schwartie's world

Turning 26

2007-04-06T23:06:00.000+08:00

That's right. Turning 26 actually wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. I'm learning to embrace this phase in my life. This year particularly, actually turned out to be quite a good birthday. In total, I had three cakes! One for each day (a three-day line up in total), and that makes - three wishes! Hope those three simple wishes will somehow come true. I've always dreaded the part when you're asked to blow out the candles and make a wish. Or was it the other way round? Anyway, I've got too many wishes up in my head and I just simply can't make them all at once while everyone's waiting to dig into the cake! So with my ad hoc wishes - it's no wonder none ever comes true! *bah*

-------------------------------------------
Mar. 29th - Actual Day @ Home
-------------------------------------------
Of all days, Dan and I chose this particular day to head down to the bank to close our joint account! At least I'll always remember the day we closed our joint account. *heh* That also means, getting into the office later than usual. Made quick plans with Rach (and Edwin) and Sze to come over after dinner for cakes - lovely Espresso Chocolate Banana (or something like that), which Sze bought from Singapore. I know...I'm such a spoilt brat, having her cake flown in.

----------------------------------------------
Mar. 30th - Le Francais @ One Bangsar
----------------------------------------------
Weeks running prior to my birthday, I had plans to buy the family dinner at Kogetsu. But as usual, Dad always have better plans. Was really funny of him this year. He had forgotten to wish me during breakfast on my birthday and only realized just when he was about to leave for work - but I was in the shower and so he shouted from outside and then later left another text on my mobile (in case I didn't hear him). How sweet. *heart* Anyway, that aside, on Friday night, the family had French at Le Francais, One Bangsar.
Mom and Dad had previously tried this place out and wanted to bring us there. So what better occasion other than my birthday! *lol* We brought a bottle of Henschke to accompany us. Indeed an excellent choice. *hic* It was also here that the staff surprised me with the second cake. *yumm* Dinner was good and I just simply enjoyed the company of my family.

-------------------------------------------------
Mar. 31st - Room 2409 @ Pacific Regency
-------------------------------------------------
I made bookings for an executive suite at the Pacific Regency downtown to simply throw a little get together with my close friends. Most turned up and I was quite pleased : ) Before my guests arrive, I drove down to Isetan to grab some food to entertain them as I had asked them to come for dinner. Rach helped with some of the logistics and pizzas too. And not forgetting the third cake MC got her to buy as a surprise for me and also for her (MC) absence. Lovely! I bought heaps of sushi from Isetan, snacks and also quickly grabbed a bottle of vodka from the bottle shop. Having so much to carry with me, it was a tough one when I checked into the suite. The butler began to wonder if I had any guests coming up later as the exec suite was indeed a huge room for one! *lol* Anyway, the cat was out of the bag when Rach and Edwin arrived, they made friends with him and he sent them up to the room and while doing that, he found out it was my birthday and came up to wish me. What a funny guy! I think his name was Rafi.
This was especially special cause this year, Haley was around for my birthday. I've not celebrated my birthday with her since college - after her family migrated to Brisbane. So, extra special indeed!

That night, we drank heaps, ate heaps and talked heaps. However, there were still leftovers, which Rach - whom stayed the night with me - and I ate for breakfast as we missed our free breakfast. *lol*

I'm learning yet again to celebrate birthdays as I've always dreaded the thought of AGING! How silly and after reading the card Cheo got for me, "Enjoy the AGE, Women become more attractive as they age!", it got me re-thinking and he's so RIGHT! And it was so well said. hehe...so ladies, embrace your age cos it can only get better *wink* according to the Gurus!

Chris Bites : Chocolate Guinness Cake

2007-03-25T19:33:00.000+08:00

After reading a lot about the greatness of this cake, I thought I'd give it a shot myself. However, I must say that I'm not so much of a baker cos till this day, I still can't perfect a cake. It's that sick! But heck, giving this a shot even if I'd have to chuck the whole thing into the bin after. The original recipe's by Nigella Lawson - and she for one, makes baking seem all so easy. *cough* not really.

The cake turned out pretty alrite - it didn't sink (like it always would), it wasn't burnt, and it was cooked through the required baking time (which I hardly succeed through)! The cream cheese frosting actually turned out really well too - it wasn't too sweet to taste and I must say, it's by far the best frosting that I've ever tasted! The cake was somewhat disappointing. It wasn't so much of what I'd expected it to taste. The bitterness of the Guinness was just too much to taste. Nigella did say the cake has a tang to it but I'm still puzzled. Quite sure it wasn't suppose to taste like that. Something must've gone wrong somewhere. I'm quite certain I'll give this recipe another go at and hopefully the second attempt will turn out somewhat better. Otherwise, somebody should just tell me to give up totally on baking.

I can't wait to get off work...

2007-03-23T17:19:00.000+08:00

...and get right into the weekend mood!!

I've got a couple of things to-do this weekend.

Can't wait! Can't wait!!

(Hopefully it'll turn out pretty....otherwise ignore this post)

Until the next update ; )

Guess who?

2007-03-21T11:35:00.000+08:00

Getting my daily online news scoop from TheStar, guess who did I spot in one of the snippets?

SHAO!

Pizza Hut customer eh, Shao? :P

But, "Surf with a pizza at the hut" <---- hmm....sounds a bit too corny ain't it?

Anyway, you're FAMOUS-la Shao!!! hehehe

It's clear...

2007-03-14T13:36:00.000+08:00

Making this a quick one as my table's piling up. *sigh* Gimme a break!

Anyway, made it to the ENT's last Sat as scheduled. I had previously forgotten how worrying the lump could possibly be until Mom, Dad and Wen all tagged along to the check-up. (heh...thanks guys!) Before I was called into the consultation room, Wen told me to voice record everything in there in case I'd forget what the doc diagnose. Kids being tech-savvy *tsk* But yes, I did what she told me to :P

Going to a specialist has its pros and cons.
.
Pros - they make it all seem so professional and you'll eventually feel at ease and leave it all to their professionalism. So if they say "There's nothing to worry about", you're suppose to walk out feeling all good and really not worry 'bout anything!
.
Cons - a consultation less than 5mins (3.55mins to be exact - from my voice recording *Lol*) will cost you a BOMB! (ie. RM165).
.
Then again, I guess you're paying for the assurance. So yes. After some pinching and squeezing on the lump *ouch*, 'stick-out-your-tongue and say "Aahh"', nostril check, ear check, (I think that's the standard procedures at the ENT's *shrugs*) the doc concluded that there's nothing alarming on the lump and it could possibly be just an infection (hmm...I never knew infections could cause a lump growth (?!?))

Dad accompanied me into the consultation room and was relieved when he heard what the doc diagnosed. He told the doc that he'd had trouble sleeping prior to knowing 'bout the lump - *aiyak* didn't know he was that worried. That's my Dad! *heart* Thinking back, my late maternal grandfather passed on from throat cancer. So anything unusual near the neck area is quite nerve wrecking for us.

Anyway, I'm now on two types of antibiotics and another to reduce the swelling on the lump.

*praise the good Lord*

To those that called (Rach), sms-ed (Cheo), emailed (sensei), MSn-ed(Shao,Pat) and wondered, thank you all. And sorry for getting you guys worried.

And now, I've to get back to work. Can I pretend that I'm unwell?

A Lump...

2007-03-08T17:40:00.000+08:00

Been meaning to explain my absence. Wasn't due to any particular reason, just needed more time to get things together and actually putting my thoughts in words.
.
Okay, in other words, I've been a bum. A lazy one maybe. Then again, since when am I not? :P

But with this sudden discovery, thought I'd just drop off a short post.
.
.
I felt an uneasy numb feeling on my neck this morning. Didn't bother to feel it until later in the afternoon that I ran my fingers over the numbness and felt a little cyst-like lump/growth right below my left ear. I won't say it's painful but when I touch it, it's got a numb feeling. I don't know if that's good or bad. But I think I need to get it checked A.S.A.P.!

I've no mood to continue this now.

Until I get it checked with the results (hopefully *prays hard* it'll be GOOD news!), over and out for now.

It's Valentine's Day...

2007-02-14T15:07:00.000+08:00

....*PPFFTTT* "SO???"
.
.
.
.
.
.
"Yea, so big deal it's Valentine's." "Only fools get sucked into all the over-priced meals, gifts, flowers, chocolates, and the list goes on." A friend's MSN message reads: "Valentine's Days - my least favourite day of the year!".

*grin*

Ahh...all the bitterness. *bigger grin*

It's funny how some react to V-Day. Some take it with a pinch of salt, others (usually the unattached ones) take a big blow. To some, every day can be Valentine's day, so why only treat your loved ones special on this particular day. There are one thousand and one arguments out there but I personally think that everything should be in moderation. Love is not to be measured by how big (many carat) the diamond is, or how big/expensive my bouquet of flowers is. Love is just not supposed to be measured. Period. Then again, I can't speak too loud and I won't add on further else I'll end up contradicting myself! (I like diamonds though and it's nice to receive flowers once in a while :P)

H.A.P.P.Y. V.A.L.E.N.T.I.N.E'S !!

A no-particular-order post

2007-02-08T15:51:00.000+08:00

- Received a surprised call from Aunty Kim 2 days back. Been a while since we last exchanged emails and MSN messages. She must've been restless with the sudden winter cold (she was dreading the -15'c temp that morning, with a frozen icy lake outside the house, Pearlie and her couldn't go for their walks) that she'd decided to call her ol' friend, ME! We spoke for about 20mins or so and I mentioned that I might visit her in April/May (please let me strike lottery!!). That got her a bit esctatic. heh...so if all goes well, NYC here I come!

- Met up with my Monash Sunway mates for dinner last night. Was a post-Martin's-wedding get together. Also supposed to be Martin's housewarming but somehow we warmed up at Chilli's Midvalley. The few of us shared a 'housewarming' gift - set of 6pc wine glasses with a decanter from Bohemia Crystal. How nice of us. *grin* We did adjourne to the newly weds' love nest across the street, the Boulevard apartments, after dinner. They've yet to furnish the place but it looks cosy enough for a young couple. ahh....married life is a bliss (to a certain extent *shrugs*).

Wu & Jac getting comfy on the couch / Us girls and Sally - Mrs. Martin V.

- I need a MAN in my life!
Let me justify the above...I have my reasons...valid ones (I think). It was past 11pm as I drove home from Midvalley last night when I realized my tank was running low. Made a pit stop at the kiosk nearby where I stay. Obviously at that hour, the kiosk was deserted - although the attendant was behind the counter inside, with lights out and doors locked (security reasons obviously), I braved through to get my tank filled. I worry for all reasons, which is when times like these, dad's words always play in my mind, "It's dangerous out there at night; Don't come back too late cause you're a girl; I don't understand why young people must stay out late into the night(morning)", the usual lines - parents being parents. I watched my surroundings anticipating for the pump to click when full. Then, two vans pulled into the kiosk. I freaked cos I feared they'd harm me obviously - tank was only one third filled. I actually stopped the pump thinking it'd be wise to get out for safety reasons. I watched again and thought, "Heck! I'll just get it done with." And continued refilling. Once the pump clicked, I screwed back the tank knob and grabbed my receipt and dashed into the car and sped off. *sigh*

Tell me if that's a good enough reason to justify my above statement? It ain't fun living in fear like that. :(

Teach? Me??

2007-02-06T16:41:00.000+08:00

When I just got out of uni, a fresh grad then, I bummed around like most and boggled my mind with what my career would actually end up like. One of the career paths I considered was actually teaching. No, not school level but elementary, like a montessori. How odd eh?

I've always thought that I'd be really good with kids coz I naturally like them. 'cept when the devil in them evolves into a monster. Now, that'll really drive me up the wall. But yes, I think I really do like dealing with kids. That was then. As I age, I've noticed that my level of tolerance and patience has changed over time. I get very short fused quite easily these days. It annoys the crap out of me and I wonder what's causing it. Talk about anger management and finding a remedy to tame that tigress inside me *meh*. Any suggestions?

Anyway, back to teaching these kids.

Spent a really mellow-jello weekend last week. Everyone seemed to be caught up with their own agenda so I took the time to follow my parents to Uncle KJ's. Been a while since I last visited Uncle KJ's. A typical Saturday night, where mom's sibs gather in Uncle KJ's, and they do what they know best, DRINK! And chat and nibble and chat more, the whole works. I reckon both my Uncle KJ and Uncle KS's blood vessels flow alcohol instead of blood. That's besides the point.

Anyway, Uncle KS's sis-in-law is currently running a Cosmotots franchise with her husband. Both husband and wife actually quit their day jobs, one a succesful PR manager and the other a Director of an IT company, to run this IQ development centre full time. My sister, Wen, used to attend Cosmotots classes when she was a four year-old - she almost didn't have to attend kindy school but because a kindy level requirement was needed to enter primary school (or so I think), mom sent her for a year of kindy school.

In the midst of the on-going chats, Dad asked Uncle KS if he could get us in touch with Aunt Juliet (his sis-in-law) to find out more about the franchising. My eyes out-stretched their sockets upon hearing dad say he intends to own a franchise and wants me to run it!! You kiddin' me?? That got me a lil' excited. Hell yea! What a brilliant idea dad's got! Uncle KS of course was more than happy to help in whatever ways he can. I can't wait till it's the Lunar New Year, coz then I'll get to see Aunt Juliet and ask her more about dad's brilliant idea. I've even started sourcing out (not technically, but I've got some ideas in mind already) the ideal location for the next IQD centre.

This news got me all excited the whole week and I can't wait till reality actually bites on my behind and I'll yelp and get all jumpy and slap myself silly, whispering to myself, "Good morning Ms. Chris". *rotfl*..haha..

This must be Mika's luckiest day!!

2007-02-02T13:43:00.000+08:00

OMG!!

Mika must've been praying really hard before he slept last night. Just got off the phone with the vet split seconds ago. Some bitch (no pun intended) is looking for a mate....a JRT mate and Mika may just be the lucky one!! I feel like rushing home and give him the good news now!! *LOL*

Just hope I remembered where I kept his MKA cert. *shit shit shit*

Life sometimes does give us pleasant surprises when we least expect them to happen. For crying out loud, I was just checking out and reading up on some sites about neutering and its processes and effects. The BIG Guy up above must've realized he better do something to save the little mutt before I actually do decide to neuter him. *phew*

Life and its pleasant surprises....all it takes is just a lil' faith. : )

On a side note, my tresses are looking healthier than ever before. As usual, I left them to the hands I trust, Min's and failed me he did not. I finally got rid of the horrid color that I had for months cloud my mind to believing that they aren't that horrible looking. Nup. No longer in denial and I'm much happier now when I take a peek into the mirror whilst I brush my teeth :D. However, Min had to color it twice cos after the first attempt, the previous color was still visible. I thought he was just gonna let me go and get me to come back for a touch up weeks later, but he could barely do it, letting me walk out, with a job he wasn't even satisfied with himself. So he got his guys to do the color again. And the nicest thing was that, he charged me slightly cheaper than I had expected!

I think he likes me. *lol* nah..................
.
.
.
Yea, I think he does ; )

Project Mika

2007-01-31T16:18:00.000+08:00

Today feels like a Friday, only because it's a ~~pubic~~ public holiday tomorrow! Whooop!!ee..e!

I'm ecstatic!! Can you tell??

Got a hair appointment tomorrow morning with Min. The locks definitely need some serious overhaul as I've not done anything to them the last five months or so. I'd consider that a record. Just hope Min won't pull on his own when he sees the condition of my locks tomorrow. *eeeek*

Hands been itching of late. It's probably cause I've been stumbling into a lot of foodie blogs. I can spend hours on these and they totally steal away my attention from work at times *whooops*. May consider ~~blowing up~~ playing around in the kitchen this coming weekend. Got a perculiar urge to try my hands on home baked doggie treats. Did I just cause a disappointment? Although I did have the intentions to get my hands on a rich moist chocolatey cake and I will eventually get on to it. But stumbling onto doggie treats recipes...well, it's causing a BAD itch. And now that the bank account isn't too healthy looking, I've been a stinge when giving Mika treats. Mind you, doggie treats cost a hefty lot and in the process of looking for alternatives, I found some really easy to put together ingredients for the little mutt. Am gonna head start on the beef liver! I hope I'll be able to get some nice ~~bloody~~ juicy liver from the butcher this weekend. Mika's gonna be one happy mutt. *I hope!*

If only

2007-01-26T23:21:00.000+08:00

My new HSBC plat card finally arrived in the mail today. The credit limit that came with it was slightly more than my Maybank plat's, which I never liked using cos its Enrich mileage transfer rate is terribly low. It's probably time I chuck that away and swipe away with this new swanky one. : )

Only there's one problem....

If only the credit limit it offers isn't just a nice figure to look at but, IF only that figure's hard cash!!... I mean what's the point if you're giving me so much credit limit but I don't have that much to spend?!?

*bummer*

Gonna swipe it away anyway....man, just hope I won't get swiped away myself. *geeez*

The same time today, I received Citibank's letter in the mail (follow-up to my mail to cancel both Visa and Master) telling me that they'll be waiving off my annual fee and would like me to continue using their card. I just don't understand why they put me through this process every single year. I'm not really complaining cos all I do is just change the date on my letter template and fax it through before they charge me for it. But, if they know my purpose of sending the letter every single year and they are gonna waive it any ways, why can't it just be set in the system to not charge me for the annual fee? That'll save us a lot of trees and postage fee for sure.

Bankers, if you're reading this, please take note.

Thank you.

I feel like...

2007-01-25T17:26:00.000+08:00

...crawling into bed, the smell of new white sheets, the crisp sound it makes when I snuggle myself in.

...dancing in the rain, only able to hear the sound of raindrops and nothing else.

...baking a nice moist chocolate cake covered with thick layers of yummy fudge icing.

...pampering myself to a session of manicure and pedicure - need them badly.

...soaking myself in a nice warm tub filled with lavender oil - only thing is I don't have a tub *darn*.

...punching hard into my piano keys - been too long.

...jumping up and down, and up and down like a jumping bean.

...having a glass of cab sauv.

.
.
.

I just don't feel like WORKING!!

*BAH*

Osaka 16-21st Dec

2007-01-05T08:31:00.000+08:00

This is a long overdue post, it's either I get it done now or it'll never get to see daylight ever! heh...it might get a lil' lengthy, but lets hope it doesn't.

Day 1 - Kyoto

Upon arrival at Kansai Airport, the cool(8'c) morning breeze as we stepped out of the aircraft was certainly refreshing. Not that our flight wasn't a good one, after all, we had really comfy seats in the business cabin, but it was a midnight flight and was quite a short flight (6hrs), we didn't get much rest. Once we settled immigrations and collected our luggage, which was in a breeze coz it was a Sunday and the terminal was still calm in the early morn, we went looking for ways to board the limousine to our apartment. Yukiko had previously offered to meet me at the terminal but I'd reckon it'll be too inconvenient for her so I declined her offer.

Anyway, it didn't take us too long to find the limousine (bus) ticket counter as well as the bay to board our ride. I'd say it's quite an adventure traveling this way. The limo ride took us directly to Miyako Hotel downtown (approx. 45mins), which we then had to catch a taxi to our destined apartment (approx. 8mins). We could've easily caught a taxi directly from KIX to our apartment but that would've cost a BOMB! Tell any local Jap you caught a taxi to whichever location and they'll think that you're super rich! So it makes me wonder how these taxi drivers make a living. And being Japs, they keep a log of each passenger they pick up, their cars are very well maintained and need you question the cleanliness? It's clean everywhere you go in Japan! Did I mention that I paid 1,000¥ = RM30 for my 8mins ride? Go figure the price if we'd caught the taxi from KIX.

So because we arrived too early (8.30am), we couldn't get to our rooms until 4pm that day. How horrendous that was! We were tired and sleepy, but managed to survive it through the day somehow. Yukiko and I had earlier made plans to meet at the apartment at 10.30, so while waiting, we left our luggage with the front desk and proceeded to walk around our 'neighbourhood' to-be for the next few days.

It didn't take us long to figure out the convenience of our location, subway stop was just a block away, a number of eateries in the same area and lots of convenience store at almost every corner. We walked past a little restaurant and decided to give it a try, local Jap breakfast....NATO! heh...nato's actually fermented beans. Sounds funky? Well, we like nato and so, authentic Jap nato has gotta be better than what we can get back home from the frozen section at Isetan. The beans were much bigger and they were really yummmy. If you've never tried nato before, at first glance it's actually quite disgusting coz it's really slimy when mixed with a RAW egg and mustard and basically, disgusting looking! heh...even Yukiko was shocked that we went for a nato breakfast coz she personally doesn't like nato. She's not your typical Jap girl for sure, coz she hates wasabe too :P Oh, and you don't order food in Japan. You gotta go through the vending machine, pick what you like, pay and present your ticket to the friendly waitress.

NATO

That day, Yukiko was our trusty guide and she brought us to Kyoto, Japan's former capital city. Kyoto is supposedly throng with temples and shrines and according to Yukiko, if you wish to wear traditional Japanese costumes such as the kimono, you can do it freely in Kyoto coz the lil' city still holds very strong cultural values as opposed to Osaka, if you're spotted with your kimono it might be an odd sight. Interesting. I thought the girls/ladies in the kimono looked really elegant and beautiful. It took us about an hour or so to get to Kyoto from our apartment, including switching two subway lines. Our first stop was Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion Temple. So serene, so captivating the surrounding of the temple.

Yukiko, friends for 10yrs, amount of time spent together - less than 2 weeks

The temple sits on the Mirror Pond - notice the mirror image of the temple in the pond.

*psst* I look horribly lethargic with no make-up *baffled*

Apparently Kyoto is well known for its tofu and rice cakes. Just before exiting the Golden Pavilion, there were vendors selling rice cakes with red bean, with mung bean, with black sesame, with peanuts, the whole lot! We sampled almost everything...and at the end of it, Yukiko said we're done with lunch! haha...Dad bought some and then we went off to look for lunch nearby. Since Yukiko insisted I try Kyoto tofu, I did, so did mom and Yukiko herself. Dad had a sashimi set and Wen went for the soba and unagi set. Verdict - tofu was indeed yumm!

We were still early to head back to Osaka to meet Noriko and her boyfriend(fiance), so we went on to visit another shrine, which I forgot its name :P

This, which I thought was the shrine, turns out to be a theater!

Now, this one's a shrine!

Those lanterns hanging actually have names written on them - those whom have donated to the shrine.

Before heading back to our subway station to Namba, Dotonbori- it's 10'c!

We had kani (crab!) for dinner. Met Noriko and fiance(darn...forgot his name - I'm bad with names..it sounded like Taishi (?) :P) in Dotonbori and because kani was in season, we were there at the right time! Headed to the most popular kani restaurant, Kani Doraku in Dotonbori. The couple came prepared to buy us dinner but Dad didn't allow them to get the tab coz it was way too pricey. It was indeed the most expensive meal we had throughout the trip, but it was so well worth it. I'm thinking of the yummilicious crabs now..served blanched-chilled, sashimi style, salt & peppered, boiled, shabu-shabu, even the udon was made from kani...yes, we tried all of them! *drools*

Noriko, her rock and fiance

The finale, rice porridge with eggs cooked in the remaining stock from shabu-shabu and freshly whisked macha (green tea) poured over rich vanilla ice-cream. aahhh....

All looking stuffed...ahhh.....*rubs tummy*

Day 2 - Osaka Castle

We were pretty worn out the day/night before so we slept in late and decided to just do some sight seeing nearby. As it was a Monday and Yukiko had to work, we were on our own. So we headed to the Osaka Castle, which was about 10mins walk from our apartment. Sweet. Weather check that morning was decent with a high of 13'c but it did show signs of shower. Missy apparently-know-it-all-directions, yours truly, read the map wrongly and it was a blind lead the blind case for the first 20mins. heh...yea...it was supposed to only take us 10mins walk from the apartment but yes, mistakes do happen :P Anyway, friendly Japs helped us along the way and guided us back on track.

The perimeter river surrounding the Castle grounds

Osaka Castle

View from the Castle observatory deck. Those buildings behind me is the NHK building(taller one) and the Osaka National Museum(shorter one connected to NHK through a dome).

That night we took the subway to Namba, Dotonbori again to do some shopping in Shinsaibashi. Shopping in Shinsaibashi I'd say requires a lot of MONEY and time. It's basically two rows of shops, one each side, running miles and blocks away. I thought it was like an open-air departmental store. I bought some really pretty accessories. We also found a bakery, Grand Afternoon Tea, which serves really yummy bread. Dad got hooked on them and we spent a hefty sum just on bread!

Day 3 - Nara

By the third day, we were actually getting the hang of traveling around with the subway. The English version subway map Yukiko got for us on Sunday was really handy and it's actually not that difficult once you know where your intended destination is and where exactly should you get off.
So after figuring out which subway line we were supposed to take, we confidentally took off to Nara, approx. 80mins from where we were. The main attractions in Nara was the Big Buddha in Todai-ji (Eastern Great Temple), and the deer park (which we later found out that deer in Nara roam freely and Nara itself is a BIG deer park!).
Yours truly always have a blunder on her trips, what more my blunder this time happened even before the trip took place (if you've been following my posts you'll know what I mean). Anyway, the second blunder happened when we were waiting for the train to Nara. Upon purchasing the ticket, which happens to be the most expensive ticket we've been buying so far, we hurriedly looked for the right platform to board the train coz we were told the train would arrive within minutes.
In the rush, I must've dropped the ticket coz as we got to the platform, I fumbled in search for my ticket in my pockets but I couldn't find it! *Oh GREAT!* I panic and so did everyone, or should I say the nagging started. :P I ran up the stairs to the ticket conductor booth and used simple English and all sorts of hand gesture to tell the conductor "I've lost my ticket!" Fortunately, the conductor at the booth was really helpful and kind and he went all out to help me. He said I didn't need to worry as he'll call the guys at Nara Station and inform them about my lost ticket but somehow I wasn't really convinced that I'll be able to get through. So he made a couple of calls and tried to assure me again and he was scribbling and canceling what he scribbled on the notepad that he was communicating with me. *heh* Then suddenly, he told me to wait and he started running off. Within minutes, he came running back panting hard and showed me my ticket! Until today I don't know how he managed to replace that ticket cos the ticket he gave me had the same exact serial number as what mom, dad and Wen's had. Somebody must've found the ticket somewhere. But what a kind soul he was.... : )

In Nara.....

Dad buying roasted sweet potato...it was really yummy that....

Wen got attacked by her new found friend. He bit off the corner of the paperbag from Wen's hand! How rude...*tsk*

Entrance to the temple.

She thought I had food :P

There's a BIG Buddha sitting in there

The BIG Buddha

One of the pillars inside the temple. Apparently it's for good luck if you can wiggle yourself through that hole. I made it through! haha...a Canadian guy whom happened to be standing around found it amusing watching me wiggle through that hole. When I got through, Dad and I convinced him that he could do it too. I offered to help him snap a photo even. He was pretty convinced at first, removed his jacket but after much consideration, he gave up without even trying. Takes a bit of courage to do it *ahem* coz the hole is pretty intimidating.

Nara is really beautiful and serene. The fact that the city allows the deer to roam freely is simply amazing. The gorgeous gardens filled with lovely blooms of Tsubaki and lush greens everywhere you go gives you a sense of peace and calm.
We had lunch at the convention center, further up from Todai-ji, over looking a beautiful garden. Lunch was simple, I had a beef curry rice, but possibly because of the view we had, the food tasted really yummy. It's no wonder Japanese live and age so gracefully. Mom said it's cause they walk a lot, which is very true.

Before leaving Nara for Osaka, we stopped by the Kofuku-ji (5-storey Pagoda). The Pagoda was constructed from wood and I must say, the architecture's stupendous! We walked around the Pagoda grounds and just admire its formation and construction. We didn't get to figure out if we could actually go inside to have a look, cos its surroundings were pretty quiet by then, must've been closed or something, so we just didn't bother checking. We were pretty exhausted by then cos we've been walking the entire day and the weather was getting chilly. I went cam-whoring around and took some really decent shots...heh

Nara was(is) indeed a beautiful lil' city. Heaps of picturesque photos were taken and it'll remind us of how peaceful and calm that lil' city is.
And so we left Nara and headed back to Namba to meet Yukiko for dinner. We're so familiar with Osaka that Yukiko found it amusing watching us purchase subway tickets and leading her to the subway exits. *grin* We went on a big eating spree in Dotonbori that night. Our first stop was Sammy's Ebisu Plaza, a some sort 'junk' food theme park. Prior coming to Osaka, we saw a food connoisseur program introducing and highly rating the plaza. The interior of the plaza is recreated into the Taisho-era of Japan, or simply, ancient Japan, with alleyways, houses, shops and a 'old-town' square where a short musical performance is staged. We tried okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake), akashiyaki (similar to takoyaki - octopus balls, just that this is made from a rich egg-batter and dipped in a fish broth before eating), and tonkatsu skewers (deep fried breaded pork/beef on skewers).
After Sammy's Plaza, we went on for more food. We wanted to try ramen and Yukiko asked around for the best ramen shop around Dotonbori. As we got there, I figured it's the best as there was a long queue waiting to get into the ramen shop! I tried a pork ramen with a soft boiled egg, highly recommended by Yukiko and it was really good. The egg is somewhat like herbal eggs but it wasn't herbally...no idea, but it was really good!

At the akashiyaki stall

My pork ramen & soft boiled egg / Yukiko & I at the subway

Day 4 - Kuromon Market

This was a our final day. We didn't want to go too far and the Kuromon Market was actually one of the places to go in our guide book. 'sides, we, at least I know I do, love to check out markets, any type as long as they're not too dirty and smelly. *heh* My little guide book listed Kuromon Market as Osaka's main kitchen. Now, how are we gonna miss it?
It wasn't too difficult to find our way to Kuromon Market. We were actually quite good at studying our subway map by then. Once we exited the subway, we were a lil' cautious about getting lost or going against the wrong direction of the market. So, we asked a middle age lady whom happened to pass us and she pointed us to Kuromon, which happened to be just in front of where we were standing. Now, that's how convenient and easy it is for you to get around in Osaka. The subway station guide tells you exactly where you're suppose to exit to your intended destination and as long as you're on the right track, you'll never get lost. I like.
The market is actually quite similar to Victoria Market in Melbourne except it runs for a few blocks and it's what seems to me like shop lots. It's actually very clean and most importantly, it didn't stink! : )
Our first purchase was cuttlefish! Which we later found out was imported from China, explains the cheaper comparison price to the ones we bought later as well as taste. Japanese cuttlefish has a tender and juicier texture, while the other was harder and dryer. Next, we came to a fresh seafood shop, which was the first shop we stopped for a quick bite of sashimi fugu (blow fish). And we're all still alive ; )

There's fugu everywhere!!

That's mom's finger pointing at the box of fugu she's selected for us to 'risk' our lives on. *grin*

Slices of sashimi fugu on the semi-circle, spring onions and soy sauce for dipping on the right corner and strips of 'cover' (heh, that's what the vendor said - he actually meant 'skin' :P) on the left corner.
We went on to explore the market further and it was indeed Osaka's main kitchen. I mean you get to see the freshest seafood, meat, vegetables, fruits, pickles, and all sorts of dry food as well as restaurants, which many specializes in serving fugu. We had lunch at one of these restaurants. I'll come to that in a while....

This shop was selling whale meat(!) and tuna

There were crabs everywhere too. Big, small, reds, maroon, monsterous looking...check out that one in the middle (that's Wen's hand). Dad was tempted to get one of those claws packaging home but held back because of the logistics and bulkiness.

Those orange looking things in the box is uni(sea urchin), assortment of packed sashimi, huge squids and tako (octopus) of all sizes and prices

Look at the sizes of Japanese daikons (radish), fruits and pickles of all sorts

Now, if you've been to the Hokkaido or any Japanese food fair in Isetan, and happened to come across the fruits section, you'll notice one of the most expensive fruits, the Crown musk melons. Last I remembered, they were priced at RM180/pc. I've always wondered how great these melons were so, since we're in the land that produces these fruits, it's a MUST-try! We found one of the cheapest at 900¥ (RM27), a small little one. *heh* It was really, really good!! We asked one of the fruitsellers in Nara (one of his melons on the rack were priced at 8000¥!!) why were the melons priced at such a high price. According to him, each plant only produce one fruit and basically requires a lot of TLC! haha...that's the Japs for you. It's the same about how they care for the cattle that produces Kobe beef. At RM500/kg, now that's expensive meat! I know, I'm beginning to sound like one of the moms that visit the market frequently, who knows the best price in town! *eeeekk!!*

The Crown musk melon.

Looking at all the food available in the market, our stomach were crying out to us. We knew what we were gonna have for lunch, FUGU! There were so many fugu restaurants to choose from, mom picked a decent looking one and as we got in, there were indeed many people digging into their hot pot. It's a good sign...that these people are still alive! *heh* It was so packed out downstairs, we requested to go upstairs. Mom ordered the mid-range sets at the price of 5000¥ per person.
The set starters; 'cover' strips (hehe), sashimi slices and a fugu salad with fugu roe (I think)

Deep fried fugu, babycorn, eggplant and green chilli pepper - my favourite dish, the fugu was really good prepared this way, especially the tail piece :P
The platter for the hotpot
All in the hotpot *yummm*
And like the kani meal, the finale of the rice porridge. We were really stuffed after the lunch!

FUGU-licious!! Fugu's a MUST-try if you're in Japan. Highly recommended by yours truly. It's on the pricey side, but still go for it! FYI, Yukiko, Noriko and their partners have never tried fugu before as it's too expensive.

Anyway, we were unable to do more shopping after lunch as we already had too much to carry. There was no other choice but to head back to the apartment. 'sides we had a lot more to pack for our flight the following morning. Once we got back to the apartment, mom washed and cut up the fruits we bought from the market. The musk melon was so heavenly sweet and fragrant that Dad, Wen and I took the subway back to the market before it closed to get more fruits! hehehe...we're pretty crazy as you can tell. We went back to the same vendor and Dad packed more pessimons and mandarin oranges to carry back to KL. I asked the lady at the shop if it's possible to walk to Dotonbori from the market. I had an appointment to meet Yukiko and her bf for dinner. She gave me directions and it didn't seem too difficult to find my way there and convinced Dad that I'd be fine on my own. So, Dad and Wen took the subway back to the apartment and I walked across the subway station, finding my way to Dotonbori.

She was right. It wasn't difficult at all finding my way there and it was actually very nearby, say 5mins walk. After window shopping a lil', I went to Kani Doraku, the meeting spot I was supposed to wait for Yukiko. Minutes later, both Yukiko and her bf arrived. He'd just returned from San Francisco two days before, explains why he wasn't with us for the kani meal. (And I really can't recall his name too :P). Oh, and according to Yukiko, I'm to first to meet him since Noriko hasn't met him yet (they've been going out for 2 yrs now).

Anyway, they decided to take me to a Izakaya since my parents were not with me, to simply get a feel of what young Japanese enjoy doing, to eat and to drink with friends. I wish I remembered the name of the Izakaya that we went to cos I really like the food and drinks there. The interior was nice too, unfortunately the photos we took in our little booth did not do justice to that. However, if I ever do go back to Osaka, I'll be sure to visit this Izakaya again. Then again, there may be other nicer Izakayas and as Yukiko said, I'll have to visit Kita, the place she frequents with her friends during the weekends, the next time I'm in Osaka. More reasons to visit Osaka again ; )

In our little booth

That's the end of my Osaka adventure (finally!). That night, the three of us took the subway back to my apartment, I got down but they continued on their journey back home. We parted in the subway just before I got down at my stop and it was almost illusory that I'd spent the last few days in Osaka and the dinner meet ups with Yukiko.

It's exactly ten years since I've met Noriko and Yukiko. They were then exchange students in my high school. I hosted Noriko while my good friend, Cheo hosted Yukiko. And what coincidence that it turns out, Noriko and Yukiko are good friends too. Since they left after the exchange program (we hosted them for 2 nights only), the both of them visited Malaysia again on two separate occasions. On their last trip, the both of them stayed at my place (Cheo was away at uni in UK then) and that was when we were 20. Cheo made a trip to Osaka a couple of years after and it was then that Yukiko was away in UK studying, so he only met up with Noriko. And now, after years of persuasion from the girls, I finally made the trip but Noriko had a job posting out of state the day after I arrive (she's attached to KPMG Japan as an auditor - explains the busy life she leads). It's like a switching role game. heh...well,at least I managed to meet up with her that night for dinner.

Yukiko actually told me to start saving up again so that I'll be able to attend Noriko's wedding early March. I don't know 'bout that.......it's tempting, but it's also fatal! hehe...

Christmas weekend & Rachel's Hens

2006-12-28T11:59:00.000+08:00

Christmas came and went by too quickly. Was glad that I made it back in time from Osaka for the Christmas weekend. It's nice to be in the company of family and friends during festive seasons. Guess I'm just a very homely person. *grin*

Anyway, my dear friend Rach invited me over to her parents' the Friday before Christmas. Her mom had arranged for the carollers from church to come over. And that day itself, Edwin and herself bought themselves their first commitment! TROY! Wonder not....Troy's actually a beautiful white golden retriever pup. He's such a darling and is now officially my Godson! heh...Godma's gonna so pamper this lil' fella. And of course I'm not gonna neglect my other darling Mika. How could I? *tsk* heh....so while everyone waited for the carollers, Troy was the center of attraction that night. He got over showered with hugs and snuggles and pampering that he went into hiding. Snuggling under the sofa, he went into snooze mode.

When the carollers finally arrived, they all came thronging into the living room and the room was basically filled with people. Poor lil' Troy had a culture shock and went hiding behind his mom, Rach-la, while everybody else sang with the carollers.

After the entire event, he was still a lil' distraught so mommy dearest parted with her toy-dolphin and gave it to him for comfort.

The crowd is stressing me out :(

It got a bit worse when the carollers wanted to play with the cutest living creature in the room. Poor lil' Troy reluctantly obliged to all the attention, but he wasn't very good at pretending I must say :P

Don't touch me! Who are you?!?

I really don't like this. Mom? Dad?! Somebody?!?

Well, by the time everything was done for the night, Troy ended up something like this...

-------------------------------------------
Rachel's Hens Nights - Dec.23, 2006
-------------------------------------------
Rach's hens wasn't an elaborated one, yet we all had fun. She wanted something small, nothing too big, too fancy but just her favourite girls, her sisters of course and MUA! hahaha...unfortunately Lesze wasn't around so it was just us girls and well, mister hubby Edwin himself and Troy! haha...well, we're non-conforming people so no harm breaking the rules. 'sides, it's a night the bride chooses her fav people to be around.

Anyway, after striking out a number of suggested things that we could possibly do, we settled for a homely thing, which is quite what all of us actually are. We had a cook out, popped a bottle of Moet and lounge to the company of King Kong playing on HBO. Schweeet...

Here's the rundown of our menu that night:
-Rach's signature beef stew
-Grilled 'accordian' tumeric squid
-Grilled garlic-butter gambas
-Mixed salad greens, tomatoes & feta cheese in olive oil
-French Loaf slices toasted with chilli herbs in olive oil (burnt them a lil')
-Strawberries and a bottle of Moet & Chandon

The four girls behind the scenes

With a flick of the wand, and we're all transformed!(maybe a tad too many of yours truly*heh*)

The table set-up..............Edwin and Troy - the men of the night

*snap, snap, snap* before digging into our yummy dinner

Half-way through dinner, Edwin had the honours of popping the champagne...

...and a shocked Lily *heh*

Jen dropped by after dinner too...

A short and sweet affair altogether...all in the wonderful company of friends and family : )

It's a Disaster out there!

2006-12-27T22:54:00.000+08:00

I'm back and it's been one wild week! Will take me a while to update 'bout Osaka...lots to post about before and after Osaka.

A short note for the day, it's such a disaster out there that all internet access is down!! The earthquake in Taiwan's so bad that we're all gonna suffer for the next three weeks possibly without proper access except for Google sites??? *nooooo* :(

My first damage

2006-12-16T22:49:00.000+08:00

At the airport lounge now. Had the biggest blunder ever...it's gonna be embarrassing to be actually blogging about this now.

I always have something adventurous to share on my trips. So why should I make this time any different? What more it's gotta happen even before I disembark! Bah humbug!!

As I got through the Autogate, the sole of shoe fell apart!! *arghhh* Gawd....It's so embarrassing...that my parents and sis chuckled all the way and didn't wanna get anywhere near me. *lol* 'twas actually kinda funny...had to hobble with one leg shorter than the other on to the aerotrain and got into the sports utility shop once we got off the train. I settled for a pair of sneakers and thank GOD they had a size for me. (Was the last pair too!).

Dad said I better not let anyone know I'm actually travelling on business. hahahaha.....yea...travel on business and wear sole-less shoes *grrr*

I'm gonna look for a paperbag now and stuff my head in it!

I'll leave you guys to a good laugh at this and have a good night....a good week ahead, while I go hide myself somewhere and wait for the boarding call *bah*

All my bags are packed...

2006-12-16T17:03:00.000+08:00

...and I'm ready to go!!

Leaving in another six hours or so and seven hours or so later, I'll land in the land of "okonomiyaki's" and "takoyaki's"! *lol*...I lost track of how many times I've said those two words these past couple of days. It's so catchy....okonomiyaki's and takoyaki's.....*rotfl*. O-kay...I'll just stop that for now. :P

Let's see if I'll get to post anything from the land of the rising sun (there's internet connections in our apartment, but not gonna lug my lappy with me *pfftt* I'm on HOLIDAY!). 'sides, I'll probably be too busy stuffing my face and having fun with the girls that I just might forget 'bout this blog. Fret not, I promise some exciting entries when I'm back. Hopefully it'll not end up like my Bangkok trip. I kinda forgot about my continuation entry from Chiang Mai's post. heh....*whooops*

Have a good week up ahead y'all !!
-xoxoxo-

p/s: Started shopping for Christmas pressies yet? Make sure I'm on the list ; )

p/p/s: Did I mention that I lurve December??

Crazy For You

2006-12-16T13:26:00.000+08:00

Swaying room as the music starts
Strangers making the most of the dark
Two by two their bodies become one

I see you through the smoky air
Can't you feel the weight of my stare
You're so close but still a world away
What I'm dying to say, is that

I'm crazy for you
Touch me once and you'll know it's true
I never wanted anyone like this
It's all brand new, you'll feel it in my kiss
I'm crazy for you, crazy for you

Trying hard to control my heart
I walk over to where you are
Eye to eye we need no words at all

Slowly now we begin to move
Every breath I'm deeper into you
Soon we two are standing still in time
If you read my mind, you'll see

I'm crazy for you
Touch me once and you'll know it's true
I never wanted anyone like this
It's all brand new, you'll feel it in my kiss
You'll feel it in my kiss

Because I'm crazy for you
Touch me once and you'll know it's true
I never wanted anyone like this
It's all brand new, you'll feel it in my kiss
I'm crazy for you, crazy for you

It's all brand new, I'm crazy for you
And you know it's true,
I'm crazy, crazy for you

It's all brand new, I'm crazy for you
And you know it's true,
I'm crazy for you, crazy for you baby

A series of events in a 'oh-so-normal' weekend

2006-12-11T23:31:00.000+08:00

Why I must stress again that I love December! A couple of Dec holidays this year falls on a Monday and today's one of the first. Schweeet... :P

What was supposedly a low key week/weekend actually turned out quite an eventful one. I'm simply just so unpredictable. Did a bit of last minute shopping on Saturday. Needed to get some pullovers cos our flight bookings to Osaka finally got confirmed on Friday. You read that right. This blogger is flying off to Osaka this coming Saturday night! Don't miss me too much...*LOL* Wheeee...!

Anyway, after shopping, we(my familia) went for lunch - Korean. I had my favorite Pi Bim Pap (rice mixed with lots of stuff in a hot stone bowl) and it was so good that I ate everything! :( So I opt for no rice during dinner...heh. I was supposed to catch up with Rach after dinner but she was too caught up with her new house that we canceled our plans. Then was thinking of going bowling (hmm....how odd, I know...but seriously, I think it'll be fun although I'm not really good at it *pfftt*) but yea, everyone's reaction was, "What? You alrite?" So what's wrong with bowling?? Anybody up for a game with me? *dilate pupils*

Yadda-yadda...wasting time on MSN and watching House at the same time.....then Sharon called. She was just as bored as I was. Asked if I'm game for a drink. Why not? But because my parents took my car out that night, she had to come pick me. I was actually quite lazy to put on my make up again and getting dressed up....so I just simply put everything together in minutes. *mirror check....shrugs* hahaha...not my typical vain self.

We were actually driving aimlessly not very sure where we were heading to. But we somehow ended up at the Village Bar downtown in Starhill. It was my first but Sharon's God knows how many times! A very casual and easy bar. Drinks were fairly cheap for Starhill's standards. I started off with a Watermelon Martini and Sharon got a glass of Chardonnay. Nothing special about the Martini...just very watermelony :P. Oh, and we had our peanuts topped up several times too....kekeke...we lurve our peanuts and drinks. As we were gonna order our second drink, Mister Waiter ~~suggested~~ convinced us to open a bottle of wine to share since their pricing's ~~dirt~~ affordably cheap and so we got sucked into that and open a bottle it is!

The last time I remembered getting all adventurous with my wine was with Cheo some time last year. That made me sick real bad that I almost soiled his car(which of course I did not...how could I waste?)..haha...but oh the memories. It was that sort of feeling...like back in uni days. Anyway, this time round, half way through my second glass of Chardonnay, I felt my tummy churning (must be cause I had a very light dinner before) and then the weight on my head started compressing leaving me numb (wow...I know, the drama!). Something like that... *heh* The fact that I didn't drive that night gave me the more reasons to let my hair down :P. Sharon on the other hand still looked really fresh. How on earth does she do it? She put me to shame....haha.

Anyway...that night left me sprawled dead on top of my doona ~~wearing almost nothing~~ having very minimal clothes on with all the lights on and AC off *tsk*. Woke up about 6-ish in the early dawn and dragged my limp body out of bed, washed off my make up (I know, I slept with make up on *yuck* I've never done that before!), turn on the AC and went back to bed. My body was still flushing red :( Felt bad cos I didn't get to say "Bye" to Marie before mom and dad sent her to the airport. Sent her a text after wishing her an early birthday and a safe flight back. I'll see her two months later.

After a couple of in between snoozing and waking up, I finally decided to get out of bed and took a shower. Sent Rach a text to tell her I'll be seeing Edwin and herself in church. REPENT! hahaha...and I was early (sort of - earlier than those two)! After mass I left my car at Rach's and hop into Edwin's and went over to their new place to drop off some stuff. The house is starting to look livable now. They've got most of the things in, and it looked really warm and cosy for the both of them. Really glad that things are finally falling into place for them as they gear up for the BIG day. Definitely could feel the lurve coming from those two : ) The three of us later hobbled off for lunch, we had sushi *yumm*. I tried hard fighting for the tab but Edwin got it again this time. He's still waiting for me to buy them a meal at Lafite or Zipangu *HIC*!

Later that night after dinner at home, I drove over to Rach's again and we went off to 1 Utama. I had decided to buy that dress from BCBG. And because they are so exclusive, there's only one piece to a size, the size that I could fit perfectly into was SOLD!! I was able to fit into the size '0' though (even the sales personel thought I didn't need a size '2') but a size '2' would be more forgiving. *grrr* I'm most definitely not very happy about that. :( Should I just get the size '0' anyways? *tempted*

So to get my mind off that, we went to the supermarket to shop for some groceries mom listed down for me earlier. I've not been supermarket shopping with a girlfriend since uni days and it sure was fun. Rach and I had fun pushing our trolley, checking out GROCERIES. hahaha...we're definitely getting very domesticated for sure. And soon, in the years to come, we'll be hanging out in the park on weekends tugging onto a toddler each! Ideals.....*meh*. It's been a while since the two of us last caught up with one another, so we continued our verbal diarrhea back at Rach's till Edwin called from the airport (he was leaving for Seoul that night with the whole bank entourage).

That's exactly how my 'oh-so-normal' weekend went.

Chris Bites : Charbroil Beef Ribs

2006-12-11T19:53:00.000+08:00

I've realized that all my 'Bites' posts are all MEAT related. hahaha...hopefully this coming Christmas it'll be something different. *Pray that I'll get hold of that fat turkey*

And because I don't have to work today, I can finally get hands on charbroiling the ribs myself. It's the third time and by golly, a success!! The last two times I left it to the hands of Marie, my Pealipeanoe house helper. The results, the ribs charred real bad on the first try (salvaged just in time - OK to taste buds). And on the second time, meat was less charred but results still did not meet satisfactory level. After two attempts, I finally figured how to grill (so it's not charbroiling...first off, I ain't got no broiler so it's my trusty Teka HT610 conventional oven) to perfection leaving the meat juicy and still able to taste the ~~sauce~~ marinade.

I'm gonna share the recipe of the marinade/sauce over here. Got it from Uncle KS...my trusty chef uncle :) (Apparently it's close to steakhouse standards...my verdict, way better!)

Spare Ribs Marinade

1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic chopped
150 g onions chopped
180 ml red wine
360 ml / 1 1/2 cups chili sauce (I used Maggi chili sauce - I used approx. half a bottle; according to personal taste)
60 ml Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce
sugar, salt and black pepper to taste

Method
Fry garlic in olive oil till slightly golden brown. Throw in the onions next and fry till it goes translucent. Pour in red wine carefully *CAUTION - May go up in flames*. Once it starts to boil, pour in chili sauce and L&Ps. Bring to a simmer and finally add sugar, salt and black pepper to taste. Remove from heat and cool.

Makes enough to marinate three medium sized spareribs.

'Charbroiling' Method
Carve meat away from bone. Marinate meat in storage bags to get an even mix. Secure bags and refrigerate overnight. Arrange meat and bone together again before grilling (without marinade). Place meat in a baking tray and grill foil covered first 90mins at 180'c. Remove foil, discard all liquid fat in the tray and spread remaining marinade all over ribs before popping back into the over for 30-40mins at 220'c.

You can substitute lamb for this, but beef rules! :P

For tonight's dinner, I grilled two good sized ribs, a mixed salad with olive oil and feta cheese and dinner rolls.

I am stuffed...are you drooling yet? *sniggers*

After first 90mins

Remove liquid fat and cover meat with remaining marinade

End result

Mixed salad leaves, chopped tomatoes and whole olive n feta cheese in olive oil (used as dressing)

Lil' Spock

2006-12-04T23:45:00.000+08:00

Was running through my folders and I came across this particular photo. When I was running a search for a child to sponsor last month, I saw this photo of this particular child, which I thought resembled Spock from Star Trek.

O-kay...maybe a younger version of ol' Spock :P

You be the judge.

Cheated?

2006-12-04T16:20:00.000+08:00

It's past the 10th day mark and the guys from Children.org has yet to get back to me regarding Erik's documentations.

Dropped off an email to them yesterday but not getting any response from their end yet :(

Checked my credit card activity movement...transaction went through! *hmph*

*prays hard...very very hard*

I'm grateful each waking day

2006-12-03T15:56:00.000+08:00

Yesterday marks the anniversary of my near fatal accident, which happened exactly a year ago. Wouldn't have thought of it until Jon, whom I recently blurt to 'bout the accident brought it up over dinner. Some coincidence that was. Yay! That's a celebration to my first anniversary *cheers*, which of course he reminded me not of the accident but the survival part. :P

So yea...since that day, I've been grateful and gracious that God gave me that second chance. Each waking day I'm thankful that I'm still very alive (and healthy) and if only I'm making full use of that, it'll be even better. And now, December comes and another year is about to pass us by again. It's entirely a mix feeling altogether for me..of good and bad.

Of good cause it's gonna be refreshing to move into a new year, scraping away what was bad in the previous year, try to be a better person (a tough one this is) and just simply a refreshing feeling altogether. I like.

Of bad cause time is catching up year after year especially when the age figure hits the BIG 2, time starts to speed up doubly. Do I make any sense at all? Doesn't matter... :P But yea, maybe if time would simply just take a breather occasionally, I might just not get so uptight 'bout the situation. I can feel the biological clock ticking away and I'm slowly sucked into a quarter-life crisis. It's not supposed to be this way. Whatever happened to ideally get married at the age of 26? Have a kid two years later. Making memories with my other half(he's still bloody hiding somewhere. I know..*hmph*) along that path. Yea...my ideals. And no, I'm not bitter...not just yet! HAH!

Anyway, what I really wanna say is that...December's a lovely month. Everyone should be in a happy mood at this time of the year. There should be lots of love going around. A great time for sharing and caring, all in the spirit of Christmas.

Wonder what kinda presents am I getting this year?

Klutzy & Spanish Donuts

2006-11-29T10:31:00.000+08:00

It's really no doubt that I'm officially a klutz *grr*

Picture this scene:
Enter expressway with smart tag A - Exit with smart tag B!! Because there was no reading on the exit tag, I got charged a maximum amount, which is also an extra amount of RM43.70 on top of what I should pay (RM3.10). *Not funny at all*

I'm not just a klutz...but extremely SMART! urghh....don't touch me now or I'll bite YOU! The end results...driving in road rage mode all the way home. hahaha....man....I think I require some serious anger management now. BLEH! DON't touch me *horns growing on head*.

Made a call to the careline this morning when I got to work and I'll give them credits here. Excellent customer service and most importantly very well mannered. Unlike Ms. Rude stick-up-her-arse Lady in my previous post if you don't already know. Spoke to a Ms. Rebecca and she guided me through the process and gave me all the required information needed to speed up my process. That's how customer careline works. *tsk tsk tsk*

So that's that...now let's move on to some Spanish Donuts. hehe...

I don't really mean Spanish donuts, donuts....ah, just my own metaphor. There're two Spaniards sitting in my conference room at the moment having a discussion with dad. They're actually our suppliers, which one of them I've met before. This other new fellow is "WOW!" hahaha...tea lady in action :P But no..I did not spill anything if you're wondering. But yes, see for yourself I kid you not. He's a Brad Pitt look alike! But Jose's his name. bah....still very Brad Pitt-ish though!! Let's see if I can steal a shot to prove myself right.

I'll start my search on a Spanish donut now.....hmm.......

I can't sleep.....

2006-11-25T01:58:00.000+08:00

...and I'm getting very frustrated... :(

Mind's still on the go...thinking too much maybe...

Need to calm the adrenaline rush. Not eating well lately too.

There's something wrong with me....It's at times like this when it's best to vent it all out here but I'm holding back. For some certain reason...

Where are you Mr. Sandman.......... ?

OI! Who's the customer now?

2006-11-22T21:37:00.000+08:00

I'll go all lazy for a couple of weeks then, *BOOM*! I can write up three posts in a day! That's just me...simply unpredictable. I'll make this a quick one cos it's not my interest to be ranting about this particular topic.

With the new craze for Astro Max, dad asked me apply for it. So I did. It's quite a bore for me to explain about Max, but to put it simply, it's like TiVo in the States. This took place about a month ago, just before we left for Bangkok. What I did? Signed up online from its website and apparently one of their technicians will get in touch with us within the next three days. Weeks passed and no technician whatsoever called. (Getting in the rant motion, can you tell?) It's also a pain in the behind being put on hold behind twenty three other callers before one of their customer care officers attend to you.

Anyway, my call yesterday got through pretty easily. Now, that's amazingly strange. Then I was told their computer system's down! HAH! That explains the easy connection. Was told to call back 2-hrs later, which I did and got transfered to the right department. The first lady that attended to my call was pleasant enough doing what was required, verification protocols, yada-yada...then I was put on hold again.

Then that's when horror strikes!

Rude stick-up-her-arse Lady : Hello??

Chris : Huh? I'm holding for someone else..?

RsuhaL : YA! What's the matter? I'M THE PERSON IN CHARGE! (If you're wondering...yes...she was literally shouting at me!)

C : What??

RsuhaL : TELL ME WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM. I'M THE PERSON TO SPEAK TO. THAT LADY IS NOT THE PERSON IN CHARGE. SPEAK TO ME!

By this time I was shocked and numb for words. She kept butting in not giving me a chance to tell her my problem. Am I supposed to know that you're the right person I should speak to when out of nowhere you pick up my call and expect me to see who's across the line?? I'd normally get really nasty and fight back but this biatch defeated me :(

C : Look! I submitted a online request ordering a unit and your technician's supposed to get back to me but no one's contacted me since a month ago!

RsuhaL : AS WHAT I CAN SEE FROM MY RECORDS, YOU DID NOT SIGN UP MA'AM! BUT ALL YOU DID WAS TO INQUIRE ABOUT OUR SERVICES MA'AM...BLA BLA BLA....

C : ThEN...there must be some problem with your website!!(It's one of the lamest things I've said so far...I'm upset at myself *bleh*) "How rude is this? How can you shout at your customer in that manner?? Who is the customer now?? This is too much!"(half mumbling but loud enough for HER to hear me)

She heard me alright. *BAM* Ms. Biatch must be pissing in her pants by then cos our conversation's recorded for training purposes. Her tone changed immediately but no apology! Bet it's cause she didn't get lucky in bed last night. No, I'm not bitter...just ranting. *urgh* Not gonna continue this rant as it's all irrelevant beyond that dialog above. Besides, ranting about someone's tiring.....bah!

Meet Erik

2006-11-22T14:43:00.000+08:00

I finally finalize my personal lil 'project' (before the year ends) of sponsoring a child yesterday. In my previous post, I mentioned a child from Ecuador (Antony Miguel). Well, I was actually contemplating between four kids at that time (hah...I know, I'm such a MOMMY-wannabe).

It was a tough decision choosing between a child from Ecuador or Guatemala. I've to say, Antony was the only child that caught my attention from the Ecuador search. Deep set eyes...so captivating, as though they were talking to me each time I looked at his photo. However, the kids from Guatemala all had 'talking' eyes!! What is wrong with me and kids with beautiful eyes that dilate like puss-in-boots (Shrek2)?? It was really, really tough running through the simple particulars of each kid that caught my attention. So much to consider, too little to give. I was looking into the aspects of each family's monthly earnings and number of siblings these kids have. During my initial search (the first four kids (2 boys & 2 girls) - Antony incl.), all of these kids have no siblings (which was what I wanted). And Antony's family was actually the highest earning family(USD220/mth). So, no siblings, but highest earning family...hmm, still can't make a decision....I'll sit on this project a lil' while. (Did I mention that procrastinating's my forte?)

Then came yesterday, 2 weeks after the first search. Thought I'd run another search and guess what? Out of the four kids I shortlisted, three of them are no longer waiting in line for a potential sponsor. I've got good taste I tell ya! *hah* Guess who was it that's still waiting for a sponsor? Got that right. It's Antony.

Again, I spent a lot of time running through the new search list. Some of the new kids caught my attention. Then a lil' boy, Erik Jossue from Guatemala caught me off guard totally. (O-kay, so I'm exaggerating a lil', can't I?) My main concern on the number of siblings this time totally collided with my initial stand of finding an only child, simply so that he/she will get full benefits from my sponsorship (isn't that how it works?) Anyway, Erik's got FOUR siblings and his family's earning per month is USD130. (I'm sorry Antony dear.....) I ran through more searches before finally deciding on Erik. (Imagine if you can run through a long list of search on, which kid you'd like to conceive at birth *GASP*)

So, meet the lil' angel.....Erik : )

It'll take these people about ten days to get the 'documents' ready, which they'll then send me more information about Erik's family and his recent photo (WHAT?? Isn't this his most recent photo?). He better still look like that! Or at least those eyes stay the same...and that smile...heh

p/s: I hope and pray that Antony will find a potential sponsor soon.

Morning Testimony - Matthew 7: 7-8

2006-11-22T13:57:00.000+08:00

Here's my first 'sort-of' testimony. And because I'm too lazy(when am I ever not?) to repharse the story I emailed Rachel this morning, I'm extracting the entire mail here. Read on....

It's shameful to say that we only seek God's guidance when we're at the crossroad when in fact, He should be the first we seek and ask for guidance in our everyday living. But more often than not, we neglect this thought. I'm not religious as per say, therefore I'm no preacher. But I do trust in our good Lord, for He DOES hear our prayer (if we do not ask for the wrong motives).

Have a good week ahead y'all! : )

It's Time For 'THEM' To Tell You

2006-11-20T23:18:00.000+08:00

And it's also time for me to tell you that I have a few musically talented friends whom I'm proud to shout about. So before these people get too prominent in the market, I'll claim my mark and tell you that, "I KNOW THEM!" *gummy-grin*

The one that I've mentioned before is none other than Faz from D-Va. I know Faz quit D-Va a while back but she's still a very hip chicka...great vocals...so, we never know when she'll be back behind the mike again.

Next up is Jon, a lead guitarist for Dire Dilemmas. DDs' an Indie Rock band and recently released their EP titled "Recorded Messages".They had their first lil' gig last weekend and I'd say it was a very good start for the band. I'm not surprised if there's already some fan club going on as the crowd response was fairly good (for a first). Their chart topping lead single "Time for me to tell you" rake the #1 spot on the local radio station, Fly FM for 5 weeks in a row. Does that tell you something? Well, do check them out yourselves on their official website and have a listen to their songs.

p/s : My personal favorites from DDs are 'The Frappuccino Song(Cutover)' and 'Time for me to tell you'.

Not funny at all

2006-11-08T13:17:00.000+08:00

I'm down with flu and it's really not funny at all... :(

Woke up this morning with a really tight throat and uncomfortable nasal cavity. That dreadful sinus is back. Something that's been under control for a while now. As I dragged my unwilling body out of bed, a couple of sniffles and realised, the HAZE is BACK!! *damn* But it was raining throughout the night. Mika didn't get to go for his walk...WTH!

It's now past mid-day at the office, I've used up my box of Kleenex and we're out of supply. Not a very good timing to be out of Kleenex is it? Documents are piling up on my desk but my hands are refusing to work together with my mind (besides typing and clicking away on my keyboard and mouse) instead, I've the time to search for a child to sponsor. Yep. Since there isn't much going on lately, thought I'd contribute something back to the ~~society~~ world. Have always wanted to be involved in something as such but never got to doing it. Currently doing a bit of research on the various sites that cater to such programs. Was thinking of sponsoring one from Cambodia. Maybe a Maddox-like child? hmm...but as of now, there's a child from Ecuador that I'm considering. Antony Miguel, male, age 9. If I can't find my Maddox lookalike, it's him I'm sponsoring. Will keep posted about this little 'project'.

Will it be Antony?

Chris Bites : Roasting Lamb

2006-11-07T21:12:00.000+08:00

Was going through some old folders and found a couple of shots taken a while back when I was still crazy over roasting lamb. It's one of the easiest things that you can do and the end result...leaves an unforgettable taste. Just make sure you get the freshest cut from the cold storage, the meat taste best if chilled and not frozen. Works fine either with a whole leg or whole slab of rack. Once you've got your hands on that piece of meat, you're just one step closer.

* Clean the meat and pat dry with kitchen towel.
* If you're using a whole leg, make pocket incisions by stabbing thoroughly around the leg surface.
* Stuff those little pockets with quarter clove of garlic and a sprig of rosemary each.
* Seasoned with cracked salt and pepper all over.
* Finally, squeeze one whole lemon and leave it to marinate for a couple of hours in the fridge(covered).
* Set your oven to grill-fan at 200'c for an hour; reduce to 190'c next 30-40mins (depending on size of meat -this works for a leg size, and how you'd like your meat to be, eg. medium done). A rack will take shorter time to grill.
* Remove, cool, carve and SERVE with mint sauce!

* I added potato wedges and they tasted yummy

* No pocket incisions on the rack so I resulted to scaterring garlic slices and rosemary sprigs all over. Big mistake to roast this way, but the meat was still succulent and juicy!

All about Sundays

2006-11-06T00:46:00.000+08:00

* I missed church again this week! (I know, it's nothing new..but...) Not proud of myself...*sulks*

On the other hand, this pullout from today's Star paper is probably trying to tell me something after He realised I'd skipped this morning's service...

Three-year old Reese: "Our Father, Who does art in heaven, Harold is His name. Amen."
*
A little boy was overheard praying: "Lord, if you can't make me a better boy, don't worry about it. I'm having a real good time like I am."
*
I had been teaching my three-year-old daughter, Caitlin, the Lord's Prayer for several evenings at bedtime. She would repeat after me the lines from the prayer. Finally she decided to go solo.
I listened with pride as she carefully enunciated each word, right up to the end of the prayer: "Lead us not into temptation," she prayed, "but deliver us from e-mail."
*
One particular four-year-old prayed, "And forgive us our trash baskets, as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets."
*
A Sunday school teacher asked her children as they were on the way to church service: "And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?"
One bright little girl replied: "Because people are sleeping."
*
A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin, five, and Ryan, three. The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake.
Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson. "If Jesus were sitting here, He would say, "Let my brother have the first pancake, I can wait..."
Kevin turned to his brother and said, "Ryan, you be Jesus!"
*
A woman invited some people to dinner. At the table, she turned to her six-year-old and said, "Would you like to say the blessing?"
"I wouldn't know what to say," the daughter replied.
"Just say what you hear Mummy say."
The girl bowed her head and said, "Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?"
*

I'll be good and make sure I don't miss next week's service. *heh*

Was with Rach and Ed this evening for her final gown fitting. She needed second opinions, which explains my presence. The BIG day's coming up pretty soon...I'm just as excited and waiting for the girls (Ling and Lily) to be back to plan her hen's. It's really not easy prepping for the wedding. I'll only know this when it's my turn (God knows when, hah). After that was done, we headed for dinner....a sinful one. We had banana leaf rice! I know....not going to church and having a sinful dinner....I've lost it! So, it's best to not talk much about it and continue living in denial. :P They came back to my place for more drinks and chats. The initial plan was to go for a walk and work out that heavy dinner, but we didn't make it that far. We're hopeless, I know.

Did I also mention that I bought 2 pairs of new shoes at the Isetan sale yesterday and tried on a piece of BCBG MaxAzria that's worth over 1.2k? I said I tried it on but didn't buy it....although I wanted to purchase it so badly...*sob*...why must it be so expensive??

Land of Temples (Part 1)

2006-11-04T01:39:00.000+08:00

The recent trip to Bangkok-Chiangmai, Thailand was pretty fun and adventurous. I remembered during my last flight to Jakarta, I'd vowed not to get on another Airasia plane again...o-kay, so I'm choking back on my own words. *bleh*

Choked on my words and *phew*, glad that Thai Airasia was much pleasant compared to that Jakarta bound flight *whoops*. The new Suvarnabhumi Airport is HUGE I tell ya!! It's easy to get yourself lost here, so make sure you check and double check your gate (kinda figured it out on our homeward bound flight. It's really not that hard to figure it out anyway). Oh, and just for the record, that Thai captain needs more training!! His landing was CRASH-tastic. Go figure...I'm just glad I can still sit and type about this post.

Anyway, the travelling didn't just stop there. Once checking out of the terminal, found our arranged pick-up and we were on for another long journey..some 600+km drive up Chiangmai. Long story short, we arrived in Chiangmai that night close to 2300hrs. Dead tired upon arrival at CM, our driver dropped us off for a quick dinner before checking into our hotel. Wouldn't say the hotel was great but it was bearable.

I'd love to go into detail about what went on every single day of the trip but it'll take forever to do it. And it might even be a bore. Pictures do speak a thousand words. It's a cover-up for being lazy...can't you already tell? *sheesh* :P

Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep

The chedi at Doi Suthep. Read up more here.

Inside the grounds of Wat PDS - trees ageing over hundreds of years old and beautiful teak wood antiques can be spotted.

Descending Wat PDS - 309 steps. We cheated, took the cable car lift up the peak ; )

Maesa Elephant Camp

And let the show begin!

Well, they can curtsy and really are Van Goghs & Picassos!!

We know you love us and don't want us to leave...*sloppy trunk*

Roong Aroon Hot Spring

L: There's an egg basket attached to that pole. 12mins to hardboil :P (It certainly does not help when you're wearing a sweater at this place. WTH said Chiangmai's weather's cooling???)
R: That's the geyser...nothing beats the one in NZ.

Day-2 was more temple(!!) visiting and tour to the umbrella and silk factory.

Don't remember the name of this temple. But inside this hall is a full-on bed of roses!! Apparently Queen Sirikit comes down to this temple quite often and her favourite bloom is obviously roses. Those are genuine elephant tusks by the way.

Sea of umbrellas at the Bo Sang Umbrella Making Centre.

Shinawatra Silk Factory. That's how you get silk...boil the silk cocoon and strands of silk trails up that wooden suspension above the boiler.

That's the end of Chiang Mai's adventure after spending three nights in the next biggest city after Bangkok. We didn't make it to Chiang Rai and Mea Sai (border of Myanmar) as planned initially due to the long journey. Maybe on the next trip.

The fourth day was back on our 8hr road trip back to Bangkok.

To be continue...

Pretty little things in the garden

2006-10-17T01:18:00.000+08:00

Made a trip to the nursery recently and after a couple of hours working in the garden with Marie, the flower bed's looking really great. Even got three pots of Poinsettia, two reds and a pink. Can't wait till they grow fat and healthy come Christmas.

Aren't they pretty?

Love the feeling of looking out into the garden and these pretty bloomers are the first thing the eyes see. I especially love the Poinsettias.

Double Ten

2006-10-10T22:50:00.000+08:00

Everytime on this particular date of the year, sees a double celebration of the Low family. That's cos it's Mum & Dad's birthday. You read it right. Both my parents share the same birth date, 'cept they're born on different year - a year apart. This year, coincidentally Oct. 10th's a public holiday, we took the opportunity to have a big eat out - a day earlier. Dan bought dinner...nice of him huh? ;)

We went to Ah Yat's Abalone Restaurant. It's our first time there and prior to that, we've heard/read lots of remarkable reviews from relatives, friends, word-of-mouths, write-ups in the local daily, all about how great the food taste. All because, Ah Yat originated from Hong Kong, the land well known for its Chinese cuisine. Myself, oblivious to the fact that the name Ah Yat's so popular until I Googled it! Ah Yat's all over the world!! *gasp*

Braised shark's fin.

Braised Ah Yat's Abalone, sea cucumber and shitake mushroom.

Cod fish cooked with teriyaki sauce with fruit salad on the side.

Golden-egg fried rice.
The set finished off with a hot almond dessert, no photo taken of it, but it was pretty good.

Anyway, dinner was great and once that was done....there was a surprise at home waiting for the birthday couple. Texted Marie on our way home to get her to bring out the cake just before we got in. hehheh....they were pretty surprise to find a cake, which we(Dan, Lesze and I) bought on the way back from work and sneaked it through the backdoor so that they wouldn't know. All Lesze's idea!

Wonder what are we gonna have next year? *heh*

Has it really been that long?

2006-10-09T15:08:00.000+08:00

There are some days when you reminisce your childhood, those yesteryear's memories sometimes still seem fresh, like it'd just happen a few years back (at least for me, sometimes, it feels that way). And that said, it's funny how we can store all those uncanny stuff at the back of our minds after all these years. Wonder by the time I hit 60, am I still able to recall these memories? I sure hope that I can. But it'll be freaky too if I start blabbering about what I did as a child, teen,...cos it might also mean my time is up!! *GASP*

*My talking head - "Oii...stop crapping!!"

*LOL*

So yea.....what I was actually trying to say was......

Over the last weekend, I met up with one of my childhood friends, Faz. We last saw each other when we were eleven. That makes fourteen years out of sight (but never out of mind). Go figure the math. I'll give some credits to Friendster here as it was where I tracked her down (Wah! Stalker!!). What? Me stalker? *bleh*

Anyway.....fourteen years is quite a number of years. We're no longer geeky-looking kids in the standard navy blue pinafores (I wonder why we never had special, nicer looking uniforms since we were in a private school - those navy blue ones were standard for govt. schools - No...not pointing fingers...). As I got to our meeting spot first, I called to check where she was and as I looked out the bar, I knew exactly it was her across the street (o-kay, maybe it was a give-away that she was on her cellphone) and the next thing we knew, we gave each other one of the tightest hugs(ever)! She looked great, unfortunately we were so caught up with lost years, that we didn't get a shot together. Maybe next time. She came with a friend and I was with a group of mine - yea, I know...a friend & a GROUP. :Þ

Before meeting Faz, I didn't know what to expect. I'd thought it might be strange even weird to meet up after so many years. What are we gonna talk about? Are we still able to get on that same wavelength back when we were just under 4'ft and being carefree kids, having a game of robber & cops or sharing those specially packed sandwiches our mums tuckaway for us? Unexpectedly, things actually turned out pretty well. We caught up so easily and chatted the night away about everything and anything under the moon. It's no doubt we've both changed after so many years but deep down, the memories of us having our girly sessions in her games room lives on (she had one of the biggest Barbie Doll collections ever, complete with the house set that lights up! - I've never own one of these dolls myself). Just that we've grown into more matured young ladies now instead of girly-girls.

Did I mention that Faz was a lead vocalist for a local band D-Va? No longer though, she quit after 2 yrs into it.

Big Dog ... Little Body

2006-10-02T11:05:00.000+08:00

"Jack Russell Terriers are a big dog in a little body. They have the same need (or more!) for exercise as a much larger dog... and the mentality to match -- they think they are at least 150 pounds, and are fearless, often challenging other dogs three times their size."

Was Googling around about JRTs when I came across that para. How true and it sounded so much like Mika! He always think that he's at least 150 pounds, and one that can take down sizes of a Rott or even Dobe (the guards' dogs in the neighbourhood). Freaks me out all the time when, during our evening walks or playtime in the garden, the guards stride the real BIG dogs up the corner of our house. Mika unleashes his self-thought-big-dog attack mode and challenges for a match. *shakes head in disbelieve* Not again!

That's Mika for you....but recently he's showing a different side of him. Rather mellow behavior, sad/depressed at times, sleeping a lot, losing his appetite...worries me. Maybe he really needs that partner. *damn* Still can't seem to get him that lil' bitch.

AN : WANTED! Female JRT. Good breed prefered (otherwise it's justifiable). Long lasting stamina or as horny as Mika is (at least I think that he is..LOL). Seedlings ready to be sowed *gasp* -- Yea, basically get the picture don't cha?

2006-09-28T17:02:00.000+08:00

Can't stand this mundane life any longer......need to ~~spike~~ spice things up.....

Gonna go insane any time...any minute....just counting down the days...waiting for this internal time bomb to go off! *urgh*

The end of third quarter's creeping up. Oh time....can't you just please take a breather and slow down? Fuck.

On another note...Aunt SN underwent some cyst removal surgery today involving her lower region and part of her colon. Hope and pray that all's well and she'll gear into a speedy recovery soon. The thoughts of surgery spookes me up be it a minor or a major one. Increases my paranoia of what's going on inside us...it's one bloody time bomb ticking away. You'll never know when it'll go off...which reminds me to schedule an appointment with the gynae *damn*

The Ladies of Xunyang River

2006-09-14T08:50:00.000+08:00

Finally....after almost a year, this piece of art finally came out of its protector, framed and displayed. The original artist of this piece was Chen YiFei, a Chinese national who gained an early reputation in China for his rich oil portrayals of daily life in a style he called "romantic realism". If there's any interest in his art at all, google "chen yi fei".

However, this piece isn't Chen's original art. It's a replica of the original art he did named "Lingering Melodies from the Xunyang River". This particular piece caught my eye when we were in Beijing last year. The art was apparently claimed done in Suzhou (well, can never trust these Chinese traders too much can we? Don't pull the trigger at me though), the famous Suzhou Silk Hand Embroidery art. Anyway, after a long bargain, we closed the deal at a whopping RMB12,000.00 (approx. RM6,000.00). I suppose it is a pretty damn good deal as compared to this, "Chen found success in New York, and in 1992, Christie's auctioned his "Lingering Melodies From the Xunyang River" for US$176,282, then a world record price for a Chinese oil painting at auction."

The original oil painting by Chen YiFei

The replica hand embroided from Suzhou that's found its place in my house ;)

Six Birthdays & Three Weddings

2006-09-11T16:57:00.000+08:00

Heaps of birthdays....weddings.....what's the whole deal?? Makes me wanna join the September wave too. hehehe....but before anything else, a special shoutout to Edwin and Rachel....finally Mr. & Mrs. Lee!! Dated 09092006...got themselves registered and now for the whole deal in Dec. Can't wait to see them walk down the aisle. Had a blast with them on Sat night at Galaxy with the whole Citibanker lot. Massive affair and it's only the registry....not gonna imagine the banquet night.

My longtime childhood friend (since kindy), Lewin's back from Melbie. And that's when I got the news that one of our classmates from primary school's wedding was last night. I've not seen Lewin since college...it'd surely be strange but nice to see these familiar faces again...after so many years. More things to look forward to now...

And another for the record on wedding bells....Al's tying the knot on the 23rd...two days before his birthday. That's double bogey for him! heh...got the invite but unfortunately can't attend his big day. Would be great to see him walk down the aisle....in Bodrum baby! sweet....Love ya big guy! : )

On to some late (and soon to come) birthday shout-outs....

1) Daniel's birthday (26th) on the 5th...

wow, it's been five years (only?) and it seems like a century ago (o-kay...maybe not that long) but it feels that long. Been a great pleasure working in the same team with this guy (ISA days). Recalling Gippsland days always bring a sense of nostalgic feeling hovering over me. Sappy, sappy thoughts....haha.....but they were sweet sappy moments. All the great friends made and still keep till this day despite the distance...(I sense a new post coming after this)...the treasures of my life. But no, I'll save that for later. So this is to you my friend, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAN!

2) Nat's birthday (26th) on the 11th....

they say your 21st is usually a big thing and by golly, for sure Nat's 21st was one most of us would remember. The HUGE bear, the roses, the dinner....and the towers! Was one bitter-sweet memory for all of us. And now, seven years later since we first met in Sunway, babe...thanks for sticking around and putting up with my nonsensical being and sometimes stupidity (and you never once fret) all these years. For playing that 'big-sis' role and best friend that I'll always be thankful for. Be sure to keep me posted on any news of little Andy's or little Nat's. (I know I'm being my nonsensical self again..heh) HAPPY BIRTHDAY GURL.....and love ya heaps!

3) Kevin Lee's birthday (27th) on the 12th....

Junior pilot eh? This one here's got a strong character and he's gonna 'fly' high with those dreams of his. Keep reaching for the sky Kev...HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

4) Cheo's birthday (26th) on the 18th....

ahh...me best bud, over ten years now and still counting. Safeguarded me back in school when we were then prefects...those IRC gatherings back in 'geeky stoneage' (haha...), hosting our jap buddies...snow (Yukiko) and seaweed (Noriko) whom we all still keep in touch with till today amazingly. Another highflyer with great dreams...one of them, wanting to teach! Always great to meet up be it over beer, wine or just coffee...so here's to you Cheo! HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY and it's time we catch up. Lots to celebrate to!!

5) Paige's birthday (25th) on the 22nd...

since we were thirteen...makes twelfth-year now. Her passion for baking and all things artistic makes her an amazing girl and possibly the next in line to tie the knot! Thanks for housing me whenever I was 'homeless' back in Melbie (miss the cozy Glenhuntly flat where I spent my last few days in Melb). All the best to both Dave and you. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GURL!

6) Altug (Al)'s birthday (30th) on the 25th....

miss this guy with a big heart and whom is leading a bright future with Microsoft. It's my fav chef in the house. Am sure this year's birthday present's gonna be the best for him. All the best embarking into your next BIG step in life cause you deserve the best (am quite sure she's the best ;)) *BIG birthday HUG* HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALligator & love ya lots!!

Amateur shots

2006-09-07T10:46:00.000+08:00

While out on daily evening walks with Mika around the neighbourhood, my trusty W800i come in quite handy ;) Some of the unusual works going on in the sky....bah *amateur grin*

SIlhouette of a house....(refer last pic)

Stretch-marks in the sky?

These two were taken at the set of lights...waiting...raving up...

It's not mine...but it may be state MB related

Garden in blooming

2006-09-06T10:17:00.000+08:00

Was running and working out with Mika on the lawn recently and realised the flowers in the garden were in full bloom.

Krispy Kreme anyone?

2006-09-05T20:32:00.000+08:00

I've got Krispy Kreme and you don't..hah!

muahahaha....looky what Lesze bought back all the way from LA? These doughtnuts travelled the miles but they did not lose its 'krispy' texture, hence Krispy Kreme. Although it's on the sweeter side, but I thought they're way better than the ones from Dunkin'. Not a huge fan of doughnuts frankly, but must say 'twas worth the try.

Just last month I wrote to the authorities of Krispy Kreme asking for some franchise opportunities in Malaysia. I was dumbfounded when the reply came. Was given a long list of criterias (not forgetting I must be cash RICH too) and if all complied, they were ready to send one of their reps down to discuss things further. However, must accredit them for responding quite promptly after my request was sent. And yes, these Krispy people are intending to break into the Malaysian market. I'd think pretty soon now that the wave's been created :P

The sound of coffee-making

2006-09-03T22:44:00.000+08:00

Took a short break off the bustling city last week and after a four-hour drive, I found myself in yet another bustling city, Singapore. It's been almost two decades since I last remembered traveling by car down south to the Lion City. The nostalgic feeling of passing by border after borders of states before landing at the causeway somewhat took me back to the days when my family would cram into dad's then old lil' honda civic. That was how we used to travel back then when every single holiday we had, we'd land ourselves across the border to my aunt's place. Those were the days...and my last trip back to Singapore after those childhood memories, was two years back when I took Wen on her first trip. Dad got us flight tickets, hence the nostalgic feeling on the road.

It was good to be back at my aunt's place. The sound of the grandfather clock chiming away in the middle of the night at every hour, Pat's room, the old piano at the corner of the room, the chopping sound coming from the kitchen in the morning(my aunt preparing breakfast), waking up to the aroma of aunt's cooking, the sound of her making a cup of coffee, the atmosphere of the HDB flat in the morning...the sound of birds singing in the morning, neighbours chattering away, sound of mahjong tiles echoing down the hallway...all still pretty much of how I remembered it to be almost two decades ago when I was still a little kid. But at the back of my mind, I know all these have changed drastically over the years. I suppose it's those childhood memories that still lingers on...somehow still fresh at the back of my mind. No longer that little girl that wakes up early in the morning to the sound of her aunt's coffee making and tugging onto her sleeves as they walk down to the morning market together.....

I'm Googly Googled

2006-08-24T14:30:00.000+08:00

Ever wonder how's it like to be working with Google in the Googleplex?

Googleplex is situated in Mountain View, California. As you walk through the corridors of the four buildings, there are all sorts of Google memorabilias on display. The interior of the headquarters are furnished with lava lamps and giant rubber balls thrown everywhere.

Lava lamps...

...and more lava lamps!

The working atmosphere in Google is so relaxed and casual that its staff can bring in their pets to work, and are allowed to wander and roam freely in the office grounds. Boy, Mika would surely love that!

Those lucky pooches...

Now, apparently, there's a rule within Googleplex - that there's gotta be food within 100 ft of every employee. Who on earth set these rules?

Pretty cool pantry supply they have!

The work space of the employees are pretty extravagant too. Meetings of those big guns are seemingly held rather casually by the pool table of whilst having a game of foosball.

It's like working in Springfield!

One of them several employee lounges

Google Graffiti! Two employees break for coffee beside the "idea board", where all the grand Google ideas are drafted! Like the Google spaceships?

Staff benefits are excellent when you're one of them employees at Google. It's so beneficial that maybe one can start considering moving into their cubicle and start saving on mortgages and utilities!

however, this must be one of the smallest pool ever!

Dirty laundry anybody?

Free haircut? Reckon they have professional cuts like David Gan's? *bah*

Subsidized massage? Now this is way overboard. I'm moving out!

** Images are googled off from Google *DUH*

Bad Hair Day

2006-08-24T12:09:00.000+08:00

I think I need a David-Gan cut.

hmm....makes me kinda wonder. Does his haircut justify the price he charges? If he's really THAT great, I don't think I'd mind letting him do miracles to my tresses.

Nat & Andy

2006-08-23T13:47:00.000+08:00

The recent married couple were in town last week for their honeymoon. A rather last minute planned honeymoon, right after Nat received a job offer in the mail requiring her to start job on the 23rd - today, they flew down the following day having Terence helped them with flight bookings and Jac with the hotel.

They hung around KL for two days before flying off to Bangkok for more shopping the next two and back again to KL before taking off for home yesterday. Some of the places we brought them to - Bak Kut Teh in Subang (had no time to head down to Klang), Bangsar (bit of night shopping for Nat and some mamak roti and teh tariks), Laundry Bar in Curve (all three places in the same night!), SS2 hawker centre (for some local treats - satays, ikan bakar, popiahs (spring rolls), chee cheong fun (steamed paper rice rolls?), grilled chicken wings, indian rojak, fried glass noodles, fried clams, yau char kwai (chinese churros), oyster omelette, and lots and lots of sugarcane and chrysanthemum drinks) yes, we kinda had the long extended table filled with plates after plates of food!! I've never had so many types of hawker food all at once! That was pretty massive...unfortunately no photos to prove it. haha...

And on the their last night in KL after returning from Bangkok, we had dinner at Mum's Place in DP, a pretty nice restaurant, which serves portugese dishes, before taking a drive up Genting Highlands. Did I mention it was a Monday night? By the time I got home that night...it was close to 4am as I dragged my drained out body into my comfort zone for a quick 3-hr snooze before getting up for work. *ugh* Go figure the agony... Oh, quick note, Terence and Nat & Andy made some quick bucks at the casino but it was quite unfortunate for Jac, as we were about to leave, her two-month old car was badly scratched on the body of the passenger side. Who on earth would do such inhumane thing? May the bas***d rot in hell.

And now...it's back to work at the office.

Wedding Overblown

2006-08-22T14:46:00.000+08:00

I still don't get the recent fuss over the supposingly much-talked-about wedding of the year of pop princess Siti Nurhaliza and Datuk K. I think it's all blown out of proportion and ridiculous for the local press to publish front pages for weeks running prior to the wedding (held yesterday) instead of more newsworthy reads ie. China Typhoon or Isreal & Lebanon War...yea, those stuff I like.

Okay, I'm not exactly my usual self to be ranting about a pop princess's fairytale blown out of propotion but, enough is enough.

I think it's best I get some sleep soon...and quit being a racquet-ty b***h.

Must I?

2006-08-22T11:22:00.000+08:00

Must I really say goodbye?? My comfort zone...my slumber shell....the smell of new sheets...soft and plushed. Must I leave after only 3hrs last night? *urgh*

"Are you happy?"

2006-08-20T23:45:00.000+08:00

Someone close asked me this question recently and it got me thinking real hard. I answered him that I was. I've always been happy...bubbly happy...some may put it. But deep down, both him and I know a possible untold truth.

How did he know when he's an ocean away?

Perhaps beneath that big-laugh shell of mine, could there be a different story to tell...?

*puzzled*

Magic Chocs

2006-08-18T11:21:00.000+08:00

Gone are those Magic Mushrooms...?? 72 percent is quite an amount...and instead of thinking how dangerous it'd be if a child consumes one of these...i'm kinda curious about how funny it was when the hallucinating homeless thought those cops were in wedding dresses. hmmm.............

Do The Dog Walk

2006-08-18T10:40:00.000+08:00

Was running through some photos in the old folders and found this ridiculous photo of Mika.

I have no idea what was going through my mind when I dressed him up like that. hahaha...

this is what happens when you have crazy obnoxious owners who likes dressing me, (a DOG), up looking like a total hideous missy-red-hoody look alike.

Jo & Jon...& Jazzy

2006-08-12T23:28:00.000+08:00

Joann and Jon left for vancouver this afternoon. unfortunately, i was unable to see them off at the airport..which brings me to tell the story of Jazzy. got up this morning to this scenario at the breakfast table...

**walks out of bedroom still in pjs to the dining room to greet mum & dad....

Dad : Morning wei...I'm sorry but I think you've gotta call your friend and get him to fix your car (Jazzy).

Wei : (still half awake/asleep...scratches head...) Hhhuh?? Waddaya mean?

Mum : He(Dad) kinda crashed your car...

Wei : (all AWAKE now..) HUH?? What happened?

Mum reenacts the accident and turns out, dad misses a junction, mum reminded him where they were supposed to go, dad makes an instant turn without watching his back and *crash, boom, bang*! a motorcyclist on Jazzy's tail crashed right into its back passenger door.

so anyway, the damage was, Dad paid the guy RM150 and he shooked Dad's hand and thanked him....*phew*....thank God it wasn't some kinda thug. but the unfortunate Jazzy needs to visit the doc's on monday....

a damaged jazzy....

so...back to jo and jon...

they spent the whole of summer (since end-april) in SEA, first arriving in singapore, then back-packing to the northern regions including penang island, thailand, vietnam and cambodia before finding their way back to KL. they did a fair bit of travelling again back in malaysia, spent a few nights in taman negara, then flying east to sabah (attempted the mount kinabalu) and sarawak, then briefly back on the peninsular, spent a night in malacca before ending the long vacation on the east coast of the peninsular, redang island. because of their tight schedule, i barely caught up with them. but i was also not gonna let jon leave the country and not have a good impression about its hidden inner beauty(good luck, wei). hence i promised him a good pizza night-out as he was sick of having asian noodles....and more beer of course!

on the first night we ended up in la bodega (again! i know... i'm boring...and we sat at the same table!). the four of us, jo,jon,rach and i, talked endlessly into the night pinching on tappas and sipping our sangrias and beer. the girls caught up quickly like how we used to back in school...like we've never part. and as for jon, it was really easy talking to him too. guess it was that night that rach and i assessed him! i'd say he got through pretty well....or maybe we were too easy on him...

joann & jon

us girls at la bodega

the following night was our pizza night-out! this time, we got ed and jac to join us. and because i had a funny thought to get dressy for the night, i got the girls to get dressy too. hehheh...we headed down to chinoz on the park in klcc. with the great view of the twin towers at night with some really good pizzas and beer, i think it gave jon a better impression of the city as compared to his little self-adventure earlier in the day cramming into the crummy looking sungei wang plaza area (never did like that place myself either).

us girls snapping up next to the beer tower...think those id**s watered down the beer *bummer*

after dinner was done...we left klcc and our next stop was tiff's bay in starhill. the last time i was at tiff's was during my bday and yet, we still couldn't figure out which floor or button to press to get to tiff's...all thanks to the uncanny names they have for different levels in the mall. we had most of the buttons pushed in the lift! then a staff from one of the japanese restaurants got into the lift and helped us out....well, not really, we still had to take the escalators up a couple of floors before we finally made it to tiff's. now this is when camera phones come in handy, you simply snap photos so that you don't get lost the next time. hillarious we were....

anyway....at tiff's....the girls decided to go alcohol free...big mistake it was, for me at least. had my drink changed twice and still was not satisfied with it. sometimes, it's best to stick to the rule of thumb and not be too adventurous i suppose.

Of Sangria & Vodka Lime

2006-08-09T20:44:00.000+08:00

since returning from jakarta, the rest of july was quite eventful and well spent with friends from down south visiting one week after another. it was really good meeting up with old and new friends. all for the good company and drinks. come to think of it, these two kinda work well together somehow. ; )

first it was pat...well, it was good to see her again after like, what five days since jakarta? hah...look who's the mighty traveller now? our first night was filled with the stirring scent of red and white sangria tingling in the air. and we cannot agree more that the yummy white sangria made a whole lot of difference keeping us girls company the night chatting away under the dimly lit table squeezed in the corner of la bodega. it was great fun getting pat all tipsy towards the end of the night. heh...

our little dimly lit table by the corner...l-r; pat, MC n mua

the second night we had someone else visiting....kevin. been a while since i last saw him in singapore 2yrs back. was good to catch up with him and some other new friends made through MC at velvet that night. and again, dear pat had loads of fun with jug after jugs of vodka lime all to herself. pretty, pretty impressive!

pat and ai ling with the jug of vodka lime pat hangs tightly on to the whole night! ; )

kevin and i....cool lightning-like effects on the forehead...mr. potter

with ai ling and MC....almost there? not really... :P

it was a massive crowd that night....the tight squeeze and smoke-choking atmosphere in the club was nerve wrecking but still, we all had a great time.

the following week, dan came up with his friend eadwine. that was when a lil' gippsland reunion congregated! it's funny how some of us are so close yet so far. we never make the effort to meet up eventhough we're a town apart. but it's only when someone else visits from a foreign land that we'll catch up. some of the little things we take for granted. or is it just myself feeling that way? i'm totally hopeless at keeping in touch. period.

yuin kuan, dan + chia yao

michelle, shao, wei + dan

a group shot

Jakarta (Part 2)

2006-07-28T01:05:00.000+08:00

- Day 3 (continue) -

Going to the chapel and they're.....Gonna get married....

after a good lunch and lots of photo taking at andy's, we were off to the church, stella maris, for the holy matrimony ceremony...

while we were waiting for the bride and groom

here they are, arriving in smiles : )

this is it....no more turning back guys....heh

...and their first kiss!

the important people must always get their shot!

after a sweet moved-to-tears ceremony and more photo taking in church, we had about 4hrs to rest before dinner. most of us retired back to the apartment, while some of us girls rushed off to get our hair done, which was quite an experience. we ended up at a nearby bridal salon. the price we paid for, IDR200k (approx. RM 80nett) included hairwash, setting and make-up(the experience part)! the hair-do turned out alright but the make-up was simply horrendous. when i opened my eyes...i thought i was gonna perform for a chinese opera sort!! ><

was pretty furious by then as we were running late before the drivers came back to the apartment to pick us up. anyway, caught a cab quickly and while in the cab, i ripped off my fake lashes, hideous they were (hehe). i love mine just the way they are. so anyway, made a quick dash into the apartment and got ourselves changed and redo on my make up. it was like rushing through the triathlon...never thought i'd make it..but I did! pretty impressed with myself i must say. hah....

** the wedding banquet.....simply exquisite....

the walkway entering to the hall...pretty cool setting with the green drapes...

the ice carving display of 'A' & 'N'

whatelse could we do besides snapping more photos as we waited for the bride and groom to enter ; )

the cake cutting...

and champagne pouring....i suppose these are a MUST-do at weddings...heh

and the bride downs her glass! nasty.... **notice how shocked Andy is :P

whoops...caught anticipating the bouquet throw...**notice the guys taking a chance in the crowd? hmm...something new...

the lot from monash sunway & gippsland

us again....we were supposed to do something candid for this shot...hmm....

some of us girls...l-r; agnes, myself, jaclyn and christina

and the guys...l-r; top-bottom; martin, terence, wu, sherman, sean and daniel

group pic with nat's maids and andy's mates....oops, andy's missing from the photo again :P

martin (!) has his one last shot with us girls outside the hall before we called it a night/day...**only that i forgot my eyes :P

our mission in jakarta was finally complete. a beautiful wedding and a wonderful time we had, sharing the happiness and tears of joy of two people embarking on a new chapter together as husband and wife.

~ Love is a journey, starting at forever and ending at never.... ~

- Day 4 (Final Day) -

after a long day the night before...we were gonna take it easy on our last day. then again we couldn't do much as our flight leaves for KUL at 3pm. well, we did what we could, to let the indon 'mamak' across the street from the apartment 'slaughter' us one last time before we leave the country. let's just say we paid heaps for some simple noodles and dumplings for breakfast. those guys were probably laughing their heads off after we left (darn it!). oh well....when you're tourists...you gotta expect a bit of 'charity' do. *urgh*

i dunno when will i be back in jakarta again, but it was a funtastic trip with the lot that went. : )

- The End -

Jakarta 14-17th July (Part 1)

2006-07-20T12:50:00.000+08:00

we had one mission....one purpose on this trip. well, maybe slightly different for sean and martin....they had a different mission....to stop the wedding! hah....like they could :P

- Day 1 -

headcount....eight of us departed from KL......and NO....it's not from KLIA *damn*. i shouldn't even go further into details of sitting right at the tail of the aircraft sniffing in toxic waste whenever the lavatory door swings open...NO MORE NEXT TIME guys....okay? we get on nicer flights that departs from nicer terminals with proper boarding announcements....with nicer seats...with proper boarding passes and not print-outs that look like receipts. (ie. KLM..heh) *geez* yea....that's Airasia for you :P

...but we're all still very happy about the entire trip nonetheless (the seven of us here minus terence who's taking the photo)

arrival at CGK (cangkereng) airport was long awaited after enduring a 2-hr torture of smelly lavatory and scary looking Airasia cabin crews. but we had yet to wait till we can finally settle into our apartment....the arrival of our korean chick a.k.a. christina kang flying in from seoul via hong kong. (wow nat.....what an international event for you). nat and andy greeted us at the arrivals and then while we waited for CK's arrival....we digged into some japanese fast food that made us pay over 40K....o-kay...ruppiah *duh* the wait lasted....3hrs :P

...while we waited and had nothing to do....taken in the jap eatery...

fast forwards.....after all nine of us got settled into our 3-bedroom apartment, then came dinner with nat's siblings and andy's family. big family affair...i lost count how many of us were there...hehe....but dinner was excellent i must say!

...that's us....

...the suhardjono siblings and in-laws...

...FOOD!

ahhh....all satisfied and filled up... : )

after dinner was done......oh wait, i must add this. before we did dinner...nat brought us some really yummy layer cakes and pineapple tarts...homebaked by her mum-in-law!! excellent, excellent. so now, after dinner.....i approached andy's mum and thanked her for the excellent goodies....well, unfortunately andy's the youngest...no more single brothers of his *darn*...good try though...haha...our next stop was Hard Rock Cafe, Jakarta...located inside ES(?) some mall connected to Plaza Indonesia.

CK + Jac with the 'Twister' mixer

some of us girls and...MARTIN!! at every opportunity he gets.. :P

by the time the night was over....we were totally bummed out after one very long day....some didn't sleep for over 24hrs prior to departure from KL. *poor sean*

- Day 2 -

the arrival of pat, daniel and sherman from Singapore. i did say it's an international event! we did lots of shopping after breakfast...or rather just window shopping...in two malls.....first was plaza indonesia again and second was plaza senayan (which was not supposed to be how nat planned for us). because nat couldn't join us on our second day, we were left to the luxuries of two of her drivers and some slight communication errors!! aiyoyo.....let's put it this way...we were supposed to go to a mall (pondok indah), which is somewhat like KLCC but ended in subang parade (plaza senayan). subang parade or whatever.....they had an LV outlet...so maybe not as bad....but not as great either. then again, shopping in jakarta's pretty much of what you can get in KL or Singapore. we ended the night with dinner across the road from our apartments...it was japanese again. (thanks to dan for buying everyone dinner) nat and andy popped by to check on us too.

what we had for breakfast...lontong, kangkung noodles, soto + fish cakes...

we put up a fight with the strong wind to take this shot...steps to the lobby of our apartment

pat, nat and i....we were left behind by the rest cos the suv couldn't fit us all

the gurls...still all smiles before they found out they were in the wrong mall *GASP*

dan n mua in wendy's...now i regret for not trying those square patty burgers...

after dinner....we once used to work in the same team

- Day 3 -

this was D-DAY! we were just as excited as the bride and groom were the night before. i barely slept...must've been the air-conditioner blowing in my face or the tea from dinner. anyway....get on with the highlights of the day....

** a convoy from our apartment to andy's house for the tea ceremony...followed by a small luncheon.

Nat: OMG....I'm getting married....

Nat looking gorgeous here...

Andy: C'mon babe...we gotta get going...you can see your friends later

Nat: Take your hands off me! I don't wanna get married....

**haha...okay....not funny :P

the bride arrives.....

lena...helps her sister with uncontrolled tears of joy

their room....with the bride's fav color, shades of green

the marriage bands...

.......To Be Continued.......

The Wedding - Coming Soon

2006-07-19T01:48:00.000+08:00

The trip to Jakarta came and went....

The wedding.....a beautiful one.....

Lookout for the update soon!

Second Quarter

2006-06-04T01:18:00.000+08:00

so i've been getting really lazy this year with updating this blog. i've turned to piecing together the events over a quaterly basis...how smart of me! lazy's the word.

let's see....it came down from my birthday, which i'd like to thank those who sent me text wishes as the clock struck 12am. albeit work the next day, i stayed up a bit to reply text messages and attending to phone calls! bit of panda-eyed the next day ; ) the cake dad bought was good too not forgetting.

then april came, aunty kim and alan came back from new jersey this time for a two-week break. 'twas really good catching up with 'mum n dad'. alan's still pretty much himself but he's loosen up a whole lot now...still as witty and never cease an opportunity to hook me up with a nice young n rich bachelor. hahaha...and for that he's been bugging me to visit them in NJ as there's apparently a line-up going on. wow for that now..... :P spent a whole night with them but decided not to stay in the hotel for the night although they insisted i did. the three of us walked across their hotel, renaissance, and got into hard rock. o-kay, so it's my first going clubbing with two people old enough to be my parents (explains 'mum n dad'). but i had a good time, must not deny. no luck at hard rock...wasn't expecting anyway, heh..and then it was back to their room. kim and alan insisted that i stay till my alcohol wear off before driving home and so i did, which we then dunk on cold doughnuts and tea!! yay for supper!! next mission...to save-up for my trip to new jersey...hopefully next spring / autumn.

om-ma kim + i

kim + alan

come may...the month i blew my credit card! haha...don't ask, i'll tell. was intending to splurge on my hair since it's been ages since i last did something drastic to it but somehow an angel prevented that from happening yet the outcome turned out just as great, although the price was far from what i expected. yay for that again! that's when the shopping spree started. won't go into details but the damage, three dresses, a pair of jeans, four tops, one skirt and.....STOP! haha....yea, stop's a good word. there's more actually but no details again....all i can say is that i'm quite prepared to attend nat's wedding now. man...weddings not just incure damages on the bride and groom but us friends too. need to cover recover now......*sweats*..... ^^

there was also lil' hayley's fancy-dress birthday party and mum's day dinner at saffron @ one bangsar.

the kids anticipating a magic performance

'twas sushi catered for dinner...

the lil' birthday witch cutting her cake

what's a kid's party without present? hayley tearing open the gift lesze bought for her....captured!

mum n dad @ one bangsar after saffron (mum's day)

and one of me outside saffron's vacinity...nice ambiance, food...a reconsideration...

moving on....joann and bf, jon are down for the long summer vacation. met them briefly at the central station with rachel just before catching their connecting train up north back-packing for a month or so. helped them lug her 20-tonne luggage (go figure the size) home with me for storage while they go on their back-packing trip ; )

other may events...lesze's and dan's birthday...i said it....just a day apart.

one's my darling friend, the other, my dear ol' brother...

friends...family....close-knit we are....

altogether now...

upcoming events for the next quarter:
- joann & jon's return from up north
- nat's hen's night in kl (maybe...pending confirmation)
- nat's wedding in jakarta (july - flight tickets booked)
- rachel's b'day
- hong kong trip (end aug - pending...depending on time slots)

Chris Bites : Beef Stew

2006-04-23T22:16:00.000+08:00

o-kay....so we were down to the last bag of galbi ribs mrs. kang packed for us during our last trip to seoul. forget how long it's been......well, alright, four month to be exact. but hey....it's not easy lugging the 'han' beef....it's one long journey i tell you. so anyway, i decided i'll do it my style one last time....check it out ^^

prepare the main ingredients of galbi ribs (or stewing beef works just as well), angle cut-ups of carrots, daikon radish and potatoes, cubed celery, wedged onions, chopped garlic, whole peppercorns and bay leaves (i used fresh ones and heaps of them since i had plenty!)

start off with browning the garlic...

...followed by the onions...

once browned and softened, add in the ribs...

to be followed by adding the peppercorns and bay leaves...

once it's got a nice brown color, add in a bowl of hot water and leave to simmer for 5 mins.

the carrots, daikon radish and celery go in next...

the potatoes go in 30 mins just before turning off the flame...

voila....sprinkle parsley over just before serving and it goes really well with a slice of toast...

AN : Forgot to snap the final creation on my first attempt, the last picture was taken on my second attempt, not with galbi ribs but stewing beef. =)

Big 2-5

2006-04-01T14:16:00.000+08:00

am officially quarter of a century old. now, why on earth should i phrase it that way? just silly ol' me getting the feel of touching the dreadful two-five. now, now...it's really not such big-a-deal........huh? not like it's some kinda major mid-life crisis.....or is it??? arghh........!!!

ahhh..........all better now. : )

*LOL* phew.....what was that all about? heh....just being a lil' crappy....

so there were twenty-five candles and a beautiful cake. dad was really sweet...gave up his daily round of golf, beat the jam into bangsar and ran in the rain to get me a cake. *aww* heh....the cake was really good...new york cheesecake from bakerzin. sinful.....but good *rubs tummy* heh... rach came over for some cake too. well, being twenty-five isn't that bad after all, or at least i hope it'll get better. ^^

...me birthday cake...

First Quart. Updates & Ramblings

2006-03-22T12:53:00.000+08:00

been a while since i last updated this section of my life. and i must say, time flies...march is coming to an end soon. can't believe that the first quarter is ending. gosh...whatever happened during that quarter? well, 2005 was one roller-coaster ride for me. come 2006, i can feel that my life is taking on another spin, sensing something drastic to happen this year, can't wait yet wanna be surprised.

won't say that 2006 is fantastic as of now, but i'm trying to be positive about it...i know it's gonna get better if not fabulous soon. was a bit sick early this month....one of the worst ever; high fever along with some nasty virus infection. when you're sick....the mind tends to get the worst out of you....that kinda happened to me, led to a couple of misconstrued emotions between someone (maybe two) very dear people in my life, which was totally, totally unnecessary and that kinda put me in the dumps. horrible, horrible feeling....but am glad that things are clearing up, or rather cleared. well, better be cleared for good, ahh...anyway, got to get back on track with myself...been a lil' lost back there.

time being, bits and pieces of the first quarter events...photos speak a thousand words.....

meet the new member of the family...lil' benji

CNY dinner...dad n i doing our lil' gig

little hayley and i

it's the reds vs. the whites ; )

plum blossoms at home....how pretty...

with rach n lesze at my place

karaoke at uncle KS's...with mum in the background

goofying around with pluto at rach's room...

...rach n her pluto...silly us girls ; )

advance unexpected b'day celebration at tiffin's bay, starhill...a night filled with hoegaardens n sauvignon blancs (mar. 17, 2006)

...and that's one great piece of cake *yumm*

what's more to ask for when you're surrounded with their company...splendid....

Seoul - Day 4

2006-01-03T07:14:00.000+08:00

our final day in seoul. got mr. kang to drop us at the nearby hyundai mall and basically a free and easy day for us. shopped on our own and had lunch our own too, which was quite challenging when making orders. that's when my handy book came to good use! mum bought a full-range set of Japan Ejiry kitchenware, which totalled to over RM3k. a real good buy and it'll definitely look good in our kitchen in the new house. got the sales people to deliver them to mr. kang's office to be shipped together with the new machines. hope it'll still be in one piece when it gets to m'sia!

dinner was really good too. the kangs insisted on buying us a good meal of korean grilled beef cos dad bought them dinner the night before. the restaurant we went to, kyeong bok kong, was really posh and the food was really good too. ate heaps....'oh-no!'.....and just as we were leaving, a young boy roasting sweet potatoes out in the cold handed us a package of warm potatoes. the poor kid...bet he gets paid well for roasting in the wicked cold weather. but those were really good potatoes, now please don't remind me how much i've been eating the past few days! *darn*

anyway, bid mrs. kang goodbye as we won't be seeing her again. got back to our rooms, packed up and waited for christina's call till about ten-ish. apparently her car broke down so the poor girl had to catch a cab from seoul city to her mum's apartment in incheon to get the other car and by the time everything was done, it was past eleven. she came by the hotel, i hopped into the car and we drove off nearby the hotel to a lil' cafe. was good to see her again...feels good to see another friend in a diff country. : ) was getting kinda tired by then actually as we had to leave the hotel before eight the next morning for our homeward bound flight. by the time i got back and retired, it was almost two in the morning. four hours later, i dragged myself out of bed and packed the remainder things. took a look out the window and guess what? it had snowed hours earlier!! and i missed it...while i was sleeping!! darn, darn, darn....mr. kang later told us we've got no luck to experience snowfall. haha...he's damn right about that!

so long seoul and i'll be seeing you again soon....

pibimpap...mix all that in the hot stone bowl...and scoop as much as your spoon can take....yumm..:*)

goes well with chilly dip (go-chu-jang)

one of the best salads ever

Seoul - Day 3

2005-12-28T23:14:00.000+08:00

dad's finally done with his work, well, sort of. today was pure shopping...first stop was goru dist. about 30mins drive from our hotel. was pretty amazed with this place...not that it had heaps of designer wears or fashion accessories but the area was filled with rows and rows of shops trading tools, machinery equipments, safety tools, spare parts, i lost track....indeed a good experience for a purchaser! i'd have no problem with my purchasing if the klang valley had 30% of the supplying power as goru. don't be shocked to see chainsaws lying all over the front of a shop, all of different sizes! mind you, these shops are like rundown shacks but their stocks are worth a fortune. *dumbfound*

lunch...how can we not go for lunch? lunch was a typical korean one, at a restaurant minutes away from goru, its name i forgot. apparently a korean artist owns the restaurant. will let the pictures tell the rest.

after lunch, we drove another 40mins to the heart of seoul city. our or my destination, myeong-dong. well, everyone's said not to miss it, so i had to check it out. but because myeong-dong's an open street market, something like our petaling st., we had to park in lotte department store, which is right across myeong-dong. shopped a bit inside lotte then walked through the underpass to get to myeong-dong. my first impression, slightly disappointed. guess i had too high expectations and probably because of the weather too, it was really difficult to shop in the wicked, wicked cold. could also be that i was with mum and dad and mr. kang. didn't feel right making them wait in the cold too. *pout* am pretty darn sure it'll be a shopping paradise if i had my girls with me. and if only christina didn't have to work. had earlier planned to meet her in myeong-dong, which is minutes away from her office, after she knocks off work but because we were kinda rushing back to bucheon before the rush hour, had to call it off. all i got from myeong-dong were some yoghurt pack mask gifts from the missha store. really cute stuff. it was another 90mins drive back to bucheon to meet mrs. kang for dinner. yes....more food! more like a food trip than a shopping trip. *lol* but dinner was indeed really good...check it out...

pumpkin soup and bool (water) kimchi for starters at lunch

the tender oxtail stew

yu kea, raw beef in slices mixed with strips of korean pear

part of the lunch spread

finishing off typically with toenjang chige, beanpaste soup with purple rice and kimchi sides

saw these protestors outside a toyshop in myeong-dong, have no idea what were they protesting about

first heat the charcoal...

then spread the galbi ribs and barbeque... : )

the kangs and i, wonderful people...

Seoul - Day 2

2005-12-27T23:13:00.000+08:00

this morning's weather was forecasted at -4'. still no snow. we dragged ourselves out of bed...somehow the winter weather's really good to slumber. the room was still slightly warm from the floor heating, which i've yet to figure out how to turn it down! next best thing was to sleep with the windows slightly ajar. natural air-conditioning...swell... : )

breakfast was at the hotel cafe...quickly ordered spicy beef soup served with rice, which is accompanied with a couple of side dishes, found them really yummy. getting the waitress to get our order was pretty difficult cos neither of us could understand each other! she had to get her supervisor, whom i thought was equally bad but managed to understand what we wanted. thank God! heh...

mr. kang was already waiting for us at the lobby when we were done with breakfast. today's itinerary was solely 'work'! we quickly bundled ourselves in our trench and got into mr. kang's car, which was like sitting in a confined cold storage room! i had no idea where we were driving to. all i knew was that we're gonna visit a company that designs and produce non-destructive testing(NDT) equipment and machinery we found thru the net. whoa...whatever was that i just mentioned? it's all very techy jargoned, i know...to put it simply, crack testing. the journey took bout an hour or maybe more...ok, so i was sleeping! ;P hate getting out of the car into the cold again when i've just settled into the seat, getting it all nice and warmed up with my a$$! not to mention i almost slipped and fall in the basement carpark unknowingly stepping on some leftover snow from previous nights, which turned into ice. now, how did snow get into the basement carpark?? must've been a storm! anyway, spent some time going thru the various equipments they have and the techno knowhow that would best suit our company. i must say, i learned something new again today : ) the would-be machine that was gonna be specially designed for us was gonna cost close to USD40k...uh-oh! so much for my excitement to run the QC checks if we ever close the deal. got them to prepare a quote with drawings and etc and then we were off again. this time we drove another hour plus to yeoju to have a look at more machines. i did say it's all 'work'! when we got to the site, told mum i didn't wanna go down as it was pretty dirty. so we stayed in the car and waited for dad. the owner of the mill then took us to lunch. more bulgogi(bbq beef)! lunch was really good, the meat was really tasty and tender but unfortunately i forgot to get my camera into action. we ate heaps...oh no!! that's really not good...but wen tactfully puts it, "it's okay when you're on holiday". i hope so....

after lunch, more travelling on the road....the next couple of hours back to bucheon. dad had another meet appointment at the hotel lobby with mr. seo coming in from busan. we girls and mum went to our rooms to retire and shower. after the discussion, dad came up to tell us to get ready for dinner. what?? more food to come?? i'm doomed....with a contented belly...not! anyway, we had fish sashimi for dinner...

koreans eat sashimi in a slightly different way, dipping into chilli sauce wrapped with sesame leaves or salad leaves(although they do serve wasabe and soy sauce too). it does taste kinda good this way.

mum and i with our 'catch of the day'

this maeunt'ang's the spiciest ever!! look at the color! cooked from the bones of our fish. it was good, but the burning sensation lasted a while...

Seoul - Day 1 (Part 2)

2005-12-26T23:12:00.000+08:00

had an early dinner....went to a restaurant that serves cheju seafood. mrs kang was already there when we arrived at the restaurant. so good to see her again...such a gentle and warm lady. she treats me like her own daughter...making sure that we have enough food all the time. guess it's cos she doesn't have a daughter of her own...her only son wasn't with us tonight. busy finishing up his final month serving the police force and then he's off to uni.

anyway, dinner was great....we had a platter of sashimi sole fish, the famous cheju abalone porridge...it's really creamy and yummy with pieces of abolone in it. there were a couple of other baked fishes....dunno their names but really good fish. and we finished off with mae-unt'ang, a spicy fish-broth soup, which is accompanied with a small hot stone-pot of rice with herbal condiments. i love korean food....it's really healthy...and yummy, and their side dishes....just consuming that vast variety is enough to fill you up.

can't wait for tomorrow....hopefully we get to head down to seoul city. time for bed....it's been a long sleepless day for me.

at the cheju restaurant...look at those widespread dishes....simply amazing :)

the yummy maeun'tang

served with cheju abalone and ginseng pibimpap

our lovely hosts...the kangs

a replica of a typical cheju house...each sold at KW150,000 = USD150.00!!

Seoul - Day 1 (Part 1)

2005-12-26T23:11:00.000+08:00

annyong haseyo! am in seoul now...

the flight last night was pretty horrible....bad weather but good thing was we came on business class so manage to get some sleep curled up in the seat. arrived in incheon int. airport at 0820hrs local time(msian time 0720hrs), tempreture at -10'c! mr. kang picked us up from the airport and as we walked to the carpark, i could feel my ears hardened in the wicked cold weather.

we then drove downtown kaeyang dist. to get breakfast. breakfast was really good...we had sollongt'ang (beef and veg cooked in clear beef-bone broth served with either 'pap'(rice) or noodles) and kalbitchim (beef ribs cooked to tenderness served in a hot pot with glass noodles and lots of vegs; a lil' 'maewo'(spicy) but really yummy) with lots of side dishes of 'ch'onggak kimchi' (pickled radish) and 'paech'u kimchi' (cabbage). sounds a lil' too heavy for breakfast huh? well...brunch more like it ; )

after breakfast was done, mr. kang drove us to our hotel, hotel koryo in bucheon dist. our first time in this hotel. much better than bupyong hotel, which we stayed the last time we were in incheon. it's cleaner and it's got free internet services...well, that's what mr. kang said. i better not get charged for it when we check out! anyway...mum's kinda tired from the flight so we stayed back in the rooms while dad went out with mr. kang to get some work done. i'm gonna wash up myself and get some rest too...'till part 2.....

at the airport lounge waiting for the last flight out to seoul

10 minutes to arrival at incheon intl. airport, seoul..view of seoul covered in snow at the breaking of dawn

It all happens for a reason...

2005-12-09T12:58:00.000+08:00

the year is nearing to an end, it certainly has been a wild and bizarre one for me for some strange reason. a good mixture of good and bad altogether. to start off with after my trip from beijing, my bag got snatched early last month then moving on to sort of being stalked by a guy from the service centre and finally to my near fatal accident in dad's merc just a week ago, 12/02/05, to be exact, while on my way to pick mum and dad from the airport.

it all seems that luck hasn't been going my way towards the last quarter of the year, but on every bad incident, i somehow manage to get out of them with lady luck by my side. then again, i'll have to say that the last incident, the accident was the worst one ever on the list. and i'm serious when i said, "fatal accident". guess that kinda shook me up. took me a while to collect all my thoughts again to write up this post. am still in denial at some point. so that night, i made a call to chris to take back my words i shared with him a couple of months back over a cuppa of never getting involved in a car crash since the day i got my license. won't go into details what happened in the crash but simply, that day, i lost dad's s320 merc and got out of it without a single scratch on my physical self, and so did my sis with only very minor whiplash scratches on her arms. i felt really rotten for having her gone through that horrible incident. the accident has made me realized how fragile life can be and within split seconds, any one of us could lose our life just like that. whatever it is, the Lord has been really good to me..for giving me that second chance...praise Him for that.

on a hiatus, it's the best month of the year....everyone loves december...my fav time of the year, christmas, then comes new year. can't wait....hope things will start to take a turn and change for the better nearing new year's.

lesze & rachel: thanks for being the best gfs ever... love you both lots!

Good Samaritan ?

2005-11-25T17:09:00.000+08:00

Mum called me at the office yesterday and said that someone (a Malay guy) picked up my driver’s license and ID card in some drainage. He dropped off both cards at my guard house with his contact number and name. I was just wondering, could he really be the Good Samaritan or could he also be that same person that snatched my bag? I’ve yet to call to ‘thank’ him. Sorry, but I'm having lots of prejudice on this case. If only he had returned or found them earlier, I wouldn’t have gone through all that trouble of getting both cards renewed. Dad did say that now I have both sets of cards, I could afford to lose them again. Pun intended, of course. Well, guess I should just sincerely thank that person that actually took the trouble of sending back my cards. Though I wanted more than just those cards…I’d like to have my fav. LV bag, the locket that mum and dad got for me, my fav blusher case *boo-hoo*…darn…..oh well, like Rachel said, if he’s the same person that snatched by bag, it could be that he’s got some conscience. *yea right* heh….well, I’m cool…..good Samaritan or not, I’m cool.

Kitty Bollywood Style

2005-11-19T18:28:00.000+08:00

we had a couple of 'guests' this morning and mika went totally berserk! i'm not quite a kitty fan myself but these two lil' ones this morning were rather cute and playful. and that drove mika over the hill. so thought i'd get them to be friends and i picked up the orange-tabby looking one and brought it closer to mika. wrong move kiddo! mika was really excited as i got closer but bad lil' kitty decided to take charge and started hissing....wicked, wicked. scratched me a lil as it decided to jump off me. man....that's why i hate kitties....ok, bad kitties. mika was ready to be friends....i think....

anyway....it was really funny when i took mika on his leash out to the garden. ok, so he practically dragged me there....man, he's really strong for his size. so yea, that same kitty went frantic and ran up the palm tree! he was watching mika from the tree like in a bollywood dance scene...what a good laugh i had. got them all on my new orange toy...pretty good pictures *big smile*

time to self-pamper

2005-11-18T23:34:00.000+08:00

it's been quite a month...having gone and return from beijing, to my bag being snatched! wasn't a great thing to happen a day after i came back from beijing. rachel and edwin thought it was funny that i could still laugh about it the day after and that i was still carrying a BAG! well....life goes on. i was upset that it had to be me and that the bag i so liked was snatched! was just thankful that none of us got hurt that night and that rachel and edwin was with me. wouldn't dare imagine what would i do if they were not there. it was a tough lesson but we've all been more careful since. rach and edwin has also talked me out of carrying a bag these days too...haha...rach hasn't been carrying a bag since that day!

anyway, got all my credit cards replaced, ID card was done couple of days back and just got my driver's license replaced today. lots of fine i had to pay! i don't understand....they should have this sympathy law for victims of snatch thefts....don't they sympathize with us?? was a lil' irritated with the lady that served me couple of days at the ID card department. she asked if i ate my card when i said i lost my card....then i had to rephrase that it was bloody STOLEN! SNATCHED more like it....damnit. *takes a deep breather*

now, what a week i had at the government departments....so since it wasn't a long wait at the JPJ's today, was done in 20mins, drove myself to 1U right after and treated myself to a new toy.....the Sony Ericsson W800i. a whopping price i've ever paid for a phone...darn....but will be in denial for the time being, so don't remind me. one thing's for sure....mom won't be yelling this time round unable to reach me as with the old Samsung E800c, which its reception kinda screwed up after the klutz of myself dropped the phone a lil' too many times. feels nice after each good session of retail therapy. not quite after the bills arrive though! *faints*

Beijing

2005-11-11T19:53:00.000+08:00

the trip to beijing was good...'cept for the horrible food. way too much oil and salt in their food. it kinda gave me a chance to brush up on my mandarin, but speaking to these beijing people can drive you up the wall. they have a really strong 'R' accent, which makes it tough to understand what they are trying to say. asking them to repeat what they've just said just simply make things worse...well, they can be pretty nasty and are so full of themselves. that is why, i think it's true that it'll take them some 50 odd years to change. the government is actually doing a lot with the coming of 2008, being the host of the Olympics. the city being that big, a population as many as Malaysia's (could be more with its overrated immigrants and large number of tourists flocking the city every week), you can hardly spot street beggers or the homeless anywhere. that was what kinda impressed me. a good first impression to the country too. cab fare, shopping - immitation goods; they're really good at this, food and basic expenses are fairly cheap.

we stayed at the Luxury Serviced Residences, a member of the Ascott Group. the apartment was located strategically in the heart of the city....some 15mins drive to the tiananmen square and the forbidden city. it was really convenient to catch the cab to these places and also to shop and dine. within that radious, each trip costs us only RMB20 or less....that's less than RM10! now, how great a catch is that? the local cab drivers were one of our best pals during our stay. but beware not to hop into those private looking cabs. those are the dodgy ones, which i later found out from nat, some yrs back, 2 korean girls(students) were actually raped by a cab driver of those sorts!! don't get scared now, just as long as you look out for those yellow and green/blue cabs, you're safe...and they're really clean too you may be surprised!

meeting up with nat was all good too. she brought me to the lotus lane, a whole stretch of cafes overlooking a lake(or was it the sea...couldn't tell cos it was pretty dark and cold). really nice to have a cuppa with lots of live bands...pubs....diners.....the view at night, priceless. met up with some of her friends too and we went to this club called sex and da city. an eye opener i would say...and that's as much i'd say. : ) it was just nice to see that nat has blended in well with beijing.

some of the must-go places when you're in beijing;

tiananmen square & forbidden city, the great wall, temple of heaven, summer palace, fragrance hill, a meal of peking duck, shopping at silk st. market, partying at the lotus lane, and if you have the time and interest, chinese opera (which i didn't go!)

things you can skip when in beijing;

lamb hot-pot(wasn't as great as it sounded), the beijing zoo(the animals are pretty sickly looking-pandas were hibernating!), those creepy-crawly stuff(ie. silk worms, scorpions, starfish, seahorse, grasshoppers, crickets,etc) - yup...all served on satay sticks *faints*, lady's st. (horrible place), hong qiau(this warehouse place-stinking horrible), and finally, choose your local guide wisely; lots of conman out there.

I thought this old couple on the bike was kinda out of place, but don't they look sweet? hah...

One of me on the streets of Wang Fu Jing, the supposedly shopping haven...posh it may be, still gotta watch out for SPIT!

Freezing cold out on the streets of Lotus Lane...it's like Bangsar to KL, Chapel's St. to Melbourne. Here, you can spot a whole world of nation(mostly international students) sipping a cuppa on the sidewalks with a magnificent view across the lake(or was that the sea?? I couldn't tell, it was pitch dark!)

'Clubbing' with Nat n friends in, Sex & Da City on Lotus Lane

The creepy...

...and crawlies of Beijing. YUCKS!!

Ol'Mao...Tiannanmen Square

With mum and wen inside the Forbidden City

I took this snap shot of mum n dad during sunset outside the Forbidden City

Taking a break mid-way on our tracking up the Great Wall

Look at all those Great Hans braving up the wall.

Dan n I snapping up in Fragrance Hill.

And one with lil' Hayley, behind us, the beautiful falling leaves of Autumn

The must-not-miss Peking Duck, well, we waited an hour for our turn!! Miss it you say? Think again....heh...

With my 'Chinaman' bro, Dan, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest in the Temple of Heaven behind us

Frog Legs

2005-10-20T23:06:00.000+08:00

Look what I found resting on the lily pads this morning?

Signs(?)

2005-10-20T10:06:00.000+08:00

The weather this morning was exceptionally chilly while I took Mika out for his morning-walk slightly before 7. Heavy clouds hovering in the sky, signs of a morning shower. A crow sat pearched on the street lamp outside my house crowing. Never really took notice on any other day, but today, I didn't like the sound of that black bird. On the way to work slightly after 8, a huge hawk flew in the sky in circular motion. The news over the radio came at 9 announcing the loss of one notion's icon. My heart sank..thinking all these while that she would be able to pull through.

We're gonna have a very sad PM with the passing of his beloved wife, Datin Seri Endon Mahmood. His eternal flame, his "No.1 Supporter". My thoughts are with the PM and his family.

In memory of Datin Seri Endon Mahmood ~ 24 Dec 1940 - 20 Oct 2005

Lessons with Whites

2005-09-26T16:05:00.001+08:00

lesson #1 : be careful, be very, very careful when wearing whites at work.

lesson #2 : try not to be a klutz while having lunch with sauce plate by the edge of the table! it shouldn't be by the edge in the 1st place *sigh*

lesson #3 : you need to act quick when tipping over sauce plate with soy sauce!

lesson #4 : make sure you bring an extra cardigan to wrap around the damage caused or extra pants / top (depending on area of damage) !!

lesson #5 : call to cancel all appointments. this is really important. *double SIGH*

* 'nuff said *

Sarang Murai

2005-09-14T05:21:00.000+08:00

It was my first meet at the Monash Alumni last Saturday. Thanks for the invite Jac : ) We headed to Sarang Murai, a private lodge sitting on a 6-acre land up on a hill at the 18th mile off Hulu Langat. The drive takes approx. 45 mins from KL but it took us close to 90 mins with the number of stops we made along the way (but still less than what we took to Malacca!).

Upon arrival at the lodge, we met some alumnae whom were already there. While waiting for the rest to arrive, we toured the surroundings of the lodge and managed to capture some scenic shots. There was a pond with a suspension bridge hanging over it, which we later found out connects the private residences of both our lovely hosts, Aunty Rosna and her son, Razif whom she runs Sarang Murai with.

As the rest of the group arrived, we were called for lunch at the dining hall. The 18 of us were treated to a specially prepared home-cooked traditional Malay spread, buffet style! To name a few of the dishes served, Thai green curry beef, chicken curry, sting-ray cooked in a curry-like stew, pucuk lemak(leafy greens cooked in coconut cream; my guess), a yummmy herbal rice salad, sambal petai and tempe(my 1st time trying this), followed by dessert and coffee to end the meal. Lunch in short, satisfied me tummy!

We were then taken on a tour around Aunty Rosna's residence. The serenity of the surroundings, the feeling of being in the kampungs, certainly my first experience. Made me realized, how city folks like myself take things for granted these days. A lady of wisdom and courage I'd say for sure, having piloted propeller planes and jumping off them too (during her younger days)! She shared tales of life after the death of her husband and after her sons grew up. Lessons of life...witty and humourous, she made us laugh so much as we sat in her cozy living room as she chattered away with us.

You have to be there to experience the 'life' of Sarang Murai. As how Aunty Rosna puts it, "It's magical!"

Note : Aunty Rosna is the mom of local writer, Rehman Rashid, "A Malaysian Journey".

8 Degrees

2005-07-15T00:29:00.000+08:00

It's bloody cold out here...we're waiting for Erik to get back from work and then head out to QV for dinner at this place called Lime Leaves. Looked like a great place to dine and hopefully a good girl's night out. Not sure if we'll catch up with Ty and the boys later but in this weather...can't wait to snuggle up in bed tonight after a couple of drinks.

Back Tracking

2005-06-24T16:03:00.000+08:00

It's been over a month since I last posted. Wouldn't say it was an over-eventful month but will sum it all up. A lil' back-tracking on my oh-so-normal life *LOL*

- Mika's skin problem came back. It was really disheartening watching his coat covered with what I think is fungal attack. Took him back to the vet and it was really good to see Dr. Chris again. Still looking very good...*grins* Not seen him in 6 months and he's looking better than before *LOL* 'nuff fantasizing on Mika's doc. Anyway, he suspects Mika's allergic to certain food content so he's still under observation time being. Bought him new food and seems to be improving over time. He's not fully recovered as I'm writing this but like I said, improving. It's malting season too and a brush on his back will send 'snowflakes' falling to the grass. As he was sleeping with me in the room, I bought him a couple of shirts, one with the words 'FBI' and another a Kung-Fu shirt with Bruce Lee's face embossed on it (it's really cute and funny when I put it on him). Will try to post some pictures soon.

- Had a good talk, a D&M (deep & meaningful) session, with 2 very close girlfriends of mine and found out that life's never a bed of roses. Will put up a post on this once I have the time to (or when I'm not to lazy to).

- Alan came back for a visit and it was good to see him again after 3 months or so. Met Lisa (Kim&Alan's daughter) for the first time. She's 21 and came for a 2 weeks break as well as get her teeth done (cheaper fee to pay compared to Aussie). Kim's been pretty busy spending time with her as they don't meet much in a year with Alan travelling so much. Therefore, we've not gone for our doggie walks together for a while now. Poor Mika misses Aunty Kim. Mika loves Kim so much so that, when I'm outside Kim's house, he gives me a hard time making him continue his walks cos he'd wanna go inside Kim's house where he knows he'll get some yummy goodies from Aunty Kim.

- Someone offered to sell off a piece of 6-acre orchard to Dad, so we went to have a look at its condition. I've not been to an orchard in a long, long time. Last was probably when I was 8 or 9? Dad had a good time, it was like reminiscing his childhood. We plucked heaps of mangosteen, picked up durians that were already on the ground and along the way up hill were pineapple plants, a fruit my mom loves and made me jump off the car to pluck on ripened ones. Thank God these species weren't as thorny as the ones usually sold at the markets. The present owner had a lil farm rearing free range chickens, goose, ducks and I even spotted 2 turkeys! Boy were they annoying with the unusual crowing sound. Well, in summary, the fruits didn't turn out as great as we expected them to be, so mom and dad are considering the deal. But we did close a deal on a different real estate that same day. A semi-D unit located at a very serene location inside a well-known golf club in the Klang Valley, Saujana. I suppose reading on a few of Donald Trump's books lately got us all excited into investing real estates, and understanding a bit more on 'The Art of The Deal'. A good book I'd say.

- As of now, MC and I are still waiting on our confirmation tickets to Melbourne this coming July. It's the peak season and it's really tough trying to get our available seats down under this time round of the year. If all goes through, we'll leave on the 10th and return on the 17th, a chance to meet Rob Thomas in person and a good recall of the good ol' days back in grad school. Not forgetting a whole lot of shopping spree to fulfill. Mom has given me her list and I told her I'd need a lil backpack to go and 2 huge luggage on my return with that list! *crossing my fingers* I remember packing my bags to leave for uni those days. Would have been doing the same thing again this September, to Beijing this time. But you may not always have things going your way all the time, you win some, you lose some. Nat asked me to join her to learn Mandarin in Beijing this September and with that fee, Dad don't think it's feasible just to study Mandarin. It would have been good to be going back to school again. All that excitement. : ) Anyways...leave it as it is.

- I'm going for my eye check-up appointment tomorrow and at the same time get my travelling passport renewed. Wow...I foresee an early morning rush. Urgh...hate these morning rush on weekends. Hopefully I'd still be able to make it to my eye check-up in time. It's now been a month since I got my Lasik surgery done. Kinda excited to know how much my power has decreased since the surgery. The last check-up was a week after surgery, which tested out 50 remaining in my left eye and 25 on my right. Pretty good huh? Hopefully there're some good news tomorrow.

Had some thinking last night while in bed in the dark. Recalled some really sweet memories back in Melbourne, could it be a good sign ? Some things seem too good to be true at times, then again...miracles do happen. Don't they?

A Whole New World

2005-05-21T16:00:00.000+08:00

After spending almost 9 whole hours in the clinic yesterday, I'm seeing a whole new world and it's fantastic, I'm serious. Dan dropped me off at the clinic just in time for my 9am appointment and I was amazed and a lil' shocked at the amount of people already in the clinic at that hour! There really are a lot of people out there having vision problems and it isn't an uncommon issue to be getting the Lasik treatment. I suppose with the EPS (Easy-Payment Scheme), it has become fairly affordarble for most people to bear with either a 3,6,9 or 12 months installment. I, of course asked for the 12 months scheme, it is after all interest free. hah...anyway, when I walked into the clinic, the frontdesk girls greeted me even before I introduced myself. It was like they had radar censors implanted on me. Or simply because I was late for my appointment by 5 minutes due to the jam. That aside, I was asked to fill in the registration form and once that was done, one of the ladies sent me into the visual room to view a 9 minute video, for a better knownledge of Lasik and what I'm about to experience following the rest of the day. She also handed me a questionaire sheet, which I had to answer prior to the video to see how much I actually understand from the video and basically my whole understanding of the Lasik treatment.

Once that was done, I was asked to enter a room whereby I had to remove my shoes before entering and once in there, I had to put on a protective cap over my head, feet protectors and those surgery gowns. (Author's note: I've never entered a surgery room before and this was all new to me. Heck, this is my first surgery *cool*) I thought to myself, "What, this is it?? Are my eyes gonna be cut opened now??" All these while, I kept my cool. Don't ask me why, but the whole time waiting and anticipating what's gonna happen next, I didn't have the slightest tinge feeling of edginess. Then one of the nurses inside told me they were gonna take a picture of both my eyes. It all happened so fast, next thing I knew, my name was called and little did I know, the room I went in next was actually the surgery room (which I found out later) and I had to climb on the surgery table, lay down and look into this really bright red light, all blurry and glarring cause by then my glasses were removed.

All that done in less than 5 minutes and I was out in the waiting area again after removing all that I was dressed up in earlier. All the while sitting out in the waiting area, I observed the amount of people walking into the clinic each time, and it's nowonder how they can afford the amount of staff working there. Mind you, the cheapest treaments range from at least RM4.5k to 5k. Maybe most like me would consider this cheap in-exchange for a lifetime's (well, almost) worth of perfect if not near perfect vision. For that said, I wouldn't mind paying, seriously.

As I was saying, I think my doctor yesterday in total rake over 15 patients undergoing treatment. That's just one day. Go figure the numbers yourselves. And so, my consultant finally called my name and she put me through numerous test, namely to check my cornea thickness, my eye sensitivity, if my eyes were too dry and etc etc. In one of the test, she told me this, "I'm afraid you may have slight lazy-eye on your left eye." Am I suppose to freak out? Mainly, what if I can't continue with the treatment. I've always known that my right eye was the dominant one and my left eye was the weaker one. But lazy-eye? *pout* All those eye tests took close to 3 hours. I was sent out to the waiting area again and I started to feel restless while awaiting on news if, which treatment would suit my eye. Olivia (I think that's her name), my consultant came out and gave me the good news that I was able to carry out the Lasik treatment and then handed me the agreement letter to read and to be signed on later before the doctor just before surgery (which they later forgot to let me sign!) She then proceeded to drip a solution, which will start to dilate my pupils and that's when things will start to get blurry 30 minutes after. She gave me one last consultation just to run through everything with me, making sure I know what's going to happen and that I fully understand the surgery procedures and the outcomes of the surgery. I must say, the staff at the clinic made a difference, they were really warm and helpful and that, I supposed kept the patients calm.

So that was it. Just had to wait for my turn for that barely 20 minutes surgery. Yup, it's that fast! While waiting, I could have gone for lunch but I was afraid they were gonna call me at any time, I skipped lunch. I should've asked! Anyways, in total, I waited the next 2 hours! My tummy's gastric juice was building up but I had other things on my mind to be bothered. Went back into that disinfectant room and again we had to put on those protectors over our clothes.

While waiting to enter the surgery room, the nurses kept dripping the eye dilating solution into our eyes every other 5 minutes. It stang and I started to feel the strong solution taste at the back of my throat. That made my throat really dry and thirsty. The taste of that solution wasn't helping either. Finally, at 3.30pm my doctor came out of the surgery room after attending to the patient before me and ran some last tests with me and for the first time I spoke to her after being in the clinic half the day. She made one last check to see if my pupils were fully dilated and made markings on both my eyes so that she would know where to make the incision during surgery.

Once all that was done and making sure I had no more questions, she got one of the nurses to clean my eye area and prepared me for surgery. Walking (yes walking, you're not wheeled into the operating theater here!) into the operating theater was kinda freaky cause there were so many other nurses in there besides the doctor. I thought one of them looked kinda cute behind the surgical mask *laugh out loud*. I climbed back up the same surgical table I was last on when I had the pictures of my eyes taken earlier and with its mechanisms, I was alligned under the bright beaming red light atop of me again. More solution were dripped into my eyes and a protective plaster was stucked around my right eye first. Then all I could make out was a tool, which looked like a mascara curler was inserted in my eye to stretch my lids, making sure I don't blink throughout the surgery. I don't think I was given any anesthetic but maybe while the nurse was cleaning my eye area, some sort of solution was applied.

Throughout the process, the doctor made clear instructions and once ready, the laser operation proceeded. I was apparently able to smell something like burnt hair smell but maybe because I had my sinus the day before, my nose was still slightly blocked so I didn't smell anything! The sound the laser beam made was like those of a bug-attracting machine in restaurants when a bug goes into it, it causes a zapping sound, more or less the same.

As all these were going on, the machine beside you actually counts down the surgery time. Pretty cool, huh? Good thing was that you don't feel a single thing, 'cept staring at the bright red beam was a little less comforting. Before I know it, the doctor sent me out and made one last check on the outcome of my surgery, she bid me adieu and I walked out feeling all brand new. What? That was it? Hah! Of course not, this is when it hits you...a slight stinging effect started to sink in.

Then I remembered I had not taken my lunch and knowing that Dan won't be able to pick me up any time soon, I'd walk across the road to the KFC and grab a quick bite. Once out of the building, I felt the need to use my sunglasses. It was way too bright and I could barely open my eyes. I sort of 'crawled' across the road to get to the counter of KFC and ordered a 6-piece nugget. Then 'crawled' my way up the stairs and got my bite. By then opening my eyes were getting from bad to worse. Then I thought that's it, so much for thinking that you won't feel a thing. I returned my Aunt's call, which she had left on my mobile while I was in surgery and she was shocked that I actually still could eat (she went through a lot of pain after surgery) and 'crawled' across the road. Am I proud of myself or what? *silly grin* She then advised me to take a painkiller after food and get lots of rest. I was gonna sit and wait for Dan in KFC when I remembered I drank up all my water. This means I had to 'crawl' back into the clinic to get water and have a better rest in the waiting area as it was a dimmer place compared to the annoying brightness in KFC. I thought I was gonna die then, I literally couldn't open my eyes and the stinging effect worsen by the minute. I was getting irritated with Dan for not arriving sooner. Then I realised it was close to 6pm and I was the last one left in the clinic! Better call Dan and check where was he. "Around the corner!" So, I walked out of the clinic partially blind as one of the ladies asked if I needed help, she noticed I was very uncomfortable, but I managed a "no" and got into the car as soon as I could all the while shutting my eyes all the way home. I thought that was torturing.

I was told this was the effect after the surgery, due to the amount of solution dripped directly into my eyes to dilate the pupils and that it'll wear off after 2 to 3 hours. And true enough, after dinner, everything was back to normal. I managed to even watch the repeat of American Idol, which I missed out this week and that means a good sign! Kim was shocked when I called her this morning telling that I didn't feel a thing besides suffering for that 3 hours stinging effect and that I was able to watch telly, cause her friend couldn't for a few days! Dad sent me for the check up this morning and everything seems to be good, so I'm happy about it. Mom's kinda gearing up to getting hers done now and I totally would recommend it to anyone too.

Go get yours done if you're sick of wearing glasses and putting on those contact lenses, cause contact lenses really are bad for your eyes, but girls will be girls (though not only girls are the ones being vain about this these days, cause there were equally a huge amount of male patients in the clinic yesterday, you may be surprised!) and people like me, I don't go by the rules and keep my lenses on for an average 12-14 hours daily!! Now, that's really bad, which is why I had a lot of blood vessels building up in my pupil (found this out while I had my eyes checked yesterday). So I would definitely advice anyone out there to get it done. No regrets at all!

Going Under the Laser Beam

2005-05-19T21:10:00.000+08:00

I finally plucked up my courage after making lots of consideration and a whole year's pestering from my aunt, that two weeks ago, I called up the clinic and made an appointment for my lasik treatment this Friday, which is tomorrow and frankly now, I can’t wait. It's technically another 12 hours from now before I enter the clinic first for my eye examination, which will take at least 3 hours and the treatment of my eyes to continue after, which will take approximately 15mins per eye. I don't think that I'm scared or anything…well, not yet at this moment, I probably will be shaking underneath when tomorrow comes. But if all's gonna go well, it's all so gonna be worth the cold sweat. Dan’s gonna drop me off at the clinic before he goes to work. Yep, I’m gonna face the laser beam alone…which Kim thought wasn’t such a good idea and insisted that she follows me to the clinic, but I told her I'll be just fine. It's just only laser beams.....right?? Anyways, I really can’t wait till everything’s done and over with. I’ve been stuck on my glasses for the past 2 weeks and they are such a hassle since I’ve not been using them much since high school. I've even refrained myself from going out the past 2 weeks, besides my daily walks and work. Hah…yes, I am that self-centered, so bite me if you can. I actually called the clinic yesterday to reconfirm my appointment and also to double check on the things I needed to prepare myself with. Then, I found out that I may have to be stuck in the clinic till late evening as there was already a long queue ahead of me. I'm apparently the last patient on the list. *sigh* Hopefully my appointment will be pushed forward somehow...it's depressing enough to be there alone and now I'm the last patient? Well, won't let that get in my way, cos it'll all be worth the day's wait. It's perfect, maybe near perfect eyesight we're talking about for the rest of my life. All in that 30mins worth of treatment, definitely pays off. Just gotta get through tonight and see what happens after tomorrow. *fingers crossed*

My First Oyster Perpetual Datejust

2005-05-10T22:58:00.000+08:00

Now…all I wanted was a brand new Tag, and I was actually saving up for it, when Dad, on Mother's day, bought Dan and I our first Oyster Perpetual Datejust. He used all the monthly allowances we gave Mom each and obviously he had to tip in some more! :p Well, in some ways we sort of paid part of the watch's price, a-hah....but THANKS Pa!! When I was a lil' girl, Dad used to buy me a Swatch watch whenever he travels and why's that? Cos I was one careless young girl then...losing enough Swatch watches that Dad, one fine day gave up buying me those special watch gifts *pout*. I remember I used to show off my new watch whenever I lost one to my friends and back then, having a Swatch watch matters a lot to any 8 or 9 year old. After all those Swatch watches, Dad did not buy me any other watch until I entered grad school and that was when he bought me my first Tag, the 2000 Professional Series. Thanks to Dad, I developed a great love for watches and can't leave my room without one. Now I wonder what's the next one gonna be....*smiles*

Of Foot Massage and Sweet Memories

2005-05-02T01:58:00.000+08:00

I recently went for a foot massage and this brought back some good memories back while I was in grad school. I was then dating this guy and he introduced me to the foot pampering routine. He would simply pick up my foot while we watched telly and work his fingers into sensitive spots on both my feet, each at a time. He was the first guy to actually give me those foot pampering, something which I thought was really sweet of him to do and thoughtful cause back then, we used to walk a lot and our feet would sore really bad sometimes. So, after that hard long day be it in uni or downtown shopping, the feeling of someone pampering those sore feet was really good. How many guys out there actually do such things for their girls? (Author's note: by saying that, it might get him swollen with pride if he's reading this*grin*) Although we only dated for a short while, he did leave me a lot of good, and maybe a lil' of not-so-good memories...but, I'll always miss those foot pampering he gave. I've not had one since, besides those at the parlors, but nothing compares to one received from that special someone.

How true...

2005-04-21T00:48:00.000+08:00

I got this from someone and reading through my birth month, how some of it described are so true about myself. Though I don't think I'm revengeful. Have I ever been?!?

MARCH
* Attractive personality
* Affectionate
* Shy and reserved
* Secretive
* Naturally honest, generous and sympathetic
* Loves peace and serenity
* Sensitive to others
* Loves to serve others
* Not easily angered
* Trustworthy
* Appreciative and returns kindness
* Observant and assess others
* Revengeful
* Loves to dream and fantasize
* Loves traveling
* Loves attention
* Loves home decors
* Musically talented
* Loves special things
* Moody

Kim's coming back!

2005-04-10T07:55:00.000+08:00

Alan sent me a sms this morning, Kim's coming back on the 18th and maybe with grandma. : ) Can't believe they've been gone for a month now.

Kim and Alan are like second parents to me. Kim's an exceptionally cool mom to have. Miss her dearly since they left for LA last month. And grandma, although we have a huge communication barrier, I've learned Korean on my own to be able to communicate with her, we still manage the little conversations together. Just to clarify, Kim and her mom (Grandma) are Koreans and Alan's Australian (borned English and German). They live across the road and because Alan's job requires him to move around a lot, I babysit their house while they're away ; ) Mika loves going to Kim's place and that's simply because he gets a lot of pampering from Kim who owns a Maltese herself, named Pearl. It's not just me who misses them but Mika as well. Whenever he sees an old lady walking in the neighbourhood, he'll think it's Grandma and would simply drag me out to say 'hello'. I've got to constantly remind him it's not 'Grandma' and settle him down with treats in hand. He's such a handful...but anything for food, especially Haagen-Dazs ice-creams! Yum...my favourite too ^o^

Mom and Dad left for the States this afternoon for 2 weeks. They were supposed to meet Alan and Kim in LA but looks like they can't now. So good thing that Kim's coming back next week, at least to fill in : ) While they're away, I've gotta take over running errands at home. It is tough being a parent, makes me appreciate what my parents do when they're home, running errands and making sure there's enough food on the table at all times. Aren't parents the greatest?? Mine sure are!

It's a boy!

2005-04-10T04:54:00.000+08:00

Just got back from Kath's a while ago. She delivered a healthy baby boy on Friday evening, approximately 16 hours in labor! Wow..it IS not easy giving birth but dear Kath is unusually active after child birth, which Jac finds amusing. *grins* Still as lively and cheery as ever and lil' Zach Ryan did not miss out as well, entertaining us with his cries and sobbers. Goh being a new father is exceptionally anxious whenever Zach cracks a whine. I suppose that's every parent's natural response to be excited and hyped about their first born. I felt that tinge feeling of excitement, as though I was experiencing the same emotions of being a first parent as Kath and Goh. Goh showed us pictures and small footages of the birth in process, which he managed to capture. Again, that blissful feeling of a new born, when everything for that moment of time seems so pure.

Ahh...this lil' boy is gonna receive a lot of attention that's for sure. Let's see who's gonna be next in line holding a baby shower. >.<

I want a new TAG!!

2005-04-08T09:38:00.000+08:00

I've still got my mind hooked on a particular voilet-face TAG a few weeks ago at a watcshop. It's not that I don't like the one I'm wearing now, which dad got me prior to uni, (close to 5 years now) a Sapphire-face 2000 Professional Series, but it's time I get my own watch *wow, trying to sound all grown-up* and simply just to make myself feel good...self pampering always makes me feel good. : ) But because I was in a rush (cos I was with my parents then), I didn't get to see which range was it from *pout*. I so wanna get it (I know I will in time)...but then I also wanna get my lasik done. How am I gonna juggle around with my 'dough' on these two??!!? Anyone wanna start contributing into 'wei's for-a-worthy-cause trust fund'?? Someone? Hello..?? *pout* *pout*