Weekend Happenings: 30 – 31 May 2009

My blog has been in a sad neglected state of late and I have myself to blame for it. I guess that as time goes by, the need to blog has somewhat diminished especially when I don’t really have a particular item to blog about. Aside from the occasional KLPac entries about the shows that were being staged on that particular week or the occasional write ups of trips that I’ve been on, I have not really made any effort to document anything else on the blog. I hope to change this as not only did I start this blog to help me document my memorable moments but I also started this blog to force myself to write creatively instead of the usual dry stuff that I have to write at work. This creative outlet is definitely something that would be therapeutic after the long day’s work.

With that in mind, I’ve decided to start a new habit of doing a Monday morning write up of the events of the past weekend. I know that this has been done before by other bloggers and some would deride me as just following the pack but at least I’m writing something. Hopefully this will be somewhat of a regular feature from this week onwards. So to start …

Saturday was spent in anticipation of a birthday dinner gathering that has been planned weeks in advance. Unlike the usual dinner, birthday cake and presents opening, it was decided that this gathering will have a theme and people would have to show up dressed for the theme. Suffice to say that the theme was not something that we get to do all that often and it was definitely interesting to see what ideas people came up with when they came. Being the person that I am, I’ve obviously have prepared what I was going to wear weeks ago. It was not a very difficult choice for me to decide what to wear since I’ve always wanted to get the item that I ended up buying. It took me this long to get it as they didn’t have anything in my size in stock before and I didn’t really have an occasion to wear it before.

As usual, Saturday morning was my weekly laundry day. People who know me can easily attest how laundry day is actually a weekend highlight for me. I guess it all comes from the weekly trips that I had to do when I was studying in the States. I always look forward to going down to the laundry room of my apartment and just hide out to read my stack of comic books while doing my laundry. I do actually cherish the Saturday mornings that I get to relax by myself and finish reading a stack of comic books or an actual book while a load of laundry is in the machine. I managed to finish Garth Nix’s “Drowned Wednesday” this time around and have started on the next book in the series.

After laundry was put away, it was just time to get a ride from my friend to head out to our friend’s house for the dinner gathering. It was a great one since not only were most of our friends around but quite a few of them gamely turned up in theme. As customary, countless pictures of everyone were taken, good fun was had and great food was consumed. The birthday boy got his cake and presents at the end of the gathering before we settled in for a multimedia presentation of the pictures taken that night courtesy of the hard work of our group’s photographer. I’m fairly sure that those pictures would turn up in our FB pages in a few days so friends who didn’t get to attend the gathering will get to see them. It was a definitely a great gathering especially when you have your friends around.

The plan as to have a morning breakfast gathering the following day at 8:30am but considering that I didn’t get to bed till after 3am, the chance of me being there for that was next to nil. I decided to catch up with the group later in the day on Sunday for a trip to IKEA. Arriving at IKEA at around 11:30am, one would be forgiven to think that Malaysia was not in any type of recession as the Sunday crowd there was at it max by the time we arrived. After eventually finding a parking space, we proceeded to the IKEA café for brunch which for me meant my favorite meatball dish. I just can’t get enough of those and would definitely get them every time I go there. Too bad they don’t have a delivery service for their food.

I love going to IKEA. Don’t like the crowd so much but being at IKEA is like being in a huge toy store for me. I can’t exactly afford much of the stuff that they sell there but I just love being in furniture shops getting ideas of what to do with the limited space I have at my apartment. I guess that it’s part of my nesting instincts/packrat mentality of wanting to fill up space with stuff regardless if I really need it or not. Fortunately for me that I’ve been good at staying the course and not go on a spending spree every time I go to IKEA. I did however get myself a bedside drawer that I actually did plan to buy earlier and had the added advantage of being quite a steal in terms of prices.

After a return to the IKEA café to replenish all the energy burned walking around in the store, we made a pit stop at the pharmacy and the supermarket for some supplies. It was only around 6pm before I got back and got ready for the rest of the evening. Since I also had a book cabinet that I had bought earlier and was waiting for me to assemble, I decided to get out my tools and indulge in some DIY assembly time. I have to say that I do really find satisfaction in being able to assemble my own furniture instead of getting them done by someone else. The book cabinet assembly was a breeze since it was not the first time for me to assemble one of them but the IKEA drawer assembly took a while to figure out. I had forgotten how cryptic IKEA instruction sheets had become lately and having no experience assembling the set that I bought before too some figuring out.

An hour later, I had both book case and bedside drawers assembled and not a single screw extra or missing. I hope that with both items, I can keep my room more organized since I have my stuff all over the place at the moment. After the excitement of my DYI assembly session, it was time to wind down and watch a bit of TV before going to bed. All in all it was an enjoyable and productive weekend.