pHappy Deepavali to all our Indian Friends and Family… /p

My brother inlaw wedding was around the corner, next week to be exact and the thing about the door gift for his wedding was still uncertain. May Lin offered to make door gifts through mum and the closest we got to a yes was the brother said he will called back to confirm. Our initial thought was to make potpourri, something nice for the guest to take away. That was last week, and almost the end of the wedding gift idea or offer since we did not receive any call back. Saturday morning, as usual, we set out to our usual B’fast, and after that, we didn’t want to just go back, so we went over to OneStop, one of the ailing shopping mall in Penang where we rarely visits. On the concourse, there was a China Vase exibit/sale, a nice Chinese Vase as a wedding gift perhaps, well, we found ceramic chopsticks, and beautifully painted chopsticks I must add. This was the beginning of the weekend quest. The price was reasonable, and it was somewhere close to what we paid for when we made our own wedding dinner door gifts. Before this, May Lin’s colleague already tip her about a Chinese wedding ‘stuff’ shop near Komtar. So, after One Stop, we went over to this place and found chopsticks as well, nicely decorated and packed, And the price was also reasonable, cheaper than what we paid for when we DIY. It was between wooden chopsticks and ceramics, and price in fact almost the same, we went for ceramics.

Before we went back, a quick phone call to the brother to ensure he has not made or ordered his door gifts yet. Back to OneStop, we manage to bargain the price down to almost the targeted level. We bought 250 pairs, for 25 tables. The chopsticks were plain and did not have any gloves or anything to keep them together. It was bought bulk anyway, and not fit to be just given like this. So we first added some ribbon decorations, and later a sticker as a thank you note. The ribbons we got it from Popular Bookstore and the red string (elastic) was from Kamdar. The sticker was printed on the spot over at Gurney Plaza, a small stall that offer sticker printing. Saturday was a shopping day. When we got back, it was already rather late, so we did not get much done. By Monday, all was done, then we felt something that was missing. During my wedding, I had a small card made stating the significance of chopsticks, and we tie a card to every pair. It was too late to do the same, so we printed 25 A4 size cards to be folded and place on each tables, the cards again was bought from Popular Bookshop. The result, as shown in the pictures. It took our entire weekend to finish all 250 pairs, but it was fun and fulfilling. Anyone else interested in Chopsticks as a wedding gifts, we don’t mind taking orders.

On this special day, which comes once in a life time, while the numbers 08.08.08 are repeated every 100 years.  I commemorate this day with a new desktop look.  Clean Simple, as how life on this earth should be. 

Starting yesterday May 27th till June 3rd, Penang botanical garden will be laced with beautiful flowers blooming in season. Photographers, don’t miss this opportunity to show your ass, ops, I mean your skills. I was particularly amazed by the variety of Adeniums. My home has one, and it was no where close to some of the competition participants. There were also many varieties at sale, and they are not cheap. A small plant could cost from RM30-50 and a tiny stem cost RM10 to begin with. The varieties of Adeniums truly brings new respect from me to the plant. When my wife first took care of one Adenium from my parents, I didn’t pay much attention to it. Mainly because it is a hardy plant, and could survive any harsh condition. Now, I look at the plant differently, and would like to get a few more species, especially the white flowers and also “Princess Mikasa”, yes, I have also started to learn the names. We did not manage to go the entire Botanical Garden, we still have time to do that. From the papers, this seams to be one huge event, and we have only visited a small part of it. Watch my Photo Blog for some of the flower photos I took.

What do one do while the significant half spends hundreds on hair that takes half a day to complete? Well, spend more money myself of course. I park myself at the nearest Starbucks and booted up my laptop to pace across the hot Saturday afternoon. The hairdo is taking 4 hours to complete, and blogging was on my mind. I got myself a mocha and log into WordPress to check for comments. I remembered seeing in the papers that Starbucks was promoting gift cards for the Christmas season, and I made a note to myself to get one. I am one of those junk collectors that loves to collect interesting looking stuff. When I was in the states, I collected giftcards from everywhere possible, not that it worth any money at this moment, I just like the look of it and the joy of admiring the design.

I took out my RM20 and handed over to the cashier, and he handed the card over to me. Hold on, it’s a paper card? Damn, its not plastic. Oh Crap, it expires in Feb 2007. I was disappointed as I expecting a plastic card, where we could reuse again and again, like what coffee bean has. Anyway, the paper card do look nice, and can complement my car collections, if it last the 2 months of usage before expiry.