Starbucks Malaysia Celebrates VD with Limited Time Specials

Is it just me or is the seasonal drinks at Starbucks Malaysia becoming boring? While Starbucks Japan has also introduced an interesting version of the mocha for the chocoholics for Valentine's Day, Starbucks Malaysia has instead brought back a "returning favourite" - Chocolate Black Tea with Earl Grey Jelly Frappuccino.

Source: coffee.yowazzup.com

Travel 2018 - Horsing around in Japan

Welcome 2018!

I hope you won't suck as badly as 2016 and 2017. I went on a major rant about 2016 here with vows made and all that. Well, guess what. I am a woman of my word and I do tend to stick to my word.

Where to Next?

Where to next?

That seemed to my theme of 2017 so far. At work, in life, in my fitness. Where to next ie: where do you go from here? Say, wasn't there a song that had that line?

The answer is quite simple. Japan. Everything falls down to Japan. Maybe not work wise because lord knows that getting the work visa there is a bitch. Everything I've done this year has all led me to finding myself and my place in the world in...Japan.

So from 18 to 29 October, I'll be in Tokyo for three monumental things.
1) A Spartan Race Super
2) Yet another tattoo
3) A potential future in Japan? We'll see.

And oh, I also got the ballot for the Nagoya Marathon. I am open to sponsorship right about...now.

Bye.

OCR News: Spartan Race Malaysia Changes Date AND Venue for Beast

So just to quickly make sure everyone is on the same page on what I will be talking about - Spartan Race Malaysia was supposed to have its Spartan Beast on 8 October at a tbc location in Kuala Lumpur. The key details here being: 8 October and Kuala Lumpur.

This has been promoted and pushed in their offers, partnerships and promotional materials including the APAC poster.

And then...two months before the race, we learnt that Spartan Race had decided to move the date to 9 December and the venue to Johor Bahru still at an undetermined address. It will be a three race-event consisting of an Ultra-Beast, Beast and Sprint now and is also part of the Singapore Beast leg (well, seeing as they have literally no room for a Beast on that island...)

Good riddance 2016

Let's face it. 2016 sucked big time. So many iconic celebrity deaths, Donald Trump winning the USA election and the overall economical downturn face by Malaysia which has left us at the mercy of much stronger currencies.

Personally, 2016 wasn't my best year in everything except maybe fitness-wise. People leave, new (annoying) people enter, things change, responsibilities shift. I feel so mentally and emotionally drained that calling it quits seems like the way out. I lack the drive that 2015 gave me and which 2016 promptly shuffled out. No drive, no motivation. Just cruising through my everyday life in a total half-ass mode with resting bitch face on.

Maybe it's time I upped and left the country too. Maybe it's time for change. For me to change.

Yes, I've decided 2017 would be a year of change for me. A year to explore, find and discover myself as I hit the big 3-0. A year to just do what the hell I want (as if I haven't been doing that already) and not give a rat ass about what anyone else thinks (again, as if I haven't been doing that)

2017 would be my year to take a leap (as cliche as that sounds) and to finally pursue my true passion (oh god, why so cliche and yet so true!)

Goodbye 2016. Don't let the door hit you on the way out, asshole.

Bullsh*t news: Spartan Sprint KL 2015 counts towards 2016 Trifecta

It has always been the global policy of Spartan Race that a Trifecta has to be earned within a calendar year (January to December). This is a policy and code honoured by all Trifecta holders around the world, regardless if they got it in Australia, America or Dubai. It was this policy that drove my team and I to dedicate an entire year of training and saving up just to travel to Australia in order to obtain my Trifecta. And I did.

And then, Spartan Race Malaysia, just coming off the high of their inaugural Spartan Sprint KL on 10-11 October 2015, announced in an email that Spartan Race KL 2015 will count towards the 2016 Trifecta.

Spartans around the world say it with me....WHAT THE FUCK? 

Delayed Obsession: MBLAQ

I finally truly understand the madness behind the KPOP pandemic that has been wrecking Malaysia for the past decade. Why?

Because I finally caught it in the form of MBLAQ, a KPop boy band founded by the entertainment and talent company owned by Rain. 

It started with one very cool and emo song, It's War. I had it on repeat in my playlist for the longest time ever and then I started rewatching the music video (again...and again...and again). 

And then dance version of it. (Anybody wanna teach me the routine ar?)

Holiday Whammy: Earthquake and MERS!

Within 24 hours, my holiday plans for the month of June literally and depressingly fell apart. In 24 hours, I went from looking forward to two holidays to drowning in the dread of yet another stressful month of work.

I swear a huge chunk of my soul just died when I got the news on the Friday morning of 5 June 2015 that 6.0 earthquake had hit Sabah.

AN EARTHQUAKE IN MALAYSIA? WHAT IS THIS LAH? OUR GEOGRAPHY SCHOOL BOOKS LIED!

My trip was scheduled to be on 26 June, three weeks after the disaster hit but with the likelihood of the path not being cleared by then, I can strike Mount Kinabalu off the list for this year (bye New Year Resolution...) and not for the right reason. That being said, my prayers goes out to the climbers and the true heroes of this unforeseen disaster, the guides and porters. This disaster affects them more than anyone else as the mountain is their source of income and need to repair the trails and without tourists, this will affect them badly.

Spartan Sprint IS coming to Malaysia!

A few days ago I received this email.

If you remember my post from last month (read it here), this pretty much confirms it. Reebok Malaysia is bringing Spartan Race to Malaysia (and Singapore too). I was thrilled and disappointed at the same time. Thrilled because it's Spartan. Disappointed because it was a Sprint and not a Super. Because this would mean I would still need to jet to Australia to join a Super in order to obtain the elusive Spartan Trifecta medal.

Blog Announcement: Technical Difficulties

So in case you aren't on my Facebook, something has happened to me that will unfortunately affect my blog this month. Anyway, here's the post for your reference.

1. 

No no, no relationship problem. Just some technical difficulty with my good old...'trusty' laptop. You see...several keys on the keyboard has decided to retire and of all those keys, one of them happens to be a very crucial key member (hahaha, Geddit Geddit?) 

I am talking about the freaking space bar key...the long button in the keyboard bad decided to fail me alongside b,n and ?, and left keys. It is infuriating! 

How can I type without space or ask a question without a question mark? Dammit, Dell! Why you do this to me?! 

So yeh, while I am trying to get my laptop fix (or replaced), I won't be able to blog so frequently (not that I have been this month, sorry about that) but I'll try to blog from my phone although photos won't be as many or as nice (or trademarked so don't steal!). 

So do bear with me until my keyboard/laptop issue has been resolved.

Alternatively, do follow me on Instagram for more updates! 

Ps: I just realise I can't type out Happy Chinese New Year on my laptop! It would turn out like this: HappyChieseewYear! 

Dammit! 

Signing off from my iPhone. 

5 Interesting Facts about Cellphones

I forgot to bring my iPhone to work one day and I just went into a complete mental meltdown upon discovering the absence of my phone right there in my office. Thankfully, all of my bosses were on  leave and only two of my colleagues bore witness to this. *hm, I would have to kill them now...*

Anyway, the point being that, without realizing it, our phones have become such an integral part of our daily lives. Try to think of a time when all we needed it for was to call and text people. If you can, do you think you would be able to go back to that time with a smartphone? Most probably not and if you can't recall such a time, you might have been just a toddler then.

But from a device that was once used for simple communication, phones has evolved into a multitasking tool. Courtesy of Lion and Lion, here are 5 Mind-Blowing Facts About Cellphones!

Indonesia: Bali Day 0 - Strings of Bad Luck

My first trip of 2014 to Bali started off on a bad note.

To start, my evening AirAsia flight to Bali was delayed by an hour plus and the staffs did not even have the courtsey to inform us of that. I supposed it was expected considering that it was AirAsia but when did it become accepted for airline staffs to not inform passengers of delays?

A line of waiting passengers had formed at our assigned gate and no one was sitting less we had to board soon. We watched as the flight after ours took off for Singapore, me wishing I was on that flight. The gate next to ours to Bangkok was allowed to board. It was near 8pm when we were finally allowed to board our plane.

The flight was supposed to be at 640pm. 

Runners' Racing Pet Peeves

Today I am going to talk/educate/nag/rant about the many pet peeves I have seen, heard and encountered before, during and after a running race. Disclaimer: This is by no means just my opinion alone but a compilation of opinions that I got from fellow runners, off and on the Internet.

 Let us begin. 

1. Selfies/Camwhoring
Yes, I get that this run is your first....or tenth. Yes, I get that the view and buildings are nice. Yes, I get that you just need to take a photo with your besties to commemorate this moment at the start line. But you are also the reason why the Hong Kong Marathon organisers has issued a ban on runners from taking selfies at a race (source) 

"The restriction is a result of a runner pile-up during last year’s event when a woman stopped at the beginning of the race to take a picture of herself, which triggered a domino-like effect as other participants crashed into her" according to the report. That could happen to you, cam-whorers and worst, others will be hurt because you couldn't stop to think to just step off the road first and out of the way of runners. Shame on you.

Collision in 3, 2,1....
credit to i.huffpost.com

I am Hoarder

Hi, my name is Tania and I am a clothes hoarder/shopaholic.

New cupboard.

Last week, my whole family had new cupboards installed into our respective bedrooms and we had to empty out our wardrobes. I, um, did it the lazy way and just stuffed everything into big black rubbish plastic bags, discovering in the process that I had 3 bags of pants and skirts, 4 bags of tops and shirts, a rack worth of dresses and jackets and about 3 bags of bags.

The Pork Noodle Post

Hey there, peeps!

So first post.
I am getting giddy just typing this. The start of anything is always the hardest....unless it involves stuffing my face with food. Just ask any writer or blogger. The hardest part of a story (or in this case, a blog) is getting started. So I am just going to diving right into it.

(You can skip this part if you're here for the food review)

Why Happy Days Ahead?
Because 'Iamloosebutterfly.blogspot' has already been taken. Just joking. I am starting this blog because quite simply, I miss writing for an audience and have been toying with this idea for a while now. This is not my first blog though. I had one or two in college but as you can imagine, the content is probably worthy of Stephenie Meyer's novels so let's move on.

I picked this name because it is going to be about everything (from places, clothes, beauty products to food and lifestyle) that makes a person, particularly me, happy. And why not share the happy? And no, I am not selling weed.

The url name is 'happydaysinc.blogspot' because 'happydaysahead' was taken. No, I am not joking. But I thought Inc had a nice touch. Like I am running a company that makes people (and myself) happy. Again, not selling weed here.

Anyway, I just thought I'll get this post out of the way by making it my first since it is one of favourite dishes and just had it recently.

The Obligatory Best Pork Noodle post.
Every other blogger in PJ and KL has probably blogged about it but that just goes to show how good this place is. Tucked away in a food court in Brickfields, Uncle Peter's Pork Noodles really does justice to pork. For only RM5, you get a mountain of meat types in your noodle along with a delicious egg, broken into and cooked with the soup as it is served to you piping hot. Crispy pork lard flavours the soup while a generous helping of pork liver, minced pork and sliced pork ensures that every bite is meaty-full bite. I am just salivating thinking about it now....



If I was on the death sentence, this will be my requested last meal.

Best time to have it is in the morning before 12noon as it gets crowded fast. (The Banana Leaf Rice is another crowd-puller but that's for a future post) Parking is also a bit of a challenge unless you're willing to part with RM4.25 per hour at the parking lot next to the food court. Better RM4.25 than RM50 saman I always say.

Pricing:

Small & without egg - RM4.50

Small & with egg - RM5.00

Big & without egg - RM5.50

Big & with egg - RM6.00

Address:
Peter’s Pork Noodles,
Mayflower Food Court,
144A, Jalan Vivekananda,
Off Jalan Brickfields,
50470 KL.
(right next to Legend’s Briyani House)
 Closed on alternate Mondays

Have a Happy Day ahead!