Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Dining at the Loft

It has been pretty long since I last dined at the Loft in Gurney Plaza. Few of the reasons are because of the conveniency for me to drop at the newer mall near my place and the recent fuel hike prevent me to go all over places for a meal so frequently. I was a lucky girl to secure a nice seat at the end of the restaurant. So I can actually see the Gurney drive from my seat, you can imagine yourself in a fish aquarium where my front and right are glass window. Some of the food stations seems had shut down their business because I couldn't find my favourite kapitan chicken at the baba's anymore. I settled with the lotus leaf chicken with rice where the white rice was really of low quality. I seriously think they should consider using fragrant siam rice to make the food more appetizing. But nevermind, I had another more annoying moment while eating the chicken. I can sense that the knife the cook used to cut the chicken need to be sharpen as the chicken bones had tiny and sharp ends. One of them actually broken and stucked in between my teeth and it twitched at times when I closed the upper and lower teeth together so I got to moved to the restroom and removed it using my finger nail. Gross. Apart from those, I had a good evening on last weekend considering the night view I see from the higher floor where the restaurant is located, all the lights. You know what I mean.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Wedding dinner at QE II



The place was awesome. The perfect setting, the beautiful chandelier, the sea view (minus the construction equipments and steel piling faraway), the comfortable seats, the romantic lighting, the delicious food and the beautiful bride. Heartiest conglatulation my dear friend, Liang Chyan. We had a wonderful evening because of you.



Sunday, July 27, 2008

Bug in my drawer

I caught a bug lying down dead with legs up in my drawer but could not identify its' type. Maybe he died because the lack of air. Stupid bug. I don't understand how you slip into my drawer at all because it is closed all the times. It looked hard and crunchy in very healthy green. I scooped it up with a pamphlet from the bank and threw the little creature into the trash. I am puzzled over the name of this bug because the structure of the wing is like a cockroach and the pair of eyes like it too.

A little more running nose and hopefully I am going to get well by tonight because I have a wedding party to attend. Luckily not much dressing up is needed because the code is smart and casual. The venue is somehow special at the pier and I think I am going to love it.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

I need a little vacation


I need a little vacation but I won't be having one until October. I feel like taking a day leave on top of national day holiday next month. I am so stuffed with work. I feel overloaded. I wish I am very free like how everyone think I am. I got these kind of questions every now and then because I am not working on the project that they are working on. But this doesn't mean I don't have anything to do. I am down for two days and too weak to sit at the desk for anytime longer.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

The attack of flu. Maybe?

Sometimes I really hate blogspot because their photo uploader always doesn't work. It is very disturbing when I can't put the cute image I want my blog to represent my daily feeling. Okay, you must be thinking I am a freak who loves showing my photo to the whole world. No I am not. I just wish to upload a picture of my mug, where inside contain the muddy chocolate paste I made. My recipe is

1) milo powder as much as you wish
2) as little water as possible to make it chocolatee..

This is the culprit who caused me sorethroat now. At least one of the factor that contribute to the chance I will be on leave tomorrow. Sorethroat most probably is a harbinger of the attack of flu because I began sneezing an hour ago.

I wish I can work from home tomorrow because I want to go to the morning market to restock pork and poultry in the fridge, plus vege. I don't like doing it on Saturday because I like to stay in bed until later. Furthermore from past experience I only take 45 minutes to go and buy and come home.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Genting Highland 2008

I went to Genting Highland twice last year and surprisingly this year again on last weekend. Since it is a project celebration I never hesitate to step my feet on the hilly resort because it is supposed to be a paid trip. I brought a partner, so I had to pay extra. Not fair.

I took the bus just like last year but did not participate in the treasure hunt organized by the celebration committee. It was a very very long journey because the bus driver happened to love to eat, rest, and stop for toilet breaks. He even stopped for toilet break on the way back at a very dirty gas station. There were 4 toilets and all smelled like unwashed toilets for 365 days. The pungent odor was whoa.. stung the nose and made one can't breath for at least 30 seconds after coming out from the small little room.


This is the view from my hotel room and it was the first time I stayed in a room facing the theme park. I used to always get a room with the window facing another room which I think if both of our windows are opened, I can overhear the couple there doing mushy talks, and maybe more.



On the way up to the peak, after passing Gohtong Jaya, I saw the Gohtong memorial. It was not not there during my previous visits.

All the games and rides in the theme park are still the same, the colours of the structures faded and no one seems to want to take any effort to repaint or refurbish the old rides especially the Super Toboggan which made my butt aching for hours after a ride on it.


I aimed for a relaxing trip meaning no waking up at 7am for breakfast and rushing for the rides and coming back to hotel room to clean up and pack luggage in 10 minutes to check out.
So I did not take the additional package on theme park. I strolled all the pathway in the First World complex and took some photos. Then went back to prepare for the buffet dinner in the evening. Surprisingly when I walked in, durian smell was all over the dining place. Don't hotels always prohibit people from bringing in durians as the odor is more to stink for foreigner to take it?
The indoor ferris wheel..
There is a show called Dreamz which starring white lion, and white tiger. I wanted to watch it in the first place, but considering I need to attend the dinner and it will be pretty late when it ended, I dropped the idea.



The next morning after breakfast, we walked around and came back for hotel for packing and shower.
I remember I didn't enjoy the ride on this because it scared me half to death. It made my heart stopped for many times everytime it swings everywhere and my heart came back thumping after I pleaded it to. That is why I don't enjoy rides. I am not sure what could change it.. I want to learn to love rides, I need lessons.




I will miss this place because it is always chilly up there. I like the temperature which won't burn my brain like on land, now, outside.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

The same trip like last year

Rolled to the right and left, left and right.

Again and again.

Exchanged positions from head at the bed end to the other end.

Mind swinging and floating.

It is another dawn.

Sandwiches made.

Cellphone alarm rang at 5.45am.

Gonna go soon, same trip like last year.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Two proud things I did on Sunday

Two things that I did last Sunday and I am proud of them.

FIRST:
The weather was hot during long weekend but thanks to it, I was able to dry up my two pair shoes after washing them using my old toothbrush and some detergent powders. Now my pair of flats don't stink anymore and my tennis shoes are shinning like the first day I wore them. I wanted to wash them for very long but I was lazy to do so until last weekend.




SECOND:
When I was walking in Jusco shopping for groceries in the past weekends, I saw this 3 packets of herbal soup with a packet of chrysantemum for making herbal tea. The name sounds strange to me, Song Kee. But after some persuadation by the forty plus years old promoter, I agreed to try on the product. So last weekend I boiled one packet with a whole chicken bones with extra 2 chicken drumsticks. I added about ten red dates in the pot too and let it boil for 5 minutes then simmered for one and half hour, salt to taste and served with white rice. It is one of the best soup because it doesn't taste bitter and unlike the usual dark black herbal soup which scared me whenever my mom cooked them. Now I have additional soup to make other than the usual "bah kut teh", lotus root with dried squid, corns with chicken and carrots, and a few more... :D

Monday, July 14, 2008

My new member of the kitchen family


This is a new member in the kicthen. I can now make porridge using rice cooker! (I tried out this afternoon and it was good). I used it to cook rice for the first time for today's dinner. Now, I am going to be happy for a short time :)

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Beautiful dusk


Yesterday about 7.30pm, I witnessed one of the most beautiful dusk I ever seen before. The scenery was in front of my house, coloured the sky with juices squeezed from oranges and mangoes. It also looks like the world is going to end... I guess this is how it looks like when the time comes.
Sad and despair.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Lunch at windy place on hot Saturday

It is usual hot in the afternoon. Lunch at windy, shaded under big trees. It is cheap and cooling despite the hot sun. The place is selling pan mee.

I overheard a conversation between a teenage boy with his mom. This is a translated version.

Mom: What do you want to eat? thin, thick, big, small, soup or dry?

Son: I want the one with "hot plate" (My expression is like this -__-''' when I heard he said "thiek pan")

Mom: (Pretend doesn't hear anything)

Son: i want "yee fook mee" ? (He he. Is he alright? Has he ever eaten there before? He looks like someone who stays in the flat nearby)




Before going back, I bought this "mua chi" from an uncle selling the food on motorbike. I only know about the existing of this "mua chi" few years ago.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Volunteery, Beaching & Hiking

On last Monday my colleagues at work place had this teambuilding at Pantai Kerachut. I remember the last teambuilding was paintball and I did not played. Now this time round I am eager to show my complete strength to hike up the hill and pick up most of the rubbish at the beach. OK. This time, we are going to do some volunteery service on behalf of Intel. We will clean the beach and up the hiking trail when we supposed to hike all the way up the hill and down to the clean beach where "some" turtles will come to give birth at the right season, Pantai Kerachut.

Everybody arrived at the national park at about 9.30 in the morning car-pooling in a cars. We registered ourselves (wrote our name and signed. that's all which took more than half an hour because the number of people are too many) and the committee distributed the lunch pack. Mine was spicy deluxe chicken from McD.



After a little briefing from the organizing committee, we proceeded to our own team and started shouting some weird slogan. Luckily we have the baba Leonard in the team, that's how we got the ole ole a a slogan so quickly.


Group photo as usual without the photographer and everyone started walking picking up rubbish whenever we saw one.



Some people spotted a huge jellyfish and were making fuss about it. Hehe. I walked over and joined, happily managed to get Chor Chen to capture a good picture with the jellyfish. It was so big and transparent, still alive, buried halfly in the sand.



I was so eager to clean up the beach and saw this Milo 3 in 1 packet floating on the water. I slowly moved a step front and stepped my right leg near to the water. It sank! My leg went in and stucked there. I was struggling to pull it out but failed. I was panic for a moment and shouted "hey, I can't get my leg out". Some people came and helped out. So do the photographers who thought this will make a great picture. -_-'''.


My leg actually went in deeper by time. So I got to do something. I released my foot from my beloved sandal and took it out. Voila! My leg was safe. But I need to save my sandal too, so I shove my hand into the hole that my leg made and pulled my sandal with all my mighty strength. I was worried I might break it and felt so excited when I retrieved my sandal out of the sand. Now I have 1 muddy leg, 1 muddy sandal and 2 dirty hands.




I went to a stable hard surface near the water and washed a little accompanied by Leonard and Xiao Wei (very loving couple. hehe). I continued hiking with the rest of the people, most of them already ran up the hill. I really mean ran. I was almost the tail of the team and we walked very slowly stopped every a while to rest. I grasped for breath and was getting hard time to breath also the heavy backpack did not help. I had 1 lunch and 2 bottles of water in my backpack causing my back a little ache.


When some people decided to give up hiking up, I asked Soek Junn if we should follow them. We thought it for 5 seconds and made up our mind to go down because we were more than happy when heard that we could go to the other side of the hill to Pantai Kerachut by boat. But going down the hill took us some time too.

I washed my sandals and legs when I got down at the stream, with Chor Chen the photographer following me hoping to get another great photo when I fell into the water.



After some negotiation by the boss, 8 of us went onto a boat. We were thinking that we will be the first group to reach Pantai Kerachut and can show off by hiding the fact that we actually took the boat. =)


But I was surprised when all of them already at the beach when we reached. Hehe.



They were jealous of us. See their grumpy and unwelcoming face? =P


We all ate our food and rested a while. Then had the usual teambuilding activities ; games. We did kite making and creating a "project" using materials provided to safe keep an egg from broken in a "very" high free fall.




So happy that our kite was the first one to fly up the sky. It was over our expectation. Our kite was different from the rest because we used the colour paper on the wrong side. It turned out to be white instead of the right side which is green.


I did not help much in flying the kite because I have no experience. Haha.


After that, we walked to a nearby place to see some tiny turtles and went home in boats. I was exhausted (from the hike), dehydrated (very hot sun), wet (from the heavy rain while we were going back in boat), and tired (talked too much).

Sunday, July 06, 2008

On the way to happiness?

I am desperate to know how the path in front of me should lie. I see branches at every junction and all leads to different destinations. There is a sea of happiness in front of me but I am not sure which path should I take to reach there.

I like the weekend at home, do nothing except watching series for 18 hours a day. If I can withstand all the 18 hours, I can finish the whole 20 episodes series. Always in a few episodes, there will be an evil guy who will spoil my mood and kills my overall happiness while watching. Also the good people inside the drama 100% can't see the real colour of the bad guy until the climax of the series. I will start swearing inside my heart that this bad guy should hit the wall and die. In real life, this bad guy really exists depends on if you can pick him out from the masked crowd. I watched Ah Long Limited on last Saturday and I felt I had wasted my few hours sitting in front of laptop because this movie is so lousy. There is no pretty girl or interesting scene except for the silly and unacceptable jokes.

I like the weekend at home where I can experiment many different cooking recipes. The best is I am presented with chic kitchen appliances and a full set of Corningware bowls and plates. I don't mind if God drops me an ice cream maker too so I can savour myself with home made ice cream in burning hot 40 degree sunny afternoon. I want white kitchen cabinets but I worry it will turn yellowish by time. So let's change it to non-white, probably, if approved.

I know this sound crazy, but I like to own a sewing machine. I want to make my own curtains, lacy baby dress for my niece and many others which I saw in a book in Borders two weeks ago. It comes handy too when I need to mend any broken stitches or torn clothes and make a little alteration to my wardrobe pieces.

I like the feeling of going home after work to my own home sweet home. Turn on the air conditioner when the day is hot. Use water heater when I need to bathe and it is icy cold in the morning. I like to have beautiful nest where I can rest after the hard day outside.

So you see these are some of my happiness I am thinking to have. Wish me to achieve them as soon as possible. I already took my first step by redeeming a rice cooker.