A Homemaker’s Diary

As expected being a book crazy person, I made it to the Big Bad Wolf Aftermath Sale at South City Plaza. Hubby came back from work around 5pm but the journey to the mall took much longer than I expected due to traffic jammed..damn!

After a quick dinner cum late lunch at Old Town, I went into the sale, alone..hehe! By 8pm, the crowd was getting intense since it was after office hour..this is what happened when you are not a morning person (but was told that the morning queue was even hectic, some have to queue for 3 hours just to pay for their books.)

Nevertheless in less than 2 hours I managed to grab 14 books. Some I have to pick inside the box under the table. Somehow the selection inside the hidden boxes are much better compared to the one on the table.

I didn’t buy any non fiction book this time around as I couldn’t find any title I like. Even the children books were scattered and piled up crazily and I was too tired to browse through the title. After all we already bought too many children books during the last Big Bad Wolf sale in MAEPS.

I found one book by David Sedaris. The jacket cover is torn but I don’t really care since it’s a hardcover version. My niece mentioned his book before so I thought since it’s RM5, I should buy one and try to see whether I like his writing. Otherwise if I don’t feel like reading it, I can always sell it later to anyone interested to buy.

I saw this book – Hotel On The Corner of Bitter and Sweet during BBW sale but didn’t buy it. Since I found it again during the Aftermath Sale I decided to grab one. People at Goodreads gave good review about this book. But then again, we might never know until we read the book ourselves, right?

So that’s the update from me for the first round of Aftermath sale. I might be going again..should I? Shouldn’t I? errr…

For those interested to go and buy books (some might be torn, damaged, scratched) from RM5 and below, the sale will be on from 24th to 28 November 2011 at South City Plaza, Lot G-29 (20 Ground Floor), South City Plaza, Persiaran Serdang Perdana, Seri Kembangan.

Make sure you eat something first before you go in, OK..the place is small and can be very packed, so with empty stomach, there are chances that you might faint. Don’t tell me you are not being warned..hehe!

It’s been a while since I last write something in general. For once I don’t feel like writing, I don’t know why.

November has been a fairly relaxing month for me, judging on how many books I managed to read. Check out my previous posts. Certain days I managed to read books every night after my son went to sleep, which I considered as ME-time…precious hours of solitude in immersed uninterrupted reading. On days like that I read until 7-8am and then went to sleep. Oh, my neighbor’s renovation is still in progress which somehow disrupt my otherwise peaceful sleeping hours..sigh!

And the evenings in November have been mostly soaked with heavy rain which made our plan to go to playground futile.

Just early this month, we made some good play dates with 2 cheerful Indian children who live in the neighborhood. I am certainly not racist. As long as the kids are well behaved I don’t care what are their races or religion. I tried to be friendly with people of my own race and religion but somehow they are not really interested to make friends.

Oh, I am currently busy preparing for my son’s birthday party in December. It’s kind of last minute decision to do the birthday party. He has been excited after attending other children’s party so we thought it’s about time we do a party for him. After all, it’s not every day a child turns 3, right..heh!

So, that’s basically what’s going on in my life in November. What about yours? How’s November 2011 treating you?

I’m not sure whether it will ever be published in the newspaper (I’m keeping hope high still). It’s been more than a month since the reporter came for the photo shoot.

I made this set of bunga dulang from bunga dip. You can learn how to assemble such basic pieces of bunga dulang if you attend my bunga dip class. The next session will be on Sunday, 27th Nov 2-5pm. Please contact if you are interested to learn. The fee is RM100, all materials inclusive. You can bring home whatever creation you make in the class.

I’ve seen people making bunga dip into table centerpiece and even bigger floral arrangement. I think I will do one soon for bunga tangan (hand bouquet).

I finally get to read this book after planning to buy it for quite some time. I have a few copies (new books not used) to sell at RM20 for anyone interested. Kindly leave comment or email if you would like to buy.

It’s a historical fiction about the life of the last Empress who ruled China before the country’s Forbidden City of Qing Dynasty collapsed. The western world know her as Empress Cixi (Tzu-Hsi) who they said was power hungry, ruthless but profoundly skilled in court politics.

The first book of Empress Orchid (the second part is in the book The Last Empress) will tell you how she became the palace concubine and then raised to the power after giving birth to the Emperor’s only son. Whether she was really that mean and ruthless as empress in real life, we would never know but I like reading the book because it makes me realize that even being a royalty and live in a palace filled with servants doesn’t guarantee you a good life.

After I finish reading the second book, I decided to watch the movie – The Last Emperor. It is a good book for those who feel like travelling back in time to the Forbidden City.

Taken from wikipedia:

The story of Fenfang, a peasant girl from northern China that moves to Beijing at the age of seventeen. She moves through a series of jobs, ending up making a living as a movie extra, and trying her luck as a scriptwriter.

The novel is written as a series of snapshots through her life as well as one of her movie scripts, as she negotiates boyfriends, a changing China, and tries to educate and define herself. The novel is rewritten by the author from her earlier Chinese language novel “Fenfang’s 37.2 Degrees.”
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I finally read this book after buying it last year. It’s a short book to begin with, something that you can finish in 2-3 hours if uninterrupted.

It reminds me of life as young woman or even college student where you are unsure on what to do with life, spending most of your free time sleeping and doing nothing much. It also gives me a clear picture of how Beijing is especially from peasant’s perspective. Life is definitely tough, huh..no matter where you live, be it in sweet potato farm or in a big city like Beijing.

I hope I will be able to read Xiaolu Guo’s other books.