Turning a house into " our home sweet home"

So after all the unpacking and sorting , and washing and drying and folding and arranging and re-arranging , We are proud to show you our new home sweet home.

Here is the living room. The TV, racks are our from KK. The TV rack is new from IKEA. And the curtain is also new. We use that as the "divider"

The shells is my dh pride and glory ! LOL. It is his collections. And there are some photos of our family taken from our vacations.

We both like the "South East Asian Decor" like from Philippines , Thailand and of course Indonesia  ( Javanese and Balinese style and  of course we love batik!). It really give the warm touch for the house.

I am well..we both are not the fans of the modern minimalist style, as it is a bit too "cold" , we prefer to add some Asian touch to the house ( we will love to add China antique furniture and who knows some Indian stuffs too?). All of our house decors and statues are not new at all.  And we got it from all over the world ( as presents or as souvenirs that we bought our self during vacations). We hope to collect more if time permit and there is more space to display it in the future! hah!

The dining area. The left is the study room and the right is the kitchen. The kitchen is small but it comes with very well design cabinet, with built in garbage disposal in the sink, dishwasher and dish sterilizer and a foldable table. Kitchen cabinet is very important, it will effect the function of the kitchen , as a chef's wife I must know that :). And this reminds me of  some of the houses we saw in Kota Kinabalu, when we wanted to rent the house there, the kitchen comes only with stoves and a sink , and the rest are empty. No drawer , no underneath cabinet, no above cabinet. None.... so how should we put our stuffs? thanks but no thanks we need to pass on that....Even with the big house and big garden , we still need to have a good and functional kitchen  ( well at least with space to keep my pots and pans!!) . We are lucky that our kitchen in KK is great. For our family kitchen is the heart of the house. Where we cook daily for our family and sometimes to entertain our friends.

This is the book rack in the study room, See how full it is...?  And the other is the study room glass wall and door become the showcase of the girls' work. Why? just to boast their confidence ! ^_^ To show that we care and proud of their works. And the wood panel is our pantry cabinet! Trust me you can find many foods inside!

And this is  Indy's office desk . Where all the schooling activities take place ( well 80% of it, sometimes we also work on the dining table and of the living room)

And this is the entrance of the second floor. Yup.. we got the duplex unit ( or maybe some called it penthouse?) But I like to called it duplex because penthouse sounded more glam  up for me. And we are not a glam up family! :P. We are lucky to be able to rent this unit. We are on the 11th floor ( top floor). I put some of our favorites baby's photos of the girls at the second floor entrance.

And this is our family room. Where we can watch DVD and play some games. It is very cozy . The girls like to play here as well. It comes with a huge cabinet for kids clothing and walk in hidden cabinet for our store room

And of course , the kid's room is bright and PINK! We just add some decorating stickers. We put their personal items like school photos, and books and toys and toys!! The room is attached to a big terrace which will be great for summer days. Can't wait for that!

And of course ... The master bed room! The room is quiet spacious with walking cabinet and attached bathroom with bathtub and terrace too! We still need to buy my computer table chair, and a vanity chair for my " make up" corner and maybe... some terrace outdoor chairs and table. I would definitely buy some potted plans and flowers and herbs plants too ( I saw rosemary, basil and sage plants)

There is one big guest room in downstairs, one bathroom with shower. Over all the apartment is not big, but it is enough for us. And the more important is we feel home here. No matter where or what  ( apartment or house) home is where our heart is. For the last 11 years, we always remember our houses as our home. Jakarta, Singapore, Shanghai, Guang zhou, Malaysia and back to Shanghai.

Finally  we are home ( again)......

It is official... we are moving( back) to Shanghai!

Yes, it is official. We will relocated to Shanghai, China. We've been there from the 2001 ( 2 years after we got married) until 2004( by the time Indy was 2 years old). Indy was also born in Shanghai.

It is a plus that we've been there before, so we know the city, and I got some friends there, and at least this time, I won't be struggle too much in the language department ( oh trust me I will still have a few problems, but at least I can tell which one is the black vinegar and which one is the soya sauce)

Being here in Sabah for almost 4 years, and we are used to the lifestyle here, it will need a quite amount of adjustment to be able to settle back in Shanghai. We will be living in the middle of concretes jungles, massive development of the city, a heavy traffics, million of bicycles , and just in among of 20 million people.

Just to share a few facts of Shanghai

Shanghai (Chinese: 上海) is the largest city in China, and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, with over 20 million people.^[5] Located on China's central eastern coast at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the city is administered as a municipality of the People's Republic of China with province-level status

This is the famous "Shanghai Bund" on the West Side /PUXI,where the history began, the building are all historicals and now it's hosting many of world's big company and the high end restaurants and hotels.

Shanghai literally means : Shang ( up) Hai ( Sea). Shanghai is mainly divided into 2 parts by The Huang Pu River. The west side knows as PU XI ( literally means west of the Huang Pu river) is the "old" Shanghai. Where it was all begin. And there is the PU DONG ( the East side of the river) , the "new" Shanghai. Where 2 of the world's tallest building stand tall.

And this is the "new" Shanghai on the East side of the river. This one is the old pic I think, since the World Financial Tower is no where in sight

The last time we were there, we lived in the PUXI, but this time, due to my dh job location , we will live in the PUDONG. Where they are building like mad, to anticipate the World Expo 2010. In fact my dh's new job will be in the Expo's site.

The "Pudong CBD also knows as Lu Jia Zui , which is the host to the Jinmao Tower and The World Financial Tower is on the back ground of this photo.

There a few things I don't like there , the major is that the government has blocked the access to facebook, youtube, and blogspot ( that is the main reason I got my own domain) . There are "a few way" to get the access and I will figure it out once I am there. Also the censorship for the TV, movies, magazines and stuffs are so annoying.

Thinking of it , we had a great 4 years time in Sabah, like a good "break" from the hectic life and busy city to a laid back city, relatively no traffic , and with a good nature. Now, time to go back to "rumble" in the big city:) . The "break" for us is the living wise , not for working wise for my husband ,as I believe, he can consider here to be the most frustrating place for him to work so far.

We've been browsing a few apartments to consider ( my favorite part of moving is the house hunting ^_^) : the area, and of course must be within the budget. Don't be surpirse if we will be end up living on the 30th floor of a 50th floors building. And if the compound consist like 5-8 blocks of the 50th floors building! :p But we also found a lowrise duplex apartment which also have a backyard. But we need to find something nearer to both of my dh working place and for me to do groceries too. We will see how it goes later on. Now we are just ( well I am )..just having a good time looking at the photos of the different units, and man....some of it are great! Some has the great kitchen ( double doors huge fridge!!), some has the wonderful bathroom ( with LCD tv inside !!) and Jacuzzi too. Drooling.....:)) hahhah...

Back to the reality... now we need to do the legal documentation first. And sorting stuffs ,pack , sort, pack, and sort and pack.....

Status update

After we broke the news that we are moving , I've received many mixed responds from my friends all over the world .

My mobile has been receiving many sms too.

I am not yet packing. I am just sorting stuffs, and put it aside. The packing will be done by the packing company, but still I need to sort things out. And , trust me, it is a big job :). Packing is easier if I just need to pack everythings, But sorting is much harder.

There are questions, doubts, joys, some are sad that we are leaving, some are happy for us to move on to the next step.

Though I also got questioned about how do I feel about all of this? Am I happy to move to Shanghai? It is good for my dh's job , but how about me? Am I happy about this?

Me and my husband have the most opposite personality in away. We have different opinions, different views in life. But in working wise, we ( almost) work as one head. We know what we want , what we need and what is best for our family. When we are talking about job offer , and decision regarding job, we always refers ourself us "we" . Because whatever, where ever , job he takes, it will involve us. I can say that I am involve in the negotiation parts ( behind the scene of course, and I will "come out" when the situation need me too).

So, am I happy to move ? As the wife , of course. Is it the part of the marriage vows? to be together? in good time and in hard time. Even though that I can't really put this moving part as the "hard" time at all. It 's life, it's evolving, it must goes on. Marriage is the time for us not to be selfish. So if we must move? so what? Do I forced my husband to stay, to make me happy ( for example) but without a job?

We got priority, and for me family and job is the priority ( no one can survive in this world without a job right? unless you are the heir of somebody bloody wealthy but even so, just waiting for the "money" without working is not healthy).So if that's mean we will need to move, then be it.

But is it ideal? To move so much? No.

But nothing is "ideal" according to each individual perspective. "Ideal" is varies from person to person . And I saw many other families that are moving quite often too. And their family is just find.They will have certain disadvantages of course , but also advantages.

Some asked :so what will you do over there? work? doing online store again? or what?

I can't answer that just yet. My priority is just to settle our family first. And there are a lot of stuffs to be sorted out. And I allow myself to have a" slow" time. I can't just plan for my self and being selfish. I am a mother and wife first. And I got no one there to help me , I REPEAT : NO ONE. I need to find a reliable maid/nanny , and then I can plan what I will do, once I have the confidence to leave my kids with my maid/nanny. I am planning to homeschool both or at least one of my girls. So there are a lot of my activities need to be adjusted, a lot of things need to think about, activities to choose, and many other simple stuffs that I can't think of right now.

So I give my self about a couple of months being the real meaning of the " full time mother"with no help. Allow my self to make mistake in choosing : maid ( I will not be surprise it will take a few maid before we can find the good one), house ( maybe we choose wrong locations, or wrong floor ect), school ( maybe) , allow my self to be lost in the city, go to the wrong building, saying the wrong words, buying the wrong things, etc. If I do not allow myself to make mistake, I will be so stress out and who is the victim? My family , my kids to be exact.

The different for us ( compare to other who is moving out from their home town) is also that I am not leaving KK for temporary and will be back here in anytime , or I can come back once a week, or twice a month, or just drop my children to my parent's house.. No, we do not have that privilege. We are " moving" in the real meaning. I m not sure when I can see my "house" again, we are not just lock it and emptied in and be back next year. And we can't just leave a few items here at the moment, we do not have the place for that. We need to bring it with us or leave it here.

So if you are in the mids of "change" please allow yourself to make mistakes ( not too often) and learn from it! And don't forget to laugh at yourself! And that is the best medicine!

Time to move on... Literary !!!

Some of you have heard it, some have guessed it, some of you sms-ed and email-ed me, right after my post about another garage sales in August.

Are you moving?

Will you move house?

Are you moving out from KK or Malaysia?

What's going on with the garage sale , Sandra?

The answer is : yes. We are. But at that time, nothing is certain, so I can't give any more details answers. I most probably said : yes, there is a possibility of moving out, but where, and when... I can't answer that.

There was the agony of feelings every time we move. A bittersweet moments for me , specially.

When you know people, you love the place, you are familiar with all of your surrounding and then you need to move. I know we won't be here forever, but still , when the time come, the feeling kicks in. I still remember exactly how did I feel every single time we knew we need to moved to other place. And I think , it is a good mental exercise for me. What I do first is : To press my feeling for a while, let the facts sink into my mind. Of course there will be sadness ( I was not made of metal , you know! ) I feel specially sentimental for the house. Every time we moved, I feel hard to left the house, it is not our houses ( except for the one in Guang Zhou) but I feel so attached to each house we lived. Specially this one, as we stay in this house the longest and our second baby , Maya, was born and grow up here. And second I feel so attached to my maids. I always feed bad and sad to leave them, and I always try to find them a proper job, with a decent pay and good environment. I feel more sad because now Maya is so attached to my current maid. I feel that, if she will work for someone I know, I can send the girls photos and, sometimes maybe can see each other from webcam. And this time, my sadness is also for our dogs. I really really want to bring them , but the cost, the work, and the place where we are going to must be dog friendly too. So , it is not so easy after all. And if you know a dog lover, I will love to let them adopt one of my dog ( each)

And of course, I feel sad to leave my friends too. But again in this era, we can always keep in touch easily. We can send photos over emails, social networking, blogs. But with maids, they can't afford to have all that kind of access, and so with my dogs!!

So back to the main topic. Where we will move to this time? For that one you will need to stay tune for more details .^_^ . Hints: this is one of the biggest city in Asia, one of the most dynamic, and fast paced. A city of 20 millions people and a city we've been lived before .

What make me excited for this move is that I could share the process with my blog readers. That will be the first time!

To choose this Big City as our next destination was not an easy thing. Me and my husband loves in here in Sabah. The nature, the air, the beaches, the mountains, the life style. It is a good place to raise a family.

Just to share, when we first broke the news to our families and friends about 4 years ago that we are moving to Sabah. Most of the responds are negatives. They just can't get it, why... in the world, we want to move to a smaller scale, much much more quiet, not so famous ( excuse me, not to offend any Sabahan, but every time I said Kota Kinabalu Sabah, they gonna asked me until today, where? near KL? where? hah Borneo? oooh Sarawak that side ah? Near Kuching?) >_<. And trust me, I acted like an angry , offended real Sabahan. And I will start with the KK/Sabah's facts.

My dad, specially, told me that in much smaller cities, there will be much less opportunity for my husband to work. And we knew that. But for the sake of our young children we moved here anyway.

The first time we moved here I was worry that I will be bored , nothing to do, too quiet. But that 's what made me started my online biz. So there is the silver lining in every cloud right? :)

And because of that online biz I get to know many of great ladies. Who share many interest in commons too! Everything is linked and meant to be happen that way.

To be move around so much, also has taught me a good way to see anything from positve and negative side. Every place has it's own good and bad things and so does each person I know!

So despite the good thing about Sabah that we loved , it also has it's downsides . The city is lack of energy, dynamic, and textures. Don't get me wrong, the city has a lot of great potentials but there are not enough effort to make it much much better. The pace is too slow ( and this was the MAIN thing that drove me nuts for the first year we were here) . I felt sluggish, lazy, slow, not enough dynamic for me ( and trust me , I am not the " active type"). That is why, I always try to make effort to gather some friends, to share laugh, to enjoy our selves, to feel closer. I feel like people are living in scattered small groups all around the places. But maybe because I am an outsider here. And actually being the outsider makes me want more to know more people. I dont lock my self in my own "comfort zone".

To our surprise , Kota Kinabalu, is not so small after all. But yet, it is! I am still not use to it when people seems to KNOW everybody here ! In the real meaning! I was like wow! That is not easy! Gossips and rumors will spread like a bush fire here. Every one seems to know each other " history" . Spooky.... :-)

And for me , Moving is another chance to experience live! A chance to learn more. A chance to be humble and less ignorant about others.

Life is like writing a book, Your very own book! There are pages, chapter, and there are the main character(s) .There are the protogonist and antagonist

If you cant change the starting at least we can always change the ending.

This is the story of my life, my journey. Life is never dull , life is never smooth, life is never empty.

Like book, there are some pages you wish to forget and burn, there are some you want to keep forever, there are some pages you want to skip , and there are some pages that is still unwritten....

The change is unevitable, the "fall" will always wait there for us and so are the "up".

Life is rotating like a wheel.... you could be on top today and be on the bottom tomorrow. But the most important thing is our ability to hold on to happiness and to have keep faith!

If a person's inner heart is free from worries,indecision and fear, they will naturally have fewer complaints about the world around them, and their ability to hold on to happiness will also increase. Increasing our ability to hold on to happiness is the greatest thing we can learn" Yu Dan- Confucius from the heart

And for now... I am excited and sad about the move! It is indeed a Bittersweet moment! ^_^