A Soccer Mom's Dream Car?

Soooo... After the big breakfast at The Red Beanbag, we looked at the watch and decided that it was too early to head home. So hubby made the executive decision to drive to BMW... To stay 'up to date', katanya! Heh... If it was up to me, I would gladly go home and take a nap. You know, the type of nap that you only get when your tummy is full and the weather is too hot to do anything else? Yessss that kind of nap! *ppfftt*

There really wasn't any particular reason to head to BMW. I mean, Hubby just bought his baby, and I'm completely contented with the hand-me-down Mini Cooper. Totally easy to cilok and also navigate through my tight office parking space. Of course, I wanted a bigger car and all that. (Pssttt... don't tell my Mini, but I actually detest two door cars!) However, until baby #3 comes along (eh ade #3 ke???), Aiden and Ian will just have to make do with what we have.

But... (Oh come on, you must have guessed that there was a but somewhere!!)... Have you seen the new BMW 2 Series Active Tourer??? No, I'm not talking about the not-yet-launched 7-seater which is also called the BMW 2 Series Gran Tourer (itu tunggu anak 5 lah *grin*).

Ian checking out the car specifications and price.  

The BMW 2 Series Active Tourer is totally a soccer mum's dream car. *drool* No, I won't bore you with the car specs and all that but let me highlight the more interesting features. It has a really spacious backseat area with plenty of legroom (even more spacious than my dream car - the X4!) You can put two car seats in, and the maid can still fit in the middle. The rear back seats can also slide back/front so you can also trade legroom for more boot space. Wide doors too so kids can easily slide in or exit, plus you won't have any trouble lugging the car seat in/out too!

Who says a soccer mom car can't be sexy?

Other than that, I love love love that it is a practical family car. Imagine going grocery shopping and your hands are full. You just need to wave your foot under the rear bumper and tadaaaa the boot opens automatically. You can also unlock the car by just holding the door handle. No need to rummage through your handbag for the keys... ever!!! And semi auto parking function!! (I suck at side parking so this is a much needed feature.)

Spacious back seats.

As for the interior design and dashboard layout, I love the fact that it's not boring (if you know what I mean). There are plenty of buttons (including the iDrive system) with classy finishing to make your car look way more sophisticated and complicated than it really is. 

Complicated console... I like!

What about the ride and handling? Naaaahhhh I'll pass that to dear Hubby to describe. Not interesting for this blog! Can't wait for the new X1 to be launched at the end of the year too. Maybe I'll sway that way instead? 

Last but not least... NOOO... We're still not getting a new car. But it's always nice to dream, kan?? *grin*

My Pit Stop Boys

Saturday morning is almost always reserved for washing the car! And if it is not done on Saturday, the activity would then be brought over to Sunday morning. That's how much dedication the boys (Hubby included!) have over the car.

Although I am no big fan of washing the car, I certainly appreciate the father-son bonding during this activity. Most importantly, I appreciate those precious minutes when the kids are out of my hair! So while Hubby is busy lathering his baby with soapsuds, Aiden sprays water to rinse the car, whilst Ian... erm Ian just plays with the car wax bottles, he's helpful that way!

Last weekend was no different. Incidentally, the boys were in their Lightning McQueen pyjamas (with checkered pants) and they looked just like a pit stop crew, only way cuter!

My pit stop boys!

Aiden's interest in washing the car has been evident since he was just a little toddler. He loved accompanying his daddy outside, using his tiny fingers to scrub the rims. (Child labour law, anyone?) Hence nowadays, it is simply natural that he takes his role seriously. He is not only responsible for rinsing the soapsuds away, he is also given the responsibility to scrub and wipe the car. The only thing he is not allowed to touch is the wax!

Check out Aiden's focused face!

Ian on the other hand, is responsible for carrying bottles around. Heh - i'm just glad he hasn't slipped and fell so far!  

Engrossed with the soapsuds on his arms.

Have you ever heard about this joke, where a man shows the number of products he uses on his car, versus how many he uses on himself???

Sounds familiar??

Well, here's my Hubby's range of product that he uses on his car. As for the range of products he uses on himself... let's just say he enjoys using my Sothys facial wash, Bath and Body Works body wash, Shiseido shampoo (without the conditioner, thank god!) and sometimes when he runs out... even my Rexona deoderant! Luckily toothbrushes are sold in a set of two, if not I'm sure he would trespass to that territory too!

Ian trying to figure out why his Daddy needs so many bottles to wash one car.

The other attraction that makes washing the car so enticing for the kids... is of course the water play! And not just water play with rinsing the car... but Hubby even makes the effort to inflate the inflatable pool and places the garden slide into the pool to make a mini water slide. Toys optional, depending on what the kids drag into the pool.

The slide even has a hose attachment to make it into a water sprinkler.

A big splash from Aiden... Ian of course followed suit soon after.

So this is how my kids bond with their Daddy. Cheap and effective too! Do you and your kids have regular bonding activities that I can replicate with Aiden and Ian? Do share!

Using my BMW White Card at the Plaza Premium Lounge

One of the perks of the BMW White Card is the complimentary use of the Plaza Premium Lounges, available at selected airports around Malaysia. Last week I decided to try the lounge at the Johor Senai airport on the way home from one of my trips to the yard. Since it was still Ramadhan back then, it I wasn't the food that attracted me. Rather, it was the shower facility that I wanted to try out.

After a long day of meetings and site visit at Pasir Gudang, I welcomed the idea of being able to take a shower before boarding the airplane. Imagine walking around site during fasting month - my throat was parched and my body was icky and sweaty. Also, I was heading for buka puasa at the Sama Sama Hotel near KLIA as soon as I touched down KL, so I desperately needed a shower to freshen up for the benefit of my colleagues who were dining with me! 

Before that, here's a lovely Lego model of the project I am working on right now. Pretty creative, right?

Proud to work towards installing the first TLP in Malaysia.

The model is placed in the client office at the yard.

Site visit during fasting month. Definitely not something I want to do again!

We left the site at 430pm - by the time we got through the traffic, we arrived at the airport just slightly under an hour later. Check-in was smooth and I immediately headed to the Plaza Premium Lounge, located on the first floor, just beside the escalator after the luggage scan and immigration check point. I simply had to flash my BMW White Card. They registered my details, checked my boarding pass and I had to sign a receipt that stated I was using my card for entry. 

The lounge was practically empty except for one person watching TV while another was working on his laptop while munching on lounge snacks. I asked for a towel to shower but was quite surprised when they immediately replied that they had "just run out towels". However, I was quite adamant about taking a shower, so I urged them to check whether they had hand towels which I could use. They then checked - and barely two minutes after, they handed me a towel saying that they "found" one. Really! I had a feeling that they didn't want me to shower or messing their shower room - I mean, how can a practically deserted lounge like that run out of towels??!! Quite illogical if you ask me.

Entrance to the lounge.

Light snacks, and a very comfortable high table which you can use to work on your laptop while eating.

Part of the lounge area - completely deserted.

Anyway, I grabbed my towel and headed to the ladies. The sink area is actually separated by a door from the toilet and shower room. Since there were no ladies in sight in the lounge, I actually locked the door after the sink area, giving me full privacy and use of the toilet and shower room. The shower room was dry and clean, and it came with a water heater. There was also a soap dispenser in the shower room, but since I had my toiletries with me I didn't need to use it. 

The sink area and the door leading to the toilet and shower room.

The shower room - water heater included!

After a quick shower, I changed into clean clothes, applied make up then went back into the lounge sitting area. There, I plugged in my laptop, settled down and used the free wi-fi to update my blog. Soon after that, the lounge staff announced that my flight was ready for boarding.

Blogging! And this is how the BMW White Card looks like.

The BMW White Card is given free to BMW owners who purchased their car from an authorized dealer (such as Auto Bavaria, Ingress) and is valid for 3 years. I think you can choose to extend your membership after the 3rd year by paying a nominal fee. Other than using it at the Plaza Premium Lounge, I have used it previously to buy discounted tickets to Aquaria, Petrosains and even to get a discount for food at Serai and Alexis. I have also used it to gain free entry to the CIMB Classic golf tournament (and saw Tiger Woods close up)!

Anyway, here are a list of Plaza Premium Lounges within Malaysia where you can use your BMW White Card:

• Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA)
• Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2)
• Kota Kinabalu International Airport
• Kuching International Airport
• Penang International Airport
• Langkawi International Airport
• Senai International Airport

My transportation home. Even after MH370 and MH17, I am still loyal to MAS.

BMW Maclaren Stroller

Saw this at the BMW Showroom last week, when we were there getting our number plate replaced (yeay, finally got our tendered 1221 number!) and was drooling at the sleek design of the stroller. 

Unfortunately, the Maclaren that we bought 5 years ago for Aiden is still in very good condition as the Quinny is Ian's main mode of transportation nowadays. Our Maclaren gets to see sunlight only during my evening walks around the neighbourhood, so can't really justify the purchase of this beauty below.

Beautiful in black.

*gulp* at the price.

BMW wheels. *drool*

Oh well, one can always dream! *grin*

We Found Our Old Baby Beemer!

It was a day just like any other weekend. That fateful weekend, we decided to brave the traffic into KL by heading to MidValley Megamall. I wanted to run various errands - from upsizing my wedding ring to downsizing my work pants. We also wanted to send our new Baby Beemer for a wash so that we didn't have to search for parking, but the car wash only accepted cars with membership - how people do business like this, I don't understand. So Hubby circled the parking area a few times to search for parking and suddenly, he exclaimed, "Eh, yang! Our car!"

Yes, barely two months after selling our old Baby Beemer, it has moved in with a new owner. And we found the car in MidValley, of all places! As fate wanted it, we found a parking spot just three cars away from it. We quickly parked and walked over to our old baby. It looked bright and shiny, and the interior was even painted new. All of Aiden's hard work peeling the dashboard was completely gone! There were a couple of files in the backseat and there was even a stuffed toy behind the back seat headrest.

(I later found out from a friend that the stuffed toy is a Rilakkuma - erk forgive my ignorance but I had to google to find out what in the world is a Rilakkuma bear! Rilakkuma is a combination of the Japanese pronunciation of relax and the Japanese word for bear, hence a relax bear? Wow, the new owners must be uber cool!)

Hello baby!

Excited faces, posing with our old baby.

A must have selfie with the earlier mentioned Rilakkuma.

We were so excited about finding the car that we couldn't stop talking about it over lunch. I mean, how often would you be able to find your old car in a place as huge as Kuala Lumpur? We were secretly hoping that we would be able to meet the new owners before we left the mall, but as were walking back to our car after completing our errands, the car was still there. So I did the next best thing I could think of. I wrote them a note!

A note for the new owners.

Yeah, we used to own this car *sebak*

So, to the new owners of our Baby Beemer, I hope you love the car as much as we did. And please take good care of my baby! Till we see you again, XOXO.

Our New Baby Beemer

Finally, after deliberating for soooooo long, we decided to sell my Baby Beemer for a new Baby Beemer. Truth to be told, after 6 years, the cost for maintaining the car was getting a bit too exorbitant; we were paying 4digits every few months. *sigh* First it was the jerking, which took 5 trips to the workshop (each costing about 4 digits!!) to fix. Well we were partly to blame as well cos we tried to use a second hand part (to reduce cost) and just my luck, the part became faulty just after the one month warranty. So then I had to fork out more money for original parts. Then the power window for the left back seat malfunctioned. Then one day, as Hubby was reversing out from a parking lot, the brake refused to work! He had to jam his foot down to force the brake to stop the car! Imagine, something as safety critical as brakes could malfunction without any indication of wear and tear! And the most recent was the radiator, so I had to keep topping up water to prevent overheating until we fixed it. Not to mention, the daily wear and tear - interior, exterior and ailing suspension. While we were fixing the radiator, I asked the mechanic to provide us a quotation for fixing everything, and I literally balked when I saw the price. It was about half the cost of a down payment for a new basic 3-series.

Despite everything, I definitely cherish my memories with Baby Beemer. Six years ago, I've always admired the 3-series but always assumed that it was too expensive for my reach. Then the Sakhalin opportunity came along and with my expat salary, I thought I could probably afford a Mercedes, even going as far as placing a deposit back then. Biasalah, shopaholics don't shop around, they simply buy! Then Hubby managed to convince me to check out Auto Bavaria. And we found out that since Hubby was working with Sime Engineering, we could get an 8% discount from the actual price, making it just a bit more expensive than the Mercedes! So I quickly cancelled my cheque deposit (but I felt so guilty to the guy who sold me the Mercedes, I met up with him separately to give him an angpow of RM200) and placed my order with Auto Bavaria. Of course, drama queens always attract drama - I was quite adamant that I wanted my car to be Graphite Grey in colour, but the sales associate kept telling me that if I wanted the SE (special edition) version, I would have to settle with any remaining colours they had because they were phasing out the SE for the basic (and cheaper) version. So I grudgingly agreed for black. By chance, (I don't remember exactly how), I found out that there were a few graphites but they were given to some other customers just because I had settled for black. I kicked up such a big fuss, even going to the extent of contacting the branch manager and insisted on changing to a different sales advisor (which was a blessing in disguise because the replacement, Ken, is such a god sent with fabulous PR skills and tip top service).

I also remember tendering for the plate number 1221 and failing the first time. Tendered a larger sum the second time and finally got the news while I was in Russia that I scored the plate and the car was ready for collection. Then conniving me decided to surprise Hubby with the car. I deliberately told him that my trip home was postponed and tricked him into believing that our area was going through a communications black out for a day due to some server upgrading works. How he believed that, is still a mystery to me now! So I boarded the plane home and during transit in Korea, texted Ken to inform him  that I was on route home to pick up the car. Landed in KLIA and took a taxi directly to Auto Bavaria, luggage and all. Ken gave me a short briefing of the car, and then... I drove the car on the road for the very first time! Terkumat kamit baca Bismillah and segala surah whilst driving to Hubby's office. Got to his office just after lunch time, and called him. Imagine his shock when I told him that I was downstairs, with the new car!!! (Then on the way back to his office that afternoon, I nearly got into an accident, stupid car in front of me made an emergency brake and I had to do the same, screeching tyres and all. Well, at least I got to test the brakes!)

Anyway, Baby Beemer has been through all of our ups and downs. It has Aiden's milk spots all over its back seat (which we would dutifully wipe clean), scratches in its interior due to Aiden's curious prying fingers, brought both Aiden and Ian home for the very first time, witnessed us signing the S&P to our new house, lovingly carted our possessions when we moved house, put up with the minor accidents and dents we caused (I was once in an accident where I was sandwiched between a Honda and a lorry - Honda's boot was dented in and the lorry's fender broke but our car suffered no dents at all, just minor scratches) and of course, drove us everywhere we needed to go.

10th February 2014, we finally surrendered Baby Beemer to be traded in.

Farewell Baby Beemer - you have served us well for 6 years.

So, why another Beemer? Honestly, Hubby was swayed by the Audi. We test drove the Audi twice, and both times I sulked. After driving a Beemer for 6 years, I do not want any other car! Despite the faults I listed earlier, really - what more can you expect from a six year old car? And, why another 3-series? Well, that was Hubby's decision in entirety. He claimed he is too young for a 5-series *ppffttt* and also he fell in love with the 328 M Sport, the highest spec in the 3-series line. Something about performance or torque or speed of the car - whatever! I, on the other hand couldn't care less; as long as he decided on another Beemer.

19th February 2014, say hello to our new Baby Beemer.

Waiting to be picked up at the showroom.

20th February 2014, we went to pick up the car. Check out that smile!

See the blue line across the dashboard of the car? That's a signature to show that the car is an M Sport. The 328 also comes with a bigger iDrive screen complete with map navigation. Please don't ask me about the features under the hood!

Using the back seat seatbelt for the first time.

Similar to when I picked up our first Baby Beemer, before you can drive the car out of the showroom, Auto Bavaria would conduct a one-to-one briefing about the car, its features and answer any questions you may have. This is Hubby listening intently to Ken's explanation.

Aiden all excited!

That weekend, we brought (the new) Baby Beemer for its first long distance maiden drive. Balik kampung for my brother's engagement. We were given strict instructions not to use the Sports mode or go above a certain RPM during the run-in period, but even with all those restrictions, the car's performance was an absolute dream. On the highway it took Hubby every ounce of his self restraint to not push the pedal all the way down!

Our car in the convoy of cars heading to my brother's fiance's house.

Can you spot Baby Beemer?

My favourite dish bila balik kampung!

Poor Aiden - he didn't get into this picture.

All of us.

Selfie with my sister.

Now that Hubby has proclaimed that Baby Beemer is his car (some excuse about how I can't handle the performance of the car *scoff* or was it because he paid the downpayment?), I guess I am now saddled with driving his car to work daily. Takpelah, smaller car, easier to park, and the best part is - Aiden has the same car too! *grin*

Hello Mini Cooper! We're going to have a lot of adventures together!

Aiden's car is so cute, I wish I have the courage to spray paint his car red to match mine!

Macy's End Year Sale

I love Macy. You can tell from my blog post about my shopaholic experiences here and when they crowned me the first prize winner of an LCD TV for their contest here. They really should nominate me as a Macy Ambassador!

Sadly, this year, they are not going to have their annual warehouse clearance sale. (What a pity, the year when I needed this the most, they decided to not have one, sheeeeeshhhhh!) This year, they are only having an End Year Sale.

So, that fateful Friday, my partner-in-crime-in-shopping, Miss Nick Nacks and I gobbled our lunch quickly and we drove to the biggest Macy outlet we could find - Minlon, Seri Kembangan. The plan was to quickly shop and return to the office by the end of our lunch hour (yeah right!!!)

When we arrived, we were shocked to see that their parking lots were absolutely full! Damn, the morning crowd must have beaten us to the good stuff. So I quickly reversed my car into the only available parking spot - a teeny weeny small space right between two 4WDs. And this was what happened:

I bumped into the 4WD and dented poor Baby Beemer. The 4WD wasn't even hurt!

Here's another angle. This is my very first accident since I started driving Baby Beemer. Aaarrrggghhh...

Due to the extreme stress, I munched on free popcorn all day long.


The first thing we pounced upon when we walked in, was the fabric. Can you actually believe that they were selling their fabrics for RM1 per meter???

Fabrics for curtains and sofa upholstery strewn all over the floor. Apparently these fabrics have already been in their stock for at least 8 years or more so they wanted to let them go.

But did I really looked like I cared?? At the rate our spending is going with the new aircon, tv panel, bed panel and platform, kitchen cabinets (and the list goes on), I felt that this ultra cheap fabric could come in handy in the future. So I hunted for a reasonably looking fabric and bought the WHOLE ROLL - 38 meters in total! Where could you ever get 38 meters of fabric for RM38?

70% off for all house decorations.

30% off for carpets. I fell in love with this carpet but at RM1K plus (before discount), Hubby said it was more than a want rather than a need.

Table runners, bedsheets, curtain hooks - all at 70% to 75% off.

Fell in love with this garden set.

So, if you're looking for something on sale to add on to your house, run to the nearest Macy today. If you're looking for an RM1 fabric, don't bother running or even walking. Because by the next day, they had ran out of fabrics.

Amacam, ada gaya Macy Ambassador tak? *grin*