:: My Birthday Month 2012 - 5 of My All Time Favorite Things ::

Salam Beauties,

Today, I'm gonna tell you about a few of my favorite things. Things that I love since I was little.

Well, everybody knows I love diving, I love horses and I love playing with my little munchkin, that just goes without saying.

What I'm going to tell you today is something most of you dont know. Things that can make me change from a frown to a smile in a heartbeat.

Here goes....

one of the calla lilies sp

1) Lilies - I absolutely adore lilies. Any kind of lilies. White lilies, casablanca lilies, pink lilies, asiatic lilies, water lilies, calla lilies. Especially CALLA LILIES!!! Oh my God! They are just gorgeous!

Back when I was still single, and was living alone, my daily routine would be somewhat like this..

5:30am: wake up, a cup of nescafe, ciggie (i used to smoke), solat, bath.

6:45am: drive to work (bangi to KL)

7:30am: arrive at the office & breakfast at mamak

5:30pm: drive home (once a week I would drop by chowkit and buy myself a bouquet of lilies. They usually have only white or pink lilies, which was then priced at RM22. cheap right!)

6:30pm: Arrive home, arrange the lilies, remove the lily pollens if any, enjoy a cup of nescafe and ciggie in front of the telly (the lily arrangement would be placed next to the telly for me to stare at)

7:30pm: solat, cook dinner (most of the time, pasta or hefty sandwich ala subway)

9:00pm: read or TV while doing my push ups, skipping and sit ups. bedtime.

The best smell to welcome you home after a hard days work, is the smell of sweet lilies. The best flower to give your lover, is lilies. The best decoration for your dining table is lilies. The best flower to represent your love is lilies. What can I say.. I'm a sucker for lilies...

If I could change one thing about my wedding, I would change my bouquet from roses to lilies!. If I could ask for a flower bouquet for my birthday, I would ask for lilies. :)

2) Wet morning - I find it refreshing to wake up to a cold wet morning. I love to see the wet plants, wet road, wet everything. No, I dont like it if it rains in the morning or during maghrib. That would just make me sad inside (I dont know why!) But waking up to a wet morning, is simply one of my favorite things. Waking up to a wet morning, by the beach is just blissful!

Enjoying a good book, with a cup of coffee, by the beach, in the morning, just after the rain, would be my perfect kind of morning.

3) Green - My most favorite color is actually green. A lot of you think that my favorite color is Red or Purple, simply because I have a lot of red and purple things. (I know I tend to buy a lot of reds and I cant explain why!) But the truth is, I just love Green. Any shade of green. The weird thing is, i have only 1 green t-shirt. Hmmm...

Oh, I go green too. I recycle, I save on things that I can save on, like water, electricity, paper, plastic, money (hehe). I use reusable shopping bags, reusable diapers, I make my own baby food so I save on the glass bottles, which the prepacked baby food comes in. I reuse bottles. So in my home, you can see a lot of lotion bottles with stickers on them saying things like "SHAMPOO" or "DISWASHING LIQUID" because I only buy refill packs from the supermarket.

I've yet to start recycle boxes at my mother's home. To me, its just sad to see the state of our earth nowadays. And I love my son too much to let him stay in this dying planet at the state it is now. I wish I could fly around saving the planet, just like captain planet. I cant. So I'm doing my part. It maybe small, but at least I'm doing something about it.

Oh, as much as I love green, I hate hate hate FROGS!!! ewwww! Cant stand them! (do you know that frogs are dangerous to babies because they carry salmonella virus.. aha!)

4) Housewife - I am a very ambitious woman. Since I was little, I am extremely competitive. I make sure I win everything. (Hence the name FAIZAH which means 'the winner' in arabic). When I was in kindergarten, I blackmailed my teacher into letting me participate in EVERY show for my graduation. So I ended up being the lead singer for the singing show, I was the lead actress for the little drama, I was also the recipients of a few sports events. (Gila glamer!). 

When I was in primary school, I always get number 1 in my class. When I get number 2, I slapped that boy who got number one. (hehe.. dont tell my mom!). My ambition at that time was to become a judge.

When I was working, I applied for Emirates Airlines simply because a lot of people say its very hard for malaysian to get the job. Evidently they were wrong! I declined offers from Malaysia Airlines and Singapore Airlines because I had to go with the highest paid airline in the world. And because of that, I had to work with Dome as a waitress for a couple of months while waiting for the offer from Emirates. Yes, I'm very determined like that.

Now, after a lot of years, after marriage and after being a mother, I've mellowed down (a lot!!). From being a high D, I'm now high C (check out NLP - DISC assessment). From wanting to a powerful judge, I now dream of becoming a stay at home mom. A housewife. I love doing house chores, I love cleaning (I'm a bit of a germaphobic and OCD rolled into one) and I love cooking. I know nothing about traditional malay cooking but I love cooking western food. (I'm good at it too!). I love spending time in a clean sparkling bathroom, cooking in an extremely clean kitchen and i love seeing my husband and myself in the mirror wearing clean, ironed clothes. (I used to iron all my clean laundry, including the bedsheet and telekung.. When I was about 8 months pregnant, a hot iron fell on my lap when I was ironing sitting down and I had a second degree burn.. ouch! After birth, I iron my clothes on a day to day basis.. hehe.. no time la..)

So people, save your 'money is not everything' or 'empower yourself by climbing the corporate ladder' speech. It clearly is not for me. 

5) Surprise - I love surprises! I love it when I find a secret note, left by someone in my bag, or purse or book. My good friend used to do this all the time. Sadly with the technology, namely facebook, twitter, whatsapp, bbm etc hand-written notes becomes something very rare, you'll look like a dinosaur if you attempt to do it. 

I love writing on my husband's book. Just write about whatever. Love messages or motivational words, whatever at all. And secretly, I hope and would love it if he write things in my book too. I sometimes force him to write. He usually say he has nothing to write about so i would just ask him to sign it :( Trust you me, reading that note after a few years, will surely bring a smile to your face.

I love it if I see a note on my message board when I come home. That is why, in my kitchen (the first place I would go to when I come home) I've installed a mirror which I use as message board, complete with a whiteboard marker. So far, I'm the one who is constantly writing on it. hmmm...

I love finding presents when I least expects it. On a normal day, at a random place. LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!! It doesnt matter what the present is, when it is presented as a surprise, it just becomes more special by ten fold. Even if it is just a box of tora. 

I love it when someone brings me to a place without telling me, with the intention to surprise me. A surprise dinner, or surprise picnic or anything like that. Even if it is just a picnic with a piece of blanket as a spread, jusco bought sushi and a couple of boxes soya bean drink at the KLCC park. Bliss!

That being said, I've organized quite a handful of surprise gatherings and parties and I've done quite a lot of surprise gestures to my loved ones, but sadly, I'm still waiting for mine. :(

So there you go. Appreciate the little things in life my friends.. You'll be much happier!

Till next time!

Take Care