat (I've seen some shops display it as Fuzzy Cat so I really don't know what is the actual name). This brand comes in multiple different smells including green apple, lemon, lavender (guess this will help me sleep) and jasmine. My favorite is lavender followed by jasmine. I hate lemon smells coz it reminds me too much of bathroom cleaners.

This cat litter comes in 10 litre bags and it is priced between RM 24 to 25. All the cat litters i mentioned are the clumping sand type. Just don't get it on damp floors coz it turns into clay and that's a real b*#%€ to clean.

let me know if u have any tips on keeping cats. Or having cats as your master like I do.

Update: The brand of cat litter sold at Sogo is called Ketty Love and they're about RM 16

Saving Water the Malaysian Way

Mother nature has been quite a bitch lately, as seen in the dry months followed by the rainy seasons that resulted in floods. The images of flood made some people forget the water rationing they had to go through just a few months ago.

But hey, she ain't a bitch for nothing. The aggressive logging whether it be legal or illegal is bound to cause all this craziness. I'm not gonna go deeper into what we should do for future flood prevention but I want to share a few tips on saving water, the Malaysian way. Why should wen when water is freaking cheap here? I pay RM 11 every month for water though I know I don't even use more than the bare minimum. But before we get hit again with another round of water rationing let's consider these tips.

That's right. These tips have been customized for Malaysians and the Malays would find most of them relateable too.

Let's start with some easy ones:

1) Turn off the tap when you are doing number two (taking a dump that is).
 If  you think having the water running will keep the smell tolerable, think again. Imagine a pile of shit that is     compact and you put it in a blender  and add tons of water to it (yeah you don't want to ruin your blender     do you?), do you think it would smell better than if you just leave it alone?

And if you somehow think having the sound of water running will help you shit, you are wrong my friend.     Fiber helps you shit. Eat some prunes. Not waste water!

A bit of topic but don't ever think it is okay to squat on a toilet bowl. Even cavemen would shake their       heads if they see you do that

2) Turn down the water if you want it to heat up faster

Since most of us Malaysians use electric water heater, I'm sure you have noticed that the water heats up       faster when it is slower

3) Make sure your toilets have half flush

But if you have one of those really old toilet bowls with only one flush button, which means the amount of water flushed for when you pee and when you shit are equal, then you can try putting in a bottle with water and some pebbles  in it. More on this here

4) Wipe your cars instead of a complete wash

If you are the type who washes their car every week, maybe cut it down to just once a month. In                  between, just wipe off the dirt with damp towels.

5) Only run your washing machine when it is a full load

Self explanatory

6) And for the Muslims, use minimal water for your whudu'

I've seen people who take whudu' and come out looking like they just had a shower. I'm pretty sure the religion is into saving water too

7)Grow less plants at home or keep it to a minimal

Unless you are growing them so you can have some organic produce from your backyard,

Now, let's take it to the extreme

1) Only flush if you just did number two (again that means shitting)

This might stink up your bathroom so if you don't live by yourself i recommend that you don't try it  Or you can try the less extreme version, because there is no place for extremism here in Malaysia! If you are the type who needs the bathroom every hour, you can flush every other time that you use it

2) Wear your clothes more than once

Unless you have a chronic case of body odor. We do wanna save water but we don't wanna kill man kind.

Well that is all I've got. Please share your tips if you have any

Tesco Online Malaysia Yay or Nay?

I finally decided to try out Tesco online soon after I reformatted my phone.

I have also given up on real shopping especially for things that don't really excite me. Seriously, how could shopping for onions and toilet paper be anything other than boring.

So I downloaded the app and checked out the things they have. Well.. they pretty much have everything that is available at the store from raw fish to dvd players. 

First I had to check if they deliver to my area. Just put in your zipcode and u can see which housing areas they go to.  Luckily I live close enough to civilization. If they don't service your area you can try red tick. Just google red tick, you'll see a similar service as tesco.

My first order consisted of cat litter (yes I would hate to carry that), chicken wings, butter and flour. It was easy breezy to compare the brands and the prices. Plus they have a special page for items on discount.

Check out was easy enough. However you can only pay by visa or Mastercard when the stuff is delivered, not on the site. There's a reason for this.

Delivery fee was  jiro, zero, kosong, percuma, nada, free!!! I think this is probably a promotional thing coz how can they possibly make money out of this service?

I had to choose the delivery slot and I chose 8-10pm the next day. You can get your items delivered the day after so if yo mama told you to go get chicken for her to cook for dinner don't think you can tesco online that chicken.

The next day they called me to confirm that I'll be home at the time I booked and roughly what time will I get home (between the 8-10pm period).I said 9.

At 830 they called to say they were already there. Ok you're early but it's alright coz I was home anyway. Got my stuff delivered by one of the nicest delivery guy in town.

They didnt hv the exact brand that I wanted for the cat litter but they replaced it with another brand which I could decline if I wanted to. Aaaaah Eureka!! This is why they couldn't charge me on the app instead. The delivery guy encouraged me to put in another order in a few days for the cat litter if I still wanna try to get the brand I wanted.

Could this man possibly earn delivery fees per destination? I'll ask them next time.

The delivery guy had a small card slot that he attached to his phone and wallaaaa I got my receipt in my email and also via text to my phone. I also got a rebate voucher of 10 ringgit for every 100 ringgit purchase until 15th January 2015(refer to picture). Go ahead don't be shy to use that coupon code.

Awesome!! So let me break it down to who should use this and who shouldn't.

Please use:
1)If you would like to avoid the crowd, fighting the crowd for parking, queueing up to pay for your groceries, carrying stuff from your car to your door (there I said it. It is just too much work #firstworldproblem. Oh wait this isn't instagram)

2)If you have no idea where the nearest hypermarket is

Don't use it:

1)If you are very particular about the brands of the products you want

2)You can't handle disappointment

3)You don't have a credit card. Uh huh. They don't take cash

Overall I was very satisfied with the service. Let me know your experience if you decide to try it.

Happy trying!!

Note: Individual results may vary

3rd Year since 2012(post apocalypse)

Phew! It has been a while I almost forgot I had this blog. Believe my last post was a few years ago.

Since a lot of things have changed, the first thing I considered when I wanted to bring this blog back to life was to change the name. "The Shtuff" sounded too childish. I wanted to change it to "The Sherious Shtuff". Very adult like. Unfortunately I have no idea how I can change it. I'll keep digging.

Another thing I considered was starting a new blog altogether. But considering I have over 70 posts in this blog and that I've had over 1000 page views (800 could've been me looking at my own blog and another 200 was probably from my colleagues who thought it'd be funny to read the old posts... you know who you are!!) and that this blog has captured how I changed from being a college student to being a professional slave, I decided to keep it.

The first day of the new year is probably the best time to start blogging again. So let's start with something light. Things that I am thankful for that happened in 2014.

1) I moved into my 2 bedroom, 856 sqr ft apartment that I bought with my own hard earned money (this is a lie. I did borrow some money from my mom for the down payment. More on this in my future posts)

2) I decided to do the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst for those who don't already know what it means) exams to help with my career development. Guess I'll write about this too one day

3) Got together with my lovely boyfriend who I have been madly in love with for the past few years. I know, I know this is risky to put but heyyy why not?!?!? I think he has taught me a lot in so many different ways (more on this later)) I'll keep most of this private

4) Learned how to fish from my cousin and met a few great people along the way

5) Found one my kitties in front of my apartment one night (all hungry and needy)

That's mostly it. I'm not gonna say my health and my family coz everybody knows that.

And.. my new year's resolution is... to not have one.