Red Heart in a candle within a shot glass

Went X'mas pressie shopping yesterday Choon yesterday and bought this pair of candle shot glass as Choon suggested that they were perfect for the new bridal room set up in future :)
I never would've saw these candles in that light actually - considering the fact that I've been too busy handling the more 'major' stuff in wedding planning thus far, not paying much attention to the tiny details... yet anyway =]

Aren't they adorable and perfect for our new bridal room?

My Interview Look

Been attending quite a few interviews recently.. and before I attended my first one, I went and bought myself a few sets of interview/working attires since I haven't had the need to wear one in both my previous jobs for years now :)

Attended an interview with a bank yesterday wearing this:-

Black blouse from Top Shop : RM 116
Black pencil skirt from Elements : RM 79
Total damage : RM 195

The winning look of the interview outfit : Priceless :P

Free party - support none other than HB Poh

Huai Bin, Huai Bin, there you go again - another one of your wild ideas :P Nevertheless, being a loyal supporter of your blog eversince it was not so 'sane' in the bygone days, I had to do my part to support you eh? (And maybe get an invite to the party? *grinz*)

So people, please support HB in his quest to bring everyone the coolest party ever, by going to his blog post here, this fella's really ALL OUT to make this party happen!!

Scribble...

It's daunting indeed... the path ahead...
How I wish... it could be well led...

All I'm asking, is for you to understand...
That I just need you around with a helping hand...

Through all challenges that may come knocking...
But it all just seems like wishful thinking...

- Jadephoenix

2009 New Year Resolutions... Anyone?

The year 2008 is fast ending.... and all I can say is I've done lots during the year, just not too sure where I'm headed.... Lotsa people think new year resolutions are not important, coz end of the day many external factors will sort of 'ruin' whatever we set out to achieve...

I personally have never set any new year resolutions thus far, but i MUST have one for the new year 2009 and am bent on fulfilling as many of them as I possibly can!

1. Spend more time with my family - go for outings, nice lunch/dinners whenever I can
2. Aim to be ITIL-certified
3. Secure a job that will enable me to enrich my skillset and experiences and grow in the career (of course one that pays me well at the same time!)
4. My fiance will secure a good job that pays equally well (if not more) so we can settle down in our hometown
5. Have our house deco-ed to be our dream home, inexpensively
6. Begin our path to marriage with lots of love (nurture with lots of love too)
7. Honeymoon at Lord Howe Island, Australia
8. Sustain my blogs and all my other hobbies that I'm passionate about - never lose touch!

How about you? Mind sharing yours?

3D hippopotamus pen

Bought this pen from Little Cottage 2 restaurant... they have so many different animals to choose from, and all hand made with very nice quality... extremely cute too!

I was searching high and low for the Hippo but could not find any :( just when I was about to give up, the lady manager came and tried to look for me but when we couldn't find any, she said she will take out the one on display (display pens are nicely arranged in a glass-enclosed cabinet)

Yippeeee! I got the one and only Hippo design pen!

Hippo looks a bit fierce if viewed from the front...
But is extremely different from the sides - looks cheeky : P
Cute cute!

New Vincci pumps and DKNY sling bag

Vincci open-toed pump

Check out the new pair of open-toed pumps I just bought recently! Comes highly recommended by none other than queen of heels Dorene :D well of course I'd have to like it enough myself to buy it! =]

It's a black and white combination with a very hard-to-buckle strap on top.. but it's all worth the effort coz it looks gorgeous on my feet haha!

The black portion of it is made of shining vinyl material while the beige/white portion consists of tiny chequered-designed fabric... very nice combination
I haven't bought any new pairs of shoes for ages and this came just at the right time.. :D

DKNY Sling Bag

My dear honey bought me a new DKNY sling bag during the recent Parkson re-opening at Gurney Plaza new wing and I loved it - THANKS dear!

It's been a while since I've used a sling bag.. I had a smaller leather DKNY sling bag many years ago as a gift from my mom but due to poor maintenance, I had to put it to sleep :( but ever since my debut with DKNY bag I came very fond of it due to its simplicity in design yet practical to use.

The new bag came in a black fabric protector bag made of average materials but the actual bag's leather strap and finishing details were fine and looked like it was made in high quality materials (may still be from China perhaps?)
The bag is rectangular in shape and is pretty flat in nature. It came in 2 sizes - this size and a bigger one which looks a bit 'chor lor' (Hokkien for not-very-refined). It consists of simple DKNY monogram designs and the overall look is in different shades of brown.

The sling strap is in actual non-adjustable although it was made to look as though it is :S

Original view.. with protectors on the straps and the metal buckles and tags, paper fillers within the bag and all
Front views..
Side views...
One side of it came with a DKNY tag which I'd guess serves the purpose of 'distinguishing' this bag from other brands...
Interior views...
It only came with one zipped compartment within the bag
Mood : *Happy happy*

Flame Steamboat Restaurant @ Krystal Point

We had our team dinner at Flame after our newly merged team's FTF (also last year)... hmm.. somehow we seem to like dining at Krystal Point? I wonder why.... *think location location location* - hint : Krystal Point is just 5 minutes away from our office.

I personally do not like steamboats, for simple reasons of...

1. why should I pay and having to cook the food all by myself?

2. I am paying more than an average rate for people to pour my soup and also supply me with raw food :|

3. if there it is a combo steamboat i.e. soup + BBQ on the same stove, I'm even more inclined as the BBQ-ing never fails to inflict oil on me! And our whole body, hair, clothings carry all the food smell all through the night (if you're having dinner that is)

Enough of that, nevertheless, we went for it since it was funded and the team wanted to go for it :)

The interior...
Table setting..
Condiments... (1st row L-R) ginger with finely grinded chili, chili sauce (2nd row L-R) chili padis, stir-fried garlic in oil (3rd row L-R) 2 types of sweet pastes
Condiments for own consumption neatly arranged in the saucer ;)
We were so hungry that we ordered some ala carte dishes to ease our growling stomachs first..

Taiwanese sausages
Asparagus with mushrooms
The stove
We ordered the double soup base of Super Spicy 'Ma La' and one very neutral chicken porridge and this is the 'before' shot when it came..
These were the raw food that we're supposed to cook ourselves

Top tier.. Variety of meat - chicken, pork, fish; lower tier... dumplings, green noodles
Assorted varieties of mushrooms, beancurd skin and big-sized prawns
And the soup base 'after' shot
To finish the night, we had dessert too - mango pudding - *ahhhh... pudding.. one of my faves!*

In all, Flame is just another steamboat restaurant which comes with an higher-than-average price tag, but of course this is coming from a somewhat anti-steamboat person so it's definitely biased :P anyhow, the dishes were all not too bad, and the atmosphere was ok. One thing that we didn't like was the time it took just to have the raw food ready and the soup base served - waaaay too long.

Roo's Cellar @ Krystal Point

During one of our FTF (Face-to-face) when I was still attached to the MNC call center, we went bowling at Top Bowl Sunshine Square and had a nice dinner at Roo's Cellar afterwhich...

Roo's Cellar, as the name suggests - houses wines and offers lounge/dining area at the ground floor, with the second floor consisting of a bar, lounge area as well as a more spacious dining area.
When we reached Roo's Cellar, it was just about 6pm+ and they haven't even had the air-conditioning running on the upstairs yet and having just ended a long bowling session, we were a bunch of sweaty, sticky folks desperate for AC!

The bar.. we were seated at the lounge area..
While waiting for the set up of our reserved dining area, we had a go at chess...
And I'm not sure why the 2 dices appeared all of a sudden ;)
This is the dining area which we have booked for the night... the sun was still so bright but the AC was on already thank gawd!Our table ordered red wine... hehhehe.... *shhh* and that's SF doing a cheers with the flower or trying to get the flower drunk : p nah, she was making a toast with the team :) and baka on the right
We all had the standard set dinner with the mains of our choices...

Starter : some soup which I've forgotten the name of :(
The varieties of Mains we all ordered:-

Rib Eye Steak served with mashed potatoes and vegies:-
My mixed grill consisting of sausage, grilled lamb and chicken:-
Cod Fish:-As you can tell from the lightings of our mains, the cod fish came last after the rest of the mains were served so I was alright since the mixed grill was served the second *grin*

And lastly, our dessert - a plain vanilla ice cream topped with strawberry sauce with peach slices
In all, Roo's Cellar did a pretty good job hosting our pack of 40-ish people, the food was above average, considering the fact that food may not be their specialty... let's just wish that they'd switch on their A/C earlier and not wait until when the guests have already arrived

Parkroyal Kuala Lumpur & Sky Bar @ Traders Hotel

Went for a 2-day training trip at Berjaya Convention Center in KL with FH last year and had nothing but praises for Parkroyal Hotel Kuala Lumpur...

First up is of course the room.. Company booked the room type "Refurbished Superior Room Queen with broadband and breakfast" so it all sounds good.

When we finally reached the hotel it was pretty late at night about 11pm+... tired to the max, but still I managed to snap pics of the room :) I was greeted with this when I stepped into the room (notice the wash basin in the middle where the face towel is hanging?)
Frankly, I haven't seen or stayed in any room with this unique layout before - a wash basin right in the middle of the room :| and the first thing that came to my mind was the room couldn't have 'survived' my bf's abuse coz he'll definitely make a lot of spills while washing his face : P
Then there's the mirror cabinet hosting all the toiletries, glasses, hair dryer and the towels occupying the top rack - very clever space-saving concept indeed
Check out the toilettries.... they're all from its flagship spa chain - St. Gregory's Spa.. ooooo....
The bathroom and separate toilet.. I like hotels where they have separate bathroom and toilet - it gives much more privacy.. both the bathroom and toilet are squeaky clean and had very nice tiles, marbles and clean lines.
Opposite the bathroom is where the open wardrobe and luggage area are located.. adjacent the wardrobe there's a full-size iron board with an iron and a safe as well. There's even a full-size mirror for you to check yourself out before you step out of the room! :)
This is the queen size bed... with very comfy mattress and soft pillows... but nothing compares with Sheraton Gateway's of course :D
The desk, TV and mini bars are all located across the room from the where the bed is, with the TV on the left. But the distance is a bit too far for me though, especially when the TV screen is so small

There is a huge sofa on the right too, which I sat on.... just for fun :) and it's very comfy too!
To its right is the mini bar which is again cleverly stashed away within the cabinet where the kettle is placed on the tabletop and the mini fridge located underneath it
The tea cups are neatly tucked away in a front-see-thru drawer (probably for fear guests couldn't find it) and here are the items stocked up in the mini fridge... Snacks, Kit Kat, beers, mineral water - but I think all of them are charged so I didn't take any of them - including the mineral water. And honestly, I doubt if they change the supplies frequentlyThe desk... where there's free broadband - but I didn't bring my laptop - what for? It's only 2.5 days and 2 nights anyway
The views from my room..

Morning view of Berjaya Times Square and Convention Center..
The monorail rail...
Night view of the monorail...
Now the second thing I lurrved about Parkroyal was the breakfast - I have to mention the breakfast was absolutely the most comprehensive and yummy one I've ever had for a looong time!

Apart from the usual breakfast items, they had Japanese items like Sushis, extensive yoghurt and fruit bar, porridge station, pastries section, and the egg station is my fave coz you can order anything 'egg' under the sun! (yes, including sunny side up too)

And guess what I ordered from the egg station? Poached eggs! Poached egg is the hardest egg dish to make as it involves none other than the technique of... poaching of course! It's extremely tough to get the egg right and the chef did it perfectly well :D I never heard about poached eggs until my mom ordered it for me at the Customs House in Brisbane back in 2002 and I loved it ever since!

Third but not the least is definitely the bellman.. when we were about to depart for KL Sentral (or KLIA) after our training, it was already rush hour and just when we had loaded our bags onto the boot of a taxi, desperate to head to KLIA or KL Sentral, the bellman asked the driver how much does it cost to get us there - and upon hearing the fare, the bellman immediately alerted us that the rate is way too expensive and went ahead to extract our bags out from the boot!

Actually, we were in a way relieved too as the driver and his taxi looked absolutely dodgy and un-safe; so the next taxi came and the bellman even haggled the rate with the driver a bit before giving us the green light to board it :) both of us were truly amazed and appreciative to the bellman's gesture - thank you!

Enough about the fabulous hotel, let's move on to the hang out at night :)

After the first day of training, Simon, Jess, Adrian, Steven, Pinkgi were all kind enough to gather up and came all the way to fetch me for a hang out! After circling the entire KL city amongst the jam (coz it was raining pretty heavily that night), they finally decided to hang out at Sky Bar - the bar on top of Traders Hotel.

That's Jess' back
It was very nice indeed.. seated alongside the pool, comfy sofas, with the view of Petronas Twin Towers with all its lights lit up, practically right at your face - thanks guys for the effort and it was nice to catch up with ya all!