Jade Inc. ~ wake up to your dreamz ~

Going-ons in my life lately

2010-06-29T21:25:00.008+08:00

Some of the interesting tin can caps I stumbled upon lately in my collection... L-R : Nes = Nescafe; Red Bull; Milo

The windmill Kel gave me as my birthday pressie has finally been assembled... wheee~! *huggies*

Very chu bi Tiger beer keychain my dad has!

Some sort of fruit my dad bought which he thought were oranges... damn sour and bitter *yucks*

Durians glorious durians~~~

What is sold at our cafeteria during tea time...burgers made on-the-spot; now is that encouraging tea time or what?

cute sheepie spotted at Q Bean - a new soya bean outlet @ QBM...

.... which also sells very nice Soya Bean ice cream! Yummiiieeeeee!!

Looking forward to cook Spaghetti for honey hehe......

Thanks mommy M for getting me my faithful Estee Lauder at $44 @ LAX!

DC and my drawing scribbles @ Kopi Cine recently...

New book

2010-03-23T22:23:00.004+08:00

Bought this book last month but haven't got about reading most part of it yet.... I MUST finish this book . . . . . . and FAST! ~ somehow i gotta feeling i'm gonna need some advice pretty soon~

Random pixx

2010-03-23T22:05:00.008+08:00

Guess where this is taken at? It'd be nice to have this hue @ home huh?

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Have you ever seen such a kick-ass BIG Blue Screen before? Only @ Subang Airport

^ ` ^ ` ^ ` ^ ` ^ ` ^ ` ^ ` ^ ` ^ ` ^ ` ^ ` ^ ` ^ ` ^ ` ^ ` ^
What a serene place to be at on a hot, sunny. lazy afternoon...

# " # " # " # " # " # " # " # " # " # " # " # " # " # " # " # " # " # " # " # " # " # "

I have 3 seats all to myself on my flight home! wheeee~~ got space to put my precious J.Co Donuts summore :P

x X x X x X x X x X x X x X x X x X x X x X x X x X x X x X x X x

Some additions to my bag collection . . . :-D

2010-03-23T20:59:00.009+08:00

As a continuation from my Prada purse, I am delighted to receive many more gifts from SL and honey!! *beaming with glee* Let me introduce...

Coach Signature Pouch - my wedding gift from SL - thanks girl! *hugzzz*

Coach travel pouch (I guess?) - souvenir/gift from dear dear, courtesy of Venetian Macao :D

Louis Vuitton Damier Ebene Canvas - Neverfull PM (all the way from HK) - from honey *muaaacks!*

... and the latest addition to the family.... up NEXT... but sneaky peek here !

Tip : it's small :P

Weekend oncall - 真不是人做的工啊!

2010-03-14T21:45:00.005+08:00

Finally... I'm done with my weekend oncall... by right, the definition of on-call is standing by and being called upon to work on critical issues as and when it arises....

But THIS on-call is really so dreadful....

Saturday 7am - 8pm (13 hrs) ; Sunday 8am - 8pm (12 hrs)

it's NOT ON-CALL AT ALL..!! I was practically slammed with waves of issues and had to work non-stop round-the-clock.... And on top of that, had to deal with lazy, irrational, uncooperative, demanding, unreasonable people along the way... it's just not worth it at all...

WA BEH TAHAN LIAAAAOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

And allow me to say this again - Weekend oncall - 真不是人做的工啊!

I wish I could be as calm...

2010-01-25T23:39:00.004+08:00

The contrast of green leaves vs. the bright blue sky with hints of clouds

Shooting-star look-alike in broad daylight

The serenity of an early Sunday morning

Sun-lit Japanese bamboo plants

Peacefulness of the shoreline with Super condos filling up the background

Ahh.. Good ol' Dim Sum for the start of a new year :D

2010-01-04T21:45:00.003+08:00

To commemorate the first breakkie we had for the start of year 2010, we had Dim Sums! All the 6 of us :D

Here's GL - the tea cups and utensils 'sanitizer'

and CoCo - the tea 'pourer'

We're lucky girls to be 'served' hehehehehe!

Yam Seng! :D

My office... fulla my favourites!

2009-12-31T15:22:00.007+08:00

Since I joined my current company I haven't really been very satisfied with my cubicle, probably coz it could not be fully 'ergo' as I wanted it to be....

Well, at least not until I imported some of my faves into my workplace! :P

As the last day of the year 2009 approaches, I would like to end it with some snapshots of my favourites which had accompanied me throughout my ups and downs on both teams that I have been attached to...

The crazy folks who stacked all my soft toys up together with 2 of Kel's Bugs Bunny and Wile E Coyote (this is at my old cube)

YaYa who arranged this as a 'surprise' on my docking station, as a 'commemoration' for my return after 2 days' training :P

My cutie brown hippo posing with some sort of weird nut that my boss bought from East Malaysia

Happy Torto with J&J Bee posing with Toblerones given to me :)

Cute-ness overloading! Check out my grey hippo with my phone as the background :D

This is GL's cube which Kel printed out his 'full name' of... he would like to be addressed as "Costello Yeap" but we still felt that L(r)obert Costello Yeap suits him more, wahahhahahah!

Some of my collections of random sky shots

2009-12-29T23:49:00.002+08:00

Let the pictures do all the talking this time...

Our new sunnies - Hammer & Porpoise

2009-12-27T22:43:00.002+08:00

KW's pal Pheng was generous enough to gift us sunnies as wedding pressies and we were flattered that he hand-picked many for us to choose from, and we picked these:-

KW's sunnies with polarized lens - Hammer

My sunnies - Porpoise (limited edition with Edison Chen's signature on the sides :)

What a nice Wedding a.k.a. Xmas pressie - thanks Pheng! :D

Contented...

2009-08-29T00:15:00.004+08:00

I watched the animation UP in 3D today...

Loved it to bits! It's so fun, adventurous, cute, and heart-warming altogether... most importantly, it teaches us to always hold on to our dreams and fulfill it! Regardless of how old we are.. and always know when to let go when it's time...

What a long day today... rushing after work and all...

but I'm actually HAPPY and CONTENTED :)

Today - I saw another side of a person that I guess can rarely be seen by others... it's just amazing knowing how sensitive this person could be in so many ways.

emotions . . .

2009-08-14T22:19:00.002+08:00

It sucks to be ME - right here, right now.

I don't know what I'm feeling right now.. It's like a mixture of defeated, bent, misled, sad, embarrassed, cheated, upset, and just plan........ DOWN.

I don't even know why I'm feeling what I'm feeling.... why? How I wish someone would be able to answer that question for me...

Cute-ness overloading!!!

2009-08-07T19:52:00.004+08:00

A kid's bakery opened in Gurney Plaza lately (not exactly sure when though) but I've been wanting to snap pics of the exxxxxtremmmmmely chubi (read: cute) animal figurines in front of the outlet!

Finally managed to do it, thanks to my dear pal's camera phone :D

Veli cutie giraffe with a loooooooooooong neck..............

......... where the head turns and the eyes could roll too!

This is moo moo cow of course.... and no, it doesn't move at all no matter how hard I stare at it, hoping otherwise *bummer*

The bakery stuffs are very cute too but pretty pricey so I didn't buy any :P

MAC Hello Kitty limited edition... Models

2009-07-10T23:26:00.006+08:00

This is a rather backdated post when MAC had their event at Gurney Plaza for their Hello Kitty limited edition range

They had 2 pretty interesting models dressed up in baby doll and catsuit

There were many *male* photographers and non-photographers alike hovering around these models and I happen to be one of the few rare female trying to photograph them as well :P

The baby doll model was obviously the prettier one but most guys shot more of the catsuit model (read : skin-tight suit + ultra low cut front)

There were loadssss of Hello Kitty balloons there as well but I was too shy to ask for one, hehe!

Stupid error

2009-07-10T21:09:00.007+08:00

Don't know what error this is, all I know is it's pretty annoying.

It always happens like this :

I Ctrl + Alt + Del my system - go for my breakky / loo break / lunch break - come back, Ctrl +Alt + Del - tada! It welcomes me back as if telling me 'sorry, no entry' and I get into the viscious cycle of 'OK' then back to Crtl-Alt-Del prompt

What's wortst - the first time I got this error was just merely after 2+ months (or even less) of getting my brand new E6400 work laptop

Called up Help Desk

"Can you restart?"

"I can only force it to shutdown then turn it back on, but that's not the point - I have many processes going on prior"

"Ok, but currently there is no other choice but to restart"

"So what happened? What caused that error?"

"<speaks in a gebrish-like language along the lines of 'ad hoc technical fault'>"

"So what do I do if it unfortunately happens again?"

"Then you will need to restart - actually, there are some users who totally could not restart their system at all"

(at this point, I'm not sure if I'm expected to express a sigh of relief knowing that my restart worked?)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(T__T)"

Just us.. and the sea breeze

2009-07-07T21:52:00.007+08:00

A quiet drinking session

with a good company,
at a cosy beach front,

enjoying nice sea breeze,

witnessed silent red fireworks.

What better way to spend a Friday night?

KL Fashion Week

2009-07-07T19:43:00.005+08:00

KW was pretty delighted when he found out about KL Fashion Week back in April as it seems that all shopping malls have their very own catwalk stages set up with strings of fashion shows to feast our eyes :)

During my trip there, I witnessed 2 fashion shows but the one that caught my attention was at MidValley Megamall.

The stage, though in shades of sandy white, had really simple lines yet sophisticated and chic, and the whole set up looked grand. The natural sunlight dawning from the rooftop gave the finishing stylish touch to it!

Nautilus Bay Jelutong Promenade

2009-07-06T21:05:00.014+08:00

Just when every other Penangite (or non-Penangites) thought that only Gurney Drive can qualify as THE promenade of Penang, we were delighted to discover yet another one off Jelutong Expressway - dubbed as Nautilus Bay Jelutong Promenade

Some brief introduction extracted from the site above:-

Nautilus Bay Jelutong Promenade is a new 3.6 km long promenade developed by Jelutong Development, a subsidiary of IJM Properties. This seafront park provides an alternative spot of people to stroll while enjoying the beautiful scenery of the skyline as well as Penang Bridge and harbour.

The Nautilus Bay promenade features a 10-meter walkway beautified with several modern-art sculptures. The most iconic is called "A Celebration of Our Blue Sky", a set of four 25-meter tall pillars soaring vertically into the sky.

"There stand four tall posts,
but you see only two of them
sometimes three and sometimes all four...
depending on where you stand.

You come to see these posts...
which symbolize nature...
that is continuously changing.

The colour of the posts is blue symbolizing the sky... true!...
but watching the sky at sunset or,
at night you'll give up this cliche...
that the sky is always blue.

The blue in this work of mine symbolizes...
man's desire to return to nature."

This sculpture is the work of Hitori Nakayama, a Japanese artist who has been residing in Penang for the past twenty years.

Another sculpture, "Rhythm of Life", depicts music notes.

"The musical note reflects rhythm;
When the rhythym of a song is right...
all things fall in place -
it is easy on the ear as it is harmonious.

When it is a happy song, the feeling is happy and pleasant.

This sculpture interprets life as a beautiful rhythm.
The sculpture- a simple note rising high...
with bright vibrant colours -
reflects the basic element of a life synchronized.

Like the vibrantly coloured musical note elevated high,
when life is in sync - it is easy and happy.

In short, it strives to echo the age old truth...
that when you have rhythm of life...
life is easy, happy and often colourful. "

This sculpture is the work of a local artist named Heng Eow Lin.

Nautilus Bay is actually the name of IJM's 3-storey courtyard homes project right where the promenade is

My Wedding Heels

2009-07-06T20:53:00.004+08:00

I actually bought a pair of pearl white wedding heels early this year but was really hooked when I saw this gorgeous pair at Robinsons (The Gardens MidValley)

It's in shade of silver, really glittery (but not too much) and it looks so elegant.

According to the salesperson, the brand name Charlotte can only be found in Robinsons within the whole of Malaysia (not sure how true is that) and though it is a Malaysian brand, it can only be found in Singapore

I wore my initially-bought pearl white heels during our wedding photo shoot and this dazzling pair is still very much well-stored under the protected covers of its box, and will only be unveiled on my Big Day! :D

My Prada purse

2009-07-05T14:53:00.009+08:00

Back in April, KW said he'll buy me a new purse as an early birthday present since the one I had was pretty much worn out and slightly discolored, and I've been using it for many years now.

Thank you honey for your thoughtfulness and such a nice birthday pressie *muaackkks!*

When I was in KL back in April, we went purse-shopping at Pavilion, and it was my first time entering boutiques the likes of Coach, Gucci, Burberry, Prada, Burberry, Bvlgari, Versace, Chopard, Hermes Finally, after much comparison,

I finally settled down for a Prada in a pink shade as I felt it to be unique and striking.

Prada's women's wallets are all made with exact layout with difference in the material used to make the wallet itself.

We were at first fascinated with the softness of a sheep's skin wallet and were determined to bag that one - until we found a defect on the lining. Unfortunately that was the only stock in the outlet and another one in KLCC but later we were informed by the gentleman that, though sheep skin is softer but durability-wise, treated leather range will be a better choice as sheep skin will cripple in time

So that was how I ended up with this pink Saffiano leather wallet :D

My version in white (under Categories > Women's Wallets > 4th from right most)

What's this? Apparently it's the holder for the receipt

And I'm just known as a 'Generic Customer' (what to do first-timer what)

Limited Edition Issey Miyake Summer EDT

2009-07-05T14:27:00.004+08:00

I've always had a soft spot for perfumes and normally I'd make up excuses to buy them especially when it's surrounding my birthday, and I told myself that this is a birthday present I'm gonna get for myself this year :)

And so, after trying many different brands at different counters, I'm still mesmerized with Issey Miyake's Summer (EDT), partly because it is limited edition and its 100ml came with same scented lotion (or a bar of soap) and a mini vial.

The scent was light, refreshing and had floral tones to it - everything summer is. It is very much a huge contrast from the strong tone of Hugo Boss' Femme which I bought at LA airport back in July 2007.

Nowadays, Parkson uses this partially see-through plastic bags even for purchases more than RM 200! Only RM 500 and above are entitled decent paper bags *gosh*

French Manicure

2009-07-05T13:59:00.004+08:00

I don't wish to have my blog becoming a place I only come to when I'm down, so I've decided to post some going-ons in my life recently :)

French Manicure

I never really taken any proper care of my nails before, and I have a bad habit of being tempted to 'peel' off my finger or toe nails if they get too long :P Besides, many have commented that my nails are very tiny and 'cute' so I never bothered to maintain them well like many girls would.

Behold! My 'cute' yet horrid nails :P

I went and did French Manicure for my wedding photo shoot last Friday and it bloody costed me RM 160 @##$%$^*&(**&%#$#@

But what the heck, I want my wedding shots to be nothing but perfect :D

After a freakin' long 1.5 hours and another 45 minutes of drying, my nails have been transformed so beautifully that I almost wept as they've never looked this pure and pretty........

I opted not to have any diamante, silver lining or 3D flowers on my nails as I wanted it to be pure, simple and elegant

It's not the physical distance that's daunting.. it's the emotional distance that's making me shiver

2009-05-05T23:37:00.004+08:00

It's ironic.. why have I come here when I'm so gloomy and down.. this is my blog, my personal blog.. could it be that this is the place where I feel most secure? that I won't be hurt by anything, anyone at all?

Maybe... just maybe...

I'm listening to Halo right now.. and somehow it eases my emotions a bit.. i feel moved whenever I listen to it.. as if it gives me strength everytime I listen to it... thanks dear for giving me this song.. even when you didn't intentionally gave it to me and that there's no particular meaning, but it kinda reached me at the right time

I don't understand why it's always dejavu all over whenever we touch about sensitive topics but topics which are important in its own right...

We have always been far apart, ever since Day 1 we were together.. but why do I feel stronger and stronger, that we are drifting apart, no longer physically, but emotionally?

Sometimes, I secretly wish you'd sweep me off the floor with something out of the blue, and make me melt in your arms, breakdown in tears, and the tears are of joy and not of sadness... not of the ones I am shedding right now, right at this very moment....

But I also know so well that the possibility of realizing it is near to impossible, and what I longed for will remain as my wishful thinking.. I'm disappointed, torn....

Geminians like surprises, new things, new excitement... but it doesn't mean that I'll forever be unhappy if you don't give me new excitement everyday.. but it's how far you'd go and what you'd do for me to make me feel important that matters... be it a small gesture, a small compliment, a touch, a kiss, a hug..... I''ve come to realize that I'm a very touchy person... but sadly you're not........ it's not your fault... it's just our differences...

I'm not sure why I wrote all these or what I'm trying to express.. or what I want out of this, they're just the very true emotions I'm feeling right now, right at this moment.....

I'm extremely heart-broken........ and terrified that I asked myself a question that I can't even bear to repeat

"Have I made the right decision?"

I really hope it's just a glimpse of insignificance thought and when tomorrow comes, all these doubts and insecurities would have disappeared..... gone with the wind.....

Whoever's reading this and those who know me... please pray for me... that I will have strength to continue on this journey that I long to find happiness in

And I thank you - my dear, my gal pals and sis who have touched me in your thoughtfulness tonight

It's a brand new lunar year everyone!

2009-01-26T01:13:00.003+08:00

Out goes year of Rat, and in comes the Ox - 牛大哥!

It's been a very fast-paced, long and challenging year for me indeed, with the ending being one of the world's greatest economic crisis that the World have seen thus far, we can only hope for the better; to continue to be flexible, adaptable, persevere and have strong willpower and determination to make things work with whatever we are slapped with, and whatever we have at hand.

Here's to a brand new lunar year filled with abundance, health, wealth and most importantly, LOVE!

Image above taken from thedigitel.com/top-stories/chinese-new-year-g...

Please stop . . .

2009-01-14T13:54:00.004+08:00

I so feel like crying my heart out right now.. but I 'yannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn', and I 'lunnnnnnnnnnnnnn'.................... not that I wanted to, but I really don't have much choice.

Is a damn TV more important than a relationship? Is it worth screwing up the whole family's relationship and bond just because things didn't go quite right with the TV servicing?

I have done everything I could from Day 1 when the TV broke down, following up until this date, constantly calling to find out the progress.... the TV has been rendered un-repairable, and currently we are waiting for the replacement TV in which the shipment is still pending to arrive.. the Outlet couldn't provide a definite answer as to when the stock will arrive since Samsung was unable to deliver per their commitment to the Outlet time and again, hence I suggested that they evaluate the value of our broken TV so we may consider topping up for a brand new LCD instead, if we choose not to wait for the replacement Samsung.

Not a day passes by without my mom or my dad pestering me to call them and demand why is it taking so long, and I tried, I really tried my best to be patient and told them what the Outlet told me, and I too, long for the replacement TV to arrive so we could all enjoy the TV once again, but that is about all I could do! Do follow-ups, understand why is there a delay and what's causing the bottlenecks, try to be reasonable and even tried to propose different alternative solutions so we could get this over and done with the soonest - that's ALL I could do...

Why does it have to come to this? Everyone unhappy?! OVER A FREAKING TV FOR GOD'S SAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Honestly, I don't know what else I could do to please them, to stop them from making crude remarks about me anymore....

I need some fresh air....

am slowly approaching insanity...............

Ang Pow packets from Gurney Plaza

2009-01-11T02:12:00.005+08:00

Saw the "Golden Celebration @ Gurney Plaza" ad on The Star yesterday and the 'Red Packet Redemption' caught my attention... Being an ang pow collector, I definitely couldn't miss getting my hands on Gurney Plaza's ang pow

The red packets can be redeemed from 10th to 20th Jan '09 at Customer Service counter (1st floor), for any shoppers who meet the spending criteria of minimum RM 180 (maximum of 2 combined receipts in a day). However, as HSBC is the official credit card for the string of events, its credit card holders will only need to spend RM 138 to redeem :D and yes, damn right I'm a HSBC credit card holder, for about 5 years now.

I spent about RM 111 at Parkson (as it's Elite card member day today), and combined with Suchi's RM 75 spending at MNG, we get to redeem 1 red packet - and Suchi was kind enough to let me have it all to myself - thanks! :D

Time to check out the ang pows...

The pack we were given... the dui lians (2 strings of good words that wish success and prosperity) were the main theme for the Golden Celebration this year

Opening up the packet reveals the actual pack containing the ang pows...

And let's count how many ang pows are there in the packet....

It came up to the total of 7.. Why 7 and not 8??? Aren't there supposed to be 8 of them since 8 is like THE auspicious number especially for Chinese New Year? And somehow a very wild theory just dashed through the wild mind of mine there and then...

Unless....... the folks manning the customer service counter of Gurney Plaza were to take out 1 ang pow from each of the packs that they were given custody of, so they could save them for their own use!!!! AHA!! Then that explains why there were only 7 instead of 8 of 'em!!!

AM I BRILLIANT OR WHAT???

.... Err... Well ... Anyway.... back to the ang pows.....

There are actually 4 different designs to the ang pows, each of them bearing different auspicious words... and they are:-

如意 Ru Yi
迎春 Ying Chun
富贵 Fu Gui
吉详 Ji Xiang

The one I got was 如意 - meaning 'as wished', but I can't help but wonder do the other ang pows come in gold as well? And can I ask for other designs if there is a next time? :P

The back of the ang pow...

My next goal : McDonald's ang pows! With any Prosperity meal purchase :)

My Soft Toys collection! . . . (part of it)

2009-01-09T20:45:00.004+08:00

It's time to share a sneaky peek on some of the soft toy collections I have thus far, though it's not ALL of 'em, but I'm just as excited!

Was doing some cleaning and wiping of the soft toys I have in my room (there's more in my old room) so I thought I'd snap pics of the family :D

. . . . . . . Tada . . . . . . . ! !

L-R..
top row : Cookie Monster, YoYo, Silent Night hippo, Gingerbread man, monkey, Torto (turtle), Fei Kau (fat dog)
bottom row : Hippo, Rambo (pink elephant), Intel white bunnyman, doggie with mini puppy on top, brown hippo, puppy

Don't the names sound a bit familiar? Look to the right under 'About' :D most of my soft toys have been with me for quite some time now...

From this bunch, I'd say my favourite would be between the likes of these 3:-

Rambo and Hippo.....

and YoYo...

Coz they're just too cute! Rambo is a gift from my dear - bought in Penang, while I bought Hippo myself in KL, and YoYo is a gift from AY - bought in Costa Rica... I love all of them!

Will share the rest of my soft toy family ...

... Soon! :P

p/s : pardon me for the poorer pic quality as my dear was holding my camera as he was on a company trip hence I had to make do with my faithful Nokia 6300's camera capability

Good deeds start small . . .

2009-01-08T01:56:00.006+08:00

Been collecting aluminum can pull tabs for quite some time now with the help of my dad and grandma, and have accumulated a whole plastic bag full of them up to date... with no idea where to channel them to?

All I know is that these pull tabs can aid in the making of artificial limbs, but had no idea which organization to give it to... until now :) PChoon knew someone who collects these and donate them to the folks who will recycle the pull tabs for that purpose..

I'm proud of myself, knowing that I just took a tiny step in helping others, and thanks PChoon for helping me help others as well :)

All of us can help too, if we are all just willing to take those small steps in conserving the environment, and I'm particularly fascinated by Dave who happened to just lived a full 365 days WITHOUT THROWING ANY TRASH AWAY! Do visit his blog here to learn more and let's join him in preserving the Earth that we all share.

X'mas pressies exchange!

2009-01-08T01:10:00.007+08:00

Ah well, I guess this entry's a bit late, but better late then never heh!

Honey and I exchanged our X'mas pressies at my home on the day of Christmas... it has been a long time since we ever sat down quietly and exchanged gifts.. the feeling's just so nice and warm...

This year, honey bought pressies all from Singapore's Takashimaya mall due to their most recent company trip to Club Med Bintan, and their Director granted their wish to have a day's shopping spree in Singapore!

Due to my current employment status, my dear bought 2 pressies - one for me, and one for himself and his would be gifted under my name to him... how sweeeeeet!! It made my heart melt knowing how thoughtful he is....

I bought him 2 pressies too! How about that? :D

Can't wait to open the pressies!

Line up the pressies first....... (that's right, the one in the black plastic bag is one of the pressies)

Don't forget my other present for honey...

Takashimaya's paper bags and wrappings are soooo pretty!!! It came with gift tags too - we both wrote our wishes to each other

And my gift from honey is.......

Kapo!!!! holding a "Be Mine" cushion that's detachable... awwww~~ thanks dear!!

The gift my dear bought for himself....

a Lanvin slimline wallet that he had always wanted

Honey then opens my pressies...

a CK long-sleeve shirt! Glad he liked it and it fits him well :D

Well, I forgot to take pic of the other gift I bought for honey, coz he opened it later :P

This year's x'mas and new years were among the most meaningful I had for a long time.. all thanks to the company of my dear, and also many friends who spent the occasions with me.. *BEAR HUGZ*

So long 2008 . . . here's to a good 2009 ahead

2009-01-01T17:46:00.003+08:00

Looking back at year 2008, I saw myself enduring many challenges which I never would've imagined going through ever.

^ I experienced the uphill climb of assisting in the set-up of a start-up company - trying my best to put chaos into order;
^ struggled to manage the downhill relationship between me and my immediate manager - someone bearing very differing values compared to myself;
^ questioned myself countless times why I am still in such a stressful yet unrewarding job, which demands an average of more than 14 hours' of work time on a typical work day - in night shift;
^ not being blessed by anyone in the family nor my dear in taking up such a dreadful night shift job, posing health and safety risks to myself;
^ most part of my 2008 had been nothing but engulfed in my job - work days, off days, holidays, even days when I'm on leave - never a day passes by without 'work' haunting my mind

On the sunny side of it . . .

# I had the privilege of knowing and working with some of the best talents that I didn't know existed - your wisdom, commitment at work, support for me, and most important of all, FRIENDSHIP - had made me feel tiny in many ways - to all my fellow co-workers, you have made me see many beautiful values that a person could have, and refreshed my faith in true friendship that is possible, and is free from politics at the workplace
# my bf of 6 1/2 years proposed to me on my pre-birthday celebration with a bouquet of roses and a card bearing the golden question
# the relationship between my bf and I have been closer than ever, despite our distances, and we cherish every moment that we get to spend with each other dearly, though we still have our fair share of differences in opinions and arguments, end of the day, we cherish each other more than ever
# I feel very blessed and grateful to know I am always surrounded with people who truly cares about me, be it rain or shine in my life - I don't have to name names, you know who you are and I want you to know how important it is to me to have you in my life - Thank You... you make me realize that all hope is not lost when I've made the harsh decision to quit my job in Nov, under such rough atmosphere of global financial crisis
# I am finally taking a big break, resting and doing things I enjoy - spending time with my family, catching up with friends, enjoying new-found freedom, blogging, establishing a new blog, enjoying a healthy lifestyle with frequent work-out, one that is also free of illnesses and migraine strikes
# we finally found our future home in an area we really liked, at a price that is considered reasonable enough for us to commit to

X'mas & New Year eves...

2009-01-01T16:05:00.004+08:00

What I did on X'mas eve...

~ py picked me up & we headed for lunch @ Sakae Sushi (Gurney Plaza new wing), I offered to pay but was declined as he claimed this meal to be an x'mas present from him
~ after lunch we did some shopping within the plaza - what a shopper he turned out to be :| buying more than me.. I myself bought a set of 3 pieces of baby clothings for my newly-born nephew (Dec 23 '08); a CK long-sleeve shirt that was on sale for my dear, and last but not least, a 3-quarter casual pants for myself
~ we had a short yam cha @ Segafredo's as well - also on py (I prefer to believe this to be due to his generosity instead of pitying my current employment state :P)
~ py dropped me home at about 4.30pm and I handed him his x'mas pressie together with some pressies for my ex-cols which needed his help to hand over on x'mas day
~ Got myself ready by 8pm, picked up by Cody with a car full of friends I haven't been hanging out for quite some time now - BH, HL and his gf Rachel
~ we headed for Fettes Park Western Food only to find out that the area's out of electricity :S what an x'mas eve dinner it was
~ we still proceeded to dine 'romantically' in the darkness only lit up by a candle on each tables
~ Food was fabulous as usual
~ my dear arrived shortly - all the way from KL - he had Cordon Bleu while I had Fish & Chips
~ we made our way to Gurney Place afterwards and hovered like a hawk over a table of folks until they can no longer 'tahan' our stares and offered us one out of their 2 tables for us :D @ Coffee Bean
~ we were not only entertained by the live band on a stage set up near Dome, but also from a guy so into his own dance moves just beside our table, Cody even offered him party packs and glow sticks
~ witnessed fireworks lit up along Gurney Drive from where we were seated after the X'mas countdown
~ left for home about 1:30am

New Year's Eve

* Woke up at about 9am again, received sms from Dorene asking me out for yam cha as they're on half day work only
* Left home earlier than planned at about 1030am, to the bank's to withdraw my overdue FD
* got impatient at the bank's for the long wait time (and that being my second trip due to long queues the day before)
* when it was finally my turn, got more pissed when I was told by the teller that I had to go to the HQ office to withdraw my FD, that I couldn't do it at that branch. When questioned why the FD slip did not state the exact branch of the FD, the teller pointed at a row of what seemed like gebrish code to me and said that that's the HQ code. I then questioned the teller again why the branch name could not be printed in English on the FD slip itself just like other FD slips I have with the same bank? Was questioned back by the kurang ajar teller "don't you know which branch you have the FD opened with?" And that set off my hot button and I told her in the face "How am I supposed to remember all the opening branches of all my many FDs??" She then offered to update my FD but I said "No thanks, this is not helpful at all and mind you, this is the second trip i'm making here in 2 consecutive days" and marched off
* Went home and complained summore to my mom and by bf (over the phone) how I would never ever open anymore FDs (not with the stupid bank anymore anyways)
* Had a nice mommy-cooked meal for lunch at home
* Went and met up with the folks at GT office, exchanged some silly jokes and laughters
* Driven by Dorene to Starbuck's at New World Park where we had Dark Cherry Mocha Frap - on Dorene again (buy 1 free 1 too), talked some more crap, exchanged Happy New Year wishes and went home at about 5pm
* Did TaeBo workout from 6pm - 645pm
* Allowed some time to cool off and got ready for NY eve outing with the girls at 7.15pm
* Waited . . and waited . . for Mun to pick me up . . supposedly at 7.30pm :P
* While waiting, opened my credit card statement mail, only to find out I've been charged a good RM 26.09 for finance charges and got so mad that I picked up the phone and called them to interrogate
* while doing so, Mun called as she had reached my house
* Got Jasmine, the agent who answered my call, to mail me the freaking finance charges calculation as well as waive off the RM 26.09 before ending the call with an exchange of Happy New Year :)
* Had an unusually smooth and traffic-jam-less ride from my house to Gurney Plaza with surprisingy ample parking spaces at the basement car park at about 9pm
* Met up with Ling and her hubby Suu at Kim Gary's for (late) dinner
* Experienced our first ever Kim Gary dining experience up to the moment they officially ended their business for the day
* Proceeded to head to Gurney Place downstairs via the lifts, but they seem to not be working, so we used the stairs instead
* Shocked to see the massive crowds of people already packed at Gurney Place at about 1040pm
* Couldn't find any seats in any of the outlets there, continued to move ourselves and lucky us, managed to seat ourselves inside the recently-redecorated Dome at a table marked 'Reserved' - shows how VIP we were heh? :P
* Chit chatted at Dome until countdown time
* all of us rushed outside to witness the fireworks adorning the sky right on top of Gurney Place - I took some pics and a video of the fireworks as well as the huge crowd
* By the time we returned to Dome after what seemed like forever, Mun paid the bills already, the waitress also cleared our tables accordingly. Problem is, I was supposedly to still have 70% of my iced chocolate *sobz*!
* we were surprised to chance upon the weird 'dancing to himself' guy yet again (the one from x'mas eve)! He was doing none other than dancing, this time, right in front of the stage, all by himself!
* Mun and I parted with Ling & Suu about 1230am, and we headed for QE II where my sai low was at
* enjoyed another relatively smooth slightly traffic-jammy ride from Gurney to QE II
* tried to call and sms sai low when we reached but he's most prolly too drunk to respond
* we then paid for the entrance - I ordered Vodka lime while Mun had Tequila; we then tried to navigate our way thru the packed place but no signs of him either
* hung around summore at the front with our drinks and finally he called back
* the moment sai low saw me, he grabbed me by the hand and wanted to lead me to the table but I had to call Mun and get my drink as well ma...
* after making sure I got Mun and our drinks, he led me through the crowds by the hand, to the table where him and his friends were hanging out - around the centre area of QEII
* Mun was literraly 'under attack' by the buayas there - but it was practically one of the guys who was the most annoying
* I then complained to sai low and ask him to get his friend not to disturb Mun anymore
* buaya kept going and 'harassed' the kelian Mun who's still seated
* another guy went to her rescue, with sai low rescuing her once as well
* witnessed very gross 'dance moves' by sai low and his friends - 3 guys dancing with their hips together, some face-to-face while some face-to-back :S
* I danced with one of sai low's friend Chris - who happened to be a pretty cheeky but okay chap
* sai low offered me beer a few times
* Chris took pics for me and sai low, he also took few pics with me with his mobile
* Mun declined a few invites to dance as she wasn't comfortable dancing with folks she just met the first time and not familiar with
* sai low, drunk like hell but can still keep dancing and dancing like the Duracell bunny, haha!
* we bid Chris and sai low goodbye at about 2:50am
* I wanted to visit my ex team who're still working but didn't manage to get hold of Dz via call or sms - wasn't sure if my ex team or another team was on that night
* reached home at 3.15am
* cam-whored in my room while waiting for Mun to call indicating she's reached home safely
* sai low and some other people's sms-es finally came in at about 4am - very much delayed! :O
* called Dz and wished him happy new year and asked him to help convey my new year wishes to the team :D

In all, it had been quite a while since I had the opportunity to spend my X'mas and New Year's eve outside of work - and it's ironic that the only time I can enjoy both occassions is when I'm not employed :P

Red Heart in a candle within a shot glass

2008-12-18T01:52:00.004+08:00

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

2008-12-18T01:34:00.004+08:00

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

2008-12-12T18:07:00.003+08:00

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...

2008-12-11T00:42:00.004+08:00

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?

2008-12-10T18:24:00.002+08:00

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

2008-12-09T17:28:00.003+08:00

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

2008-12-09T13:29:00.008+08:00

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

2008-12-09T12:00:00.010+08:00

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

2008-12-03T17:36:00.005+08:00

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

2008-12-03T15:43:00.018+08:00

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 frequently The 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!

Tiramisu * Melting * Love * Romance

2008-12-03T15:36:00.002+08:00

Finally decided to buy this rare Tiramisu snack that comes in a pack, priced at RM 17!! Seriously I passed this one up the first time I saw it coz it's too expensive but when I went shopping with a gal pal, I just couldn't resist buying it to share with my beloved honey this romantic snack.

From its packaging, I guessed it to originate from Japan (hence reason for the ridiculously high price), but the back of the packaging reveals that although it originated from Japan, it was actually imported via Hong Kong then Taiwan then only made it to Singapore or Malaysia through their M'sia or S'pore Sole Agents.

The snack comes individually wrapped, with one tiramisu cube in each pack, here's how it looks like (excuse the picture quality as it was taken via mobile):-

And here's what the RM17 is for!!!

All about snacks...

2008-12-03T14:03:00.017+08:00

This post is dedicated to all the folks who love snacks... before breakfast, in-betweens, afternoon tea, supper.. the list goes on. Well I personally don't go for snacks.. until I joined the call center industry where there're times we haven't got much to do if users are smart or systems are stable *oh well*

Please bear in mind these are collages of snacks accumulated over months (maybe years?) so I didn't munch all of 'em in like 2 days ok? =]

"Imported stuff"

Giant Chocky

This is the Thailand version... XL size that is... check out the huge-ness of it!!! It says at the bottom... "Chocky Giant Stick - That's delicious and, fun" I wonder what's so fun about giant sticks?? *grinz*

The direct translation of its chinese words are "Chocolate stick - big big rod, very very delicious" wahahhaha!

Moving on....

All the fattening, gooey, caramel (but nice to eat) snacks from the US... courtesy of fellow colleagues and visiting counterparts....

Butterfinger Stixx
Reese's Peanut Butter Cup

Moo Moo milk sweets

Thanks to Lynn, I get to relive the childhood moments of indulging in milky sweets.. but this one's way cuter than those we had back then

Moo..!
Local stuff

Home baked cake from Jessica

Jessica, a very very strict yet kind Superuser baked us her signature chocolate cake one day for the whole team to enjoy! Sooo sweeeet of her! And I was on shift that day and had the honor of enjoying it...

Don't be fooled by the nicely packaged cake that came in a standard cake box.. she actually took the effort to place the cake inside a proper box, with a proper base that only cake shops provide too! And everyone thought the cake was bought *mouth gaping wide in awe*

Is the chocolate cake lovely or what??And it's really really realllyy yummy..........I reckon it's much better than any Chocolate cake from cake shops - Jenny's or Secret Recipe'sMini mandarin oranges

It was in the middle of nowhere near CNY that someone brought mini mandarin oranges to the office...

That's SF at the background.....

It was really mini as EJ demonstrated with her tiny palm ;)

Piglet couple mooncake

Fast forward a bit to Autumn Festival, EJ bought vegetarian mooncake.... in the form of a piggy couple! So the cute ok!!!
It's in red bean paste flavor too

Mangosteen

Someone brought manggis (mangosteen) to office one day and it's such a rare fruit that everyone grabbed it!
Can't remember who was the person kind enough to be my white background :) my guess is SF since she sits there

Random 'weird' stuff that you don't see everyday

2008-12-03T01:08:00.005+08:00

Disclaimer : These were past incidents that I only managed to blog about now so... yea.. it's kinda outdated.. but nevertheless, it's something I don't think anyone sees very often.. :P

The days where NTV7 was still airing Friends .. Chandler and Phoebe never looked more distorted... (I guess NTV7 was trying to say : Friends are best viewed via a mirror)

The Star newspaper also went berserk.. as I spotted these:-

How about tasting a twin banana?

Now tell me... do you see these everyday? Bet not!

Flash games galore!

2008-12-03T00:26:00.006+08:00

I know I know... no updates since September huh? So i'm updating 2 posts tonight :)

Been following Amanita Design (You can find the link on the right pane as well) since 5 years ago and they develop really kick-ass flash games that are so addictive! I've lost their URL for quite some time now and suddenly 'found' it accidentally while digging up rubbish within my laptop :P and immediately saw a new game they developed for BBC

Apparently BBC needed a sort of educational game for the kids and I must say it's fun playing it eventhough i'm a grown up! Go and try it! It's called Questionaut

Some sneaky peeks of the game:-

There are 8 stages altogether.. with questions from Mathematics, Science, to Grammar, Geometry, etc.. This is the final stage:-
One of the questions...Finished the final stage..The end...!

And just when you think that's all Amanita Design can do in terms of Flash Games - you're so wrong - they've got 2 very successful games under their belt Samorost 1 and Samorost 2 which I recommend to almost everyone i know! So you gotta check it out! The graphics are just marvelous.............

Jade Inc. Returns!

2008-09-07T00:10:00.034+08:00

Well... Where should I start....? A lot of changes happened in my life between the gaps since I last updated my blog... lots of ups and downs... I've changed job since early Oct 2007 and found myself reporting to work right the following day after it was my last day in the previous job... What a mad thing to do... Afterwhich I was very much engaged in the current job involved in a new startup company... figuring out what the hell I'm there for, why am I constantly feeling as though I need another 3 of my clones to be able to finish the work....

But wait! Where have my manners gone? I shouldn't bore anyone (including myself) on my current job affairs, so let's start off my 'comeback' post with some collage of random stuff in my life so far............... *ahem* since June 2007 that is :p

Checked out The Gardens shopping mall in Mid Valley City during my trip to KL in July and it was love at first sight! I liked all the wooden interior...

There was Mid Year Sale going on hence the decorations...

And my... my... the glass walkway bridge... so elegant!

That's how the bridge looks like from the bottom...

The greeneries and water features...

There were huge stretches of colour-changing lightings adourning the wodden walls on the upper floors

.... and I also noticed some laser-beam-like projections on the odd-shaped rectangular panels as well

When we reached the tail end of the mall, it is a round-shaped enclosure design and the high pillars were also installed with colour-changing laser-beams running up and down the pillars... simply beautiful

The boutiques are all very elegently deco-ed with colour-schemes and I must say that KL shopping malls put in a lot of effort on the 'packaging' - even the shopping malls and boutiques spend quite a fair bit on deco-ing for the Mid Year Sale whereas there's not much going on in Penang shopping malls during Sale season

Even the advertisements are now geared towards 3-D via a see-thru glass box.. this very conventional yet innovative advert is for Maxis.. (we've seen these before on TV)

I didn't capture this on pic but The Gardens had an Interactive Directory system which is touch-screen based for shoppers to look for anything under the sun (within the Gardens of course) - though the technology is nothing new to us, but it is state-of-the-art for shopping malls to make use of this technology for its Directory system.

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Everyone knows how much I like ice cream and particularly Gelato ice cream! Was so spoilt for choice in Mid Valley Megamall standing in front of this place simply called Gelato Fruit (coz they had a whole range of fruit Gelato flavours as well) ....

and took me and bf a while to decide which 2 flavours to get ourselves... and we ended up with .... Soursop + Tiramisu......!

It was stillll so yummmmmy eventhough it cost us bloody RM 9 for it! *gulp*

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Some interesting 'architectures' which caught my attention.........

Nike booth set up with very life-like sport mannequins in Mid Valley Megamall....

Euro Cup football fever advert by Nike as well (in front of One Utama)

A temporary full-size squash stadium set up within the main atrium of The Curve - complete with a proper spectator stand as well.... (don't ask me how they can apparently move the spectator stand into the atrium coz I haven't got the faintest clue) Apparently there's a match between Nicol David and someone else or some other people ;)

A very interesting chess layout right outside of TGIF The Curve's exit... with a sign 'Enjoy a game of chess' beside it
& " & " & " & " & " & " & " & " & " & " & " & " & " & " & " & " & " & "

A very nice co-worker Dz took the effort to bring us some 'bubur durian' (translation : Malay word for Durian porridge) for everyone in the team one fine night.... thanks to his mom for cooking it and to him for sharing it with us!
And he even bought a loaf of WholeGrain FibreMeal bread (whatever that is) to go with it... how sweet..
But I just ate it the plain ol' way... and it's tasty! *thumbs up*

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Burnt some additional cash unexpectedly on changing a brand new tyre when I just expected to fix the alignment problem on my car.... it appears that my tyre was almost at the verge of a 'bubble burst'.. check out the condition of it.

Ah well, I had to tell myself that my LIFE is worth much more than the increased price of a tyre ok?

They sell quite a lot of rims too...
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Some pictures taken at the spur of the moment....

Sunset....

Rainy day.... it's almost as if I'm at Genting Highlands...

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Found this cute li'l hippo at Borders and immediately had to get my hands on it!
It's a soft jelly wrist rest actually... and that's exactly what I needed for my most-of-the-time-more-than-12-hrs-work job involving the use of none other than the greatest invention of all times - the Notebook

Cute and cuteness are the only words I can think of to describe this hippo - now She is a Happy Hippo and the reason why I know it's a 'she' is coz she has very attractive and alluring eye lashes and her ears and nose are pink!

There are alphabets contained within the soft jelly - A, B, C and Ds only to be exactAnd this is how I use it!Ever since Happy Hippo made its debut in the office it seems that everyone just wants to get their hands on her coz she's just so cute! There's even a video dedicated for her - it's a magic trick making Happy Hippo disappear (luckily that's just magic and She did not disappear)

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * The End....... of the Beginning of more updates to come! :D ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Stay tuned - Jade Inc. is coming back with new posts this week! :D

2008-09-05T02:15:00.003+08:00

Stay tuned folks! I PROMISE - there will be new updates to my life within the week! I'm TERRIBLY SORRY for taking so long - someone gave me inspiration and motivation to blog once again

Dragon-I @ QueensBay Mall

2007-06-02T11:19:00.000+08:00

Have been a sucker for Shanghai Small Dumplings ever since I had one at Genting - how succulent and finely made cuisine... Also the fact that I missed out the opportunity to sample the famous Shanghai small dumpling offerings at Dragon-I the last time we went One Utama at KL :(

Fret not as it finally landed in Penang - Queesnbay Mall! I dragged my bf there yesterday as I claimed my day off and he had replacement holiday for Agung's birthday which falls on 2nd of June (Sat). So off we went in the afternoon and shocked to see the restaurant almost 90% full with people! HelllooooO!!! Don't they have to work? The restaurant just opened I think a week or two ago but I heard that on a normal weekend day, you will definitely get caught up with the long queues in front of the restaurant waiting to be seated. We're lucky to be able to just walk-in and ushered to a vacant table :)

A bit of background on the outlet... It actually occupied 2 lots combined right on the curve of one of the floors in the mall itself (view from outside):-

The entrance:-
The open kitchen very much visible to anyone standing right in front of the restaurant, with the chefs busy making fresh Shanghai small dumplings with their skillful hands and fingers:-
I was so excited.. Checking the place out... taking pictures... so here's how the environment looked like inside:-

Notice the ancient soldier-like statues placed along its main corridor - they looked kinda freaky framed up like this though:-
This is the typical set up on each table (notice the chopsticks with dragon-I wordings at the base as well):-
These are the condiments placed on a turnable plate - soya sauce, vinegar, chilli and toothpicks:-
There's a flipper thingy on each table adorning highlights of the restaurant or promotions etc:-
The mango dessert thingy looks so tempting eh?

We just went there to sample both of their signature dishes - Shanghai small dumpling and Ramen so we ordered the dumplings and a pork rib ramen, with a herb drink for my bf and a chinese sea coconut with water chestnut dessert. After they key in your orders, you will have your order slip placed on the table and they will cross out whatever that has been served one by one:-
This is my sea coconut/water chestnut dessert, full of goodies:-
And this is the long awaited Shanghai Small Dumplings!
Notice how the bamboo steam basket is layered with veggies at the bottom before placing the dumplings... when we used our chopsticks to grab hold of the delicate and fragile dumpling up, we can see the soup within - awesome! I was thinking on a way to eat this without wasting any of the soup so i placed it on the spoon then bit on it.... ooooooh the soup just come rushing onto my tongue... check out the inside of the dumpling with soup:-
The specialty of Shanghai small dumpling lies in the fact that the dumplings are much like 'paos' - but it's small (obviously) and the difficult part is in how to make the dumpling in a way that the skin is very thin and translucent but at the same time able to hold the soup generated upon steaming of the dumplings - as the soup itself is the main essence of Shanghai small dumplings.

You can actually find the background history from the back of the wet towel packet itself:-
"Xiao Long Bao or commonly referred to as "Soup Dumplings" is one of the finest Chinese delicacy.The exact origins of Xiao Long Bao is unknown, but they first appeared in Northwest of Shanghai, at least 100 years ago. This ubiquitous little bundle of joy is indigenous to almost every culture.

As you arefully pick up one up with your chopsticks, you could literally see the weight of the soup stretching the translucent skin down. The best Xiao Long Bao has skin so thin yet it has enough elasticity to hold the delicate balance of dough, soup and meat in it."

Need I say more? :-P

Ok enough of the dumplings, let's move on to the 2nd highlight - Ramen!
There is a reason that they give you a huge soup ladle for you to enjoy your ramen - coz you can really taste the essence of the soup base when you gulp them by big ladles - eventhough the look of the ramen is not that appetising at all, but both my bf and I can assure you that this is reaaaaaaaaaaalllyyyyyyyyyyyy good stuff - the waitress will ask if you would like her to cut the ramen and we said yes (good choice) coz the ramen spans very long if not cut - the texture is just right - not too thick, not too thin - not too tangy and not too soft. The soup base is.... to die for I tell ya - my bf is normally not a soup type of guy but he was like draining the whole bowl of soup off! :-O

The bill came to about RM 40 - a bit pricey but it the food was indeed good - living up to Dragon-I's reputation.

It's going to be a new bright day.. ahead

2007-06-02T11:02:00.000+08:00

Depressed...

2007-05-24T21:28:00.000+08:00

I'm so depressed and sad now

I just wanna give up pleasing people and live my life the way I wanted to

...................I just want to run away.......................... where no one can find me

Red Chopsticks @ I-Avenue

2007-04-28T00:21:00.000+08:00

Had lunch with JY one fine afternoon upon the pretext of trying it out since her co-worker did give some good comments on the food..

Red Chopsticks literally had the whole shop adorning red chopsticks practically on each table - and I was commenting to JY that if I were to open a shop, I would name it Green chopsticks instead coz red is such a common colour for chopsticks and it doesn't really give a lot of Branding and Product Differentiation touch to it, people won't really remember Red Chopsticks after a while but they'll surely remember Green Chopsticks :)

Ironically, our table had NO chopsticks -_-

We were both extremely hungry by then so both of us ordered rice...

JY ordered rice with Pork Leg Vinegar

while I had the rice with Tau Yiu Bak (cooked with soy sauce)

And we also ordered their signature dessert - Chendol! They offer so many types, and they boast their chendols made of pure 100% Pandan with no artificial colouring.

Check out my chendol with extra attap chee!

All in all, the food were all good, especially the Chendol.... man! It's so fragrant and smooth..... eventhough a bit expensive but it was indeed a ncie and big one... But I have to say the rice was not cooked and hard :(

Oh, and they serve wet towels too

Pulau Perhentian.... Our holiday escapade!

2007-04-28T00:07:00.000+08:00

Get ready Pulau Perhentian... Coz here we come!:D

Collection of Home Meals

2007-04-27T22:31:00.000+08:00

I'd like to share some of the nice meals I had at home so far... some cooked by my mom, some take-aways from coffee shops and some I cooked myself :)

During December there will be a day where Chinese celebrates a festivity called "Dong Zhi" (Mandarin for the end of Winter season). It indicates that we are at the end of the lunar year in terms of end of Winter season (referencing China of course). It's a time to celebrate that we have safely endured another year and looking forward to a better season and new year ahead of us.

For this, we must eat sweet dumplings and I still love it even to this date, eventhough it has become more of a yearly routine than something normally only kids get excited about.

Due to the amount of work involved preparing the dumplings, in which I normally help out in shaping the dumplings out, we decide to buy these from the markets instead, as my grandma is getting older and my mom can only make it back the night before the actual festive date and unable to help out..

So here's a feast we get to enjoy! All prepared by my dear mom...

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Sometimes, I cook myself noodles and I just loooooove this Korean noodle Shim Ramyun, I picked this up while studying in Brisbane last time where my Korean friend introduced me to this super spicy noodle and I couldn't have enough of it since then!

A guide to cooking Shin Ramyun (From left to right and top to bottom):-

1. Recognise the packet so you can get one of these yourself next time you go shopping (read : Korean shops if you're overseas)

2. Heat up your wok or whatever you decide to cook this in

3. Open up the packet - you should be seeing one chunk of noodle; 1 packet of chilli powders and 1 packet of dried vegetables (made up of spring onions, carrots, mushrooms, etc)

4. The left one's the chilli powder while the right one's the dried veggies

5. Cook your noodle and while it's getting soft...

6. Pour in the chilli powders,

7. then the dried vegetables..

8. Cook till your noodle gets soft enough for your tastebuds and serve onto a big, nice-looking bowl

9. Enjoy! coz this is damn good stuff I tell ya

Good till the last drop for me :)

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Next allow me to introduce one of my favourite Fried Hor Funs (Broad flat rice noodles)... my dad used to take away this when he has his breakfast at the coffee shop as I normally sleep in during my off days...

Good Cha Hor Fun (in Hokken) coz it's got huge and fresh prawns, veggies, fish, chicken, and fish cakes. And most importantly............! The sambal that comes with it is just.. simply...... irresistable! Hot, nice and spicy! Yummm.....

Food Loft @ Gurney Plaza

2007-04-27T20:57:00.000+08:00

Went and had dinner with Datuk K and Hui for Hui's farewell... she's leaving the company (my company) to embark on a better opportunity and Datuk K and myself would like to have a nice dinner with her... and so they've decided on Food Loft... I must admit that the ambience itself is undeniably cosy, upmarket with clean lines.. it's a nice place to have a cosy dinner and chit chat with some friends.

This is only the second time I set foot at Food Loft... the first time KC and her gf treated me to a nice meal after helping them out on a few translation documents... I had a pretty tough time after consuming the thick slab of cod fish... and let's not get into that now...

After much time spent in deciding on what to order, finally we settled down with each of our main course, and ordered 2 side stuff to be shared amongst all of us...

Hui had her favourite Spaghetti Carbonara.. with added cheese on the order itself, and she helped herself with more added cheese after that.....

Datuk K had a nice Chinese style Chicken Noodles...
While I had my favourite Spaghetti Marinara myself....
The 2 side dishes were the steamded dumplings, and my recommendation of Peking Duck...
The dumplings were a tad too salty, but everyone complimented the Peking Duck as a good choice... of course lah! You must see who recommended it! ;-)

The drinks were nothing to write home about, they're practically ready-made and stored in the fridge (so un-fresh) and Datuk K's Aloe Vera drink didn't taste good at all (he's my guinea pig before I went ahead and ordered one myself, after tasting a marvellous one back in Jakarta last time)
Overall, the food were not bad as all of us did enjoy our meals but not the drinks though.

laiming to achieve the "Trendy and upscale international dining concept", the Food Loft strives to do just that by utilising an order card thingy for each customer and they will bring along this card to the open kitchens which serve a variety of food from Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Western, Nyonya, etc; and hand over the card to the attendant for order locking into the system.

End of the day, customers just bring the order card to the cashier for payment. If you lose the card, you must pay them RM 50! (This is actually written between the fine lines at the back of the card) Honestly I think this is a total waste of time, but Datuk K thinks that this is pretty innovative (well that's four thousand and one differences identified so far)
Hui and I went to the washroom and I was pretty impressed! Chandellier lights (don't care it's real or fake) hanging from the ceiling of a washroom?
And one of the contemporary water taps have become 'crooked'.... but still functioning!
The views I took from the window seat where our table was.............. Ahhh.... good ol' Gurney Drive....
More pics of Gurney Drive at night (Yep I was basically there during the evening inside Gurney Plaza and sitting outside along Gurney Drive the very same night)

Digi Roadshow..

2007-04-27T20:24:00.000+08:00

Any Malaysian knows that the war between our beloved 2 main mobile service provider are as hot as chilli padis... and it's no surprise that we're seeing their roadshows coming up on frequent intervals...

A couple of weeks ago, Digi did a roadshow at Gurney Plaza and it was pretty big, not in terms of the floor space occupied, but in terms of scale... I was dining with Datuk K and Boon Hui at the 4th floor of Gurney Plaza the day before to have dinner, and saw a massive swarm of yellow-t-shirt-adorning people at the Gurney Drive hawker centre... and later I found out that Digi actually sponsored all the t-shirts for all the hawkers there *gasp*

And on Saturday, we checked out their roadshow...

The Digi car.... (God knows for what reason or any relationship with Digi)

The crowd....The uncle who's supposedly the ice-cream provider must be laughing himself out from within, looking at the amount of ice-creams "sold out" during the roadshow, counting the money he's gonna get from Digi by end of the day.... Mmmmm...

Look at all the endless tubs and tubs of ice-cream already gone? With the empty tubs still piling up!

And the cutest thing was, I saw this mini pool that's supposedly a fishing game of duckies (the yellow, red and blue duckies were actually featured on one of their long line of adverts), but none of the attendants entertained me even when I was so eager to get my hands on it :(The highlight of the roadshow was definitely.......... none other than their famous trademark Yellow Men!

Check out their awkward dance moves.... bwahahahaa...

They offered all Digi users a chance to take pictures with the Yellow Men.... not that I'm very fond of that though... coz they looked sweaty, hot and what not...

New Lane Hawkers

2007-04-21T01:30:00.000+08:00

Had a slightly early dinner at New Lane last Saturday... and as usual, the place was getting busier by the minute..

Since we were early, we managed to grab hold of a bowl of porridge that normally sells out by 8pm or somtimes before that..

Good porridge this was.......

And I was thinking... it has been a long time since I had Char Kuey Teow, so I ordered one after verifying again and again with my bf that this stall's is not bad....However, the moment I saw my Char Kuey Teow, I knew it wasn't gonna taste good (I'm that good in looking at food ok? Especially my favourites)

And indeed, it did not taste good AT ALL - what a disappointment, to think that quite a few outstation people actually recommended this Char Kuey Teow stall -_-

We ordered Batu Maung satay as well... and my bf argued with the lady that this is not Batu Maung satay and was in the midst of insisting she exchange it with real Batu Maung satays (coz the stall sells the normal satay and Batu Maung satay) - but I told him this IS batu maung satay and only then he let go of his 'bite' on the lady... haha

Sakae Sushi @ QueensBay Mall

2007-04-21T00:35:00.000+08:00

Went and had early dinner with some co-workers from neighbour team during dinner break at 430pm @ Sakae Sushi.. that was the first time and how nice as all of us ordered different things! The whole place was practically deserted with only 2 tables other than us :)

Interior of the place..
This is the Teppanyaki station...
We order our food through the computer located at each table - you can browse the real menu first, and then order through the computer - everything from a la carte to sushis and teppanyakisGlancing through the history of Sakae Sushi (?) Cute saucers
Wasabi and soy sauce.. too bad they don't have sweet soy sauce that Sushi King offers
The green tea is DIY though... but they allow you to DIY in refills via the hot water tap thingy at each table.. so you don't have to go through the pain of getting someone to refill them, like what we always have to do at Sushi King..
This is the Chicken rice thingy..
Kimchi beef ramen...
Cold ramen set that comes with Tempura..Breaking and dropping the egg...
Stir vigorously...
and finally my beef ramen...

I'd say that the a la carte items were actually much tastier than I expected it to be.. and the sushis were not as good as those at Sushi King's... I sampled all of the other rice/ramen except the cold ramen which I will never order because it's cold.....

I loved the soup base of the Kimchi ramen... the Chicken rice thingy was really fragrant when it first landed on the table itself... and all throughout the eating process as well... and my own Beef ramen was not bad as well... I must say that I was never fond of ramen coz the ones that those authentic Japanese restaurants serve is mostly very big in portion and contains a lot of stuff which I do not like to eat... not sure the veggie names but I didn't like them at all.. and most of the soup were just plain and the ramens' texture not to my liking.. but these ones were actually pretty suited to my likings :)

Argghhh... all these food posts are making my stomach growling, and I've only done 3 food posts so far! One more to go before I sign off for the night and hit the sack

The all-new New World Park

2007-04-21T00:19:00.000+08:00

Why is it called the new New World Park? Coz New World Park has actually been around for ages, since Shaw Brothers had a thetre/cinema here many many years ago (even before I was born), and since I was a kid there has been many stalls lined up on both sides of the road along Swatow Lane in the afternoon, offering a lot of famous Penang hawker food.

Some rich guy (I forgot his name) threw in big bucks to have a proper place built up as a hawker centre for all these stalls to be housed within, and tada! We have the new New World Park now... in case some of you overseas are going "where's that?" the answer is... Swatow Lane! Yes, all the stalls down there are now being 'centralised' into a pretty chic hawker centre known as "New World Park".

Shame to say, though, after its opening in Jan, I only managed to set foot in there in April :S

Some of the stalls.... the stalls had ample space and even a partition for cooking (inside) and serving (outside)

This is just a glimpse of one side of the whole hawker centre floor space:-

Run down on all my fave food at Swatow Lane/New World Park :-
Curry Mee
Char Kuey Teow
Hokkien Mee
Ice Kacang
Ee Ya Kueh
Cucur udang

My bf had char kuey teow - it's from a grumpy aunty, but I do love her char kuey teow as well :)

While we shared an Ice Kacang - with added ice cream and banana :D

Burger van

2007-04-20T23:29:00.000+08:00

There's a burger van that has been around for as long as I can remember.. my dad used to bring me and my brother to take away burgers from this 'moving stall' ever since we were like 7 years old... the uncle used to sell at Jalan Gajah in the evenings and move up to Hill Side approaching night time... But nowadays they only sell at Hill Side beginning from 6:30pm

What our family likes about the burgers and hotdogs they make is that it comes with a nicely thin layer of egg which practically wraps around the burger patty or sausage, and also the nicely cooked onions in generous portions that comes with each burger/hotdog.

I usually buy hotdogs instead of burgers (not quite sure why) and I decided to buy one to pat myself on the back the other night when I got my focal delivery, just to tell myself I've done a good job for the past year and it's absolutely OK if I didn't get the results as I wanted it to be..

Here's the uncle cooking burgers away... (the shot was pretty blur coz I was practically pretending I was fiddling with my phone when I was actually taking pictures... his daughters were actually standing around helping out when I did this)
Here's the burger-selling-van (shot safely taken from within my car ;)
My hotdog!!
Can't wait..
Mmm...
Check it out... its got egg, cheese, onions, tomato slices, cucumber, and of course, hot dog in it :DYummyyyyyyy!

Kimchi Korean Restaurant ~ Mmmm... Tasty ~

2007-03-30T22:54:00.000+08:00

Had a really Korean-crazy night shift supervisor named SE around my office and she's sooooo into Korean food and Korea and everything Korean.. and dunno why or how, we talked about Korean restaurants in Penang and she had one in mind that she highly recommended. Hence we decided to go there and sample it ourselves! Of course she's been there a gazillion times but not me, so I asked all the others in my team but they were either not interested or not free, so in the end my team lead Andy, SE, me and another supervisor Steven went for dinner one fine night (you might've guessed that it's not long after we brought up the name of this restaurant!)

So after work, me and Andy rushed to the place called "Kimchi" (how aptly named) near Tanjung Bungah, settled down and had SE took care of our stomach for the night.

Here's the interior:-

Andy's face blocked out to protect his privacy whhahaha...

SE doing the ordering like a pro as she is....

Side dishes...

The veggies to go with the BBQ meat that we're gonna have later on...

The stove - heated up

We urged SE to be our professional cook for the night, and she gladly started off by layering the stove with the onion provided - claiming that it gives extra flavour to the meat that we're gonna barbeque.... hmmm...

And in goes the pork!

Then the Tofu Kimchi soup came....

We were served rice as well..

This is "Chao Nien Kao" - a stir-fried dish....

After cooking pork, we had chicken as well....

together with some oil so it won't burn easily....

Then the beef pan-plate came... everyone dugged into this one :)

With the Stone Rice came shortly after as well... with SE mixing up the rice with some chilli evenly....

And to top everything off, we ordered another serving of the vegetables as we had so much meat to combine with....

And they served us dessert after our filling and long meal... which, according to SE, is made of processed and drained rice (?)

And the VERDICT is..............................

Side dishes : Very nice.. they had a combination of Korean typical side dishes, but added with localised varieties like LaLa, etc.

Stone Rice : Absolutely nice... I've never been a fan of Stone Rice as they tend to overcook especially the rice at the bottom of the stone bowl but this doesn't catch that at all.. maybe coz SE was such a good cook!

Chao Nien Kao : The taste was very unique and full of flavour, with nice textures on the Nien Kao themselves - but not my fancy :)

Beef pan-plate : This is so well marinated that I couldn't have enough of it! Marvelous!!!

Pork & Chicken meat: These were nice BBQ as well... the tastes were not overly powering, nice..........

Kimchi Tofu soup : The soup is really the BEST kimchi tofu soup I had in Penang so far.... the soup base is just so tasty and hasn't got this weird smell when I tried at other Korean restaurants... Must Have!

All in all, the bill came up to about RM 170+ .... which is about RM 40+ per person, and to me, that's not bad of a deal, considering we had 2 types of BBQ meat, 1 meat pan plate, 3 other dishes and all the side dishes with rice and free dessert! Not to mention that I spent RM 60 for just 3 dishes at Seoul Garden last time? And most importantly, all the food are nice!!

I highly recommend this place - it's right opposite Copthorne Hotel - just by the main road, check it out!!!

X'mas cube Deco - fun fun!

2007-03-29T22:12:00.000+08:00

Hmmm.... the post on CNY cubicle decoration reminded me of................. our 2nd prize win for X'mas cubicle decoration as well! :) I think the prize was TGIF vouchers... forgot the value of it... but that's beside the point, the point is our deco ROCKED!

While I did not contribute to anything on this at all, due to me being off shift when our team actually kicked off the decoration works, but I do have to salute them for cooking this up in like 1 day+? Coz initially we decided to call off our plan to join the cubicle decoration contest but don't how why or how, they ended up so pumped up and worked on it til 1am at night after work! *BOW BOW*

The concept was to create a feeling of celebrating X'Mas all over the world, hence they utilised Origami for all the different iconic representations of the places around the "world", and the shrunken origami pieces took a lot of effort to fold and make them pretty as well...

This is how the overview of our decoration looked like, it really does have an X'massy feel to it, doesn't it?Close up of the choo choo train (we were previously known as DS/FP team):-The main centre area:-Panning from left to right ...

Rome and Greece...Paris...USA and Egypt....

finally Malaysia! They basically placed whatever rubbish... uhm...... I mean figurines that they can lay their hands on... hence the reason why there are many 'weird' pieces sighted along the way, like a camel (?) for instance, hot wheels cars, mini teddy bear, paper planes, mini Shin Chan ~~~~ haha!!!!

Winner of CNY Cubicle Deco competition

2007-03-29T21:28:00.000+08:00

Alright, so I know I'm a bit late in posting this up, considering that CNY is waaaaaaaaaay over for more than 1 month now, but I do love our team's *ahem!* WINNING cubicle decoration, just to share with you guys as I was, the "Creative Director" for our team's entry :D

Our concept was to build a Great Wall of China type feel hence we built mini fortress-like walls adorning the surroundings our team's cubicle areas, with mini flags enhancing the Great Wall feel, even with 2 dragons in the main centre as well :)

Also, we decorated the main centre space with our team's name built like a traditional Chinese sign board with a Chinese wooden main door below it, 2 rows of CNY auspiscious greetings on both sides as well.

It turned out to be a bit boring-looking in the beginning and we rescued it by adding some ang-pow made 'lanterns' to it!

See how different it immediately becomes:-

The main sign board was a bit plain as well so we added some firecrackers to it as well:-

Note that I have blocked out the blue area in the middle of the flag on the main centre of the great wall coz it's our company's name, and I'm not here to promote who I work for anyway :)

Check out the home-made paper dragons! :D

That's the prize-giving announcement/ceremony where we emerged as the winner! ASD Plan & Deliver team! wooo hoooo!And if you think we did this for nothing? Then you are so wrong man... coz the winner getsssssss.... an RM 150 Haagen-Dazs voucher! Slurp! The week approaching CNY, our office had a CNY goodies give-away as well, with CNY songs blasting through a laptop on the side as well (notice the female 'assistant') :-

My new digicam - Olympus FE-230

2007-03-29T20:51:00.000+08:00

Hey hey hey! Look what I've got! After more than 1 year of digicam-less days, my sweet bf finally bought me a new digicam! *excited! excited!* Saw the Olympus promotion counter set up right opposite PDI at Gurney Plaza during a weekend and this really value-for-money 7.1 Mega Pixel camera..... Olympus FE-230, did I mention it's a new model too?

Actually the promotion price bundles a 512 MB XD memory card with the camera (without camera casing though), and my bf, being the true Penangite that he is, bargained further with the counter dude - his argument was that everywhere, everybody's selling at this price - so it depends on what free gifts or extra bundles can they offer? After consulting a senior (a lady, mind you), the dude finally offered a free 1 GB XD memory card with the same price *WIDE EYES* wooooo hoooooo~~! You go dear! He wanted to go further to talk the dude into giving us free camera casing but I guess we shall not push our luck too far, heh heh... and so we settled for a nice solid casing for RM29 (ok lah)

Specs:-
7.1MP
2.5" LCD screen
Image Stabilization
3 X Optical Zoom

*** The camera's much more compact and slim compared to how it looks in the pics ****

Now, time to check it out!

And how much did you think this baby cost?

RM 899 only! (Hey that's freaking value for money for a camera with all those specs ok!!!)

Gifts! Gifts!

2007-03-29T20:31:00.000+08:00

Gifts galore!!

Bought some pressies over the last month, showdown time:-

Ling's birthday present - a cute piggy photo album (under the nice wrapping of cos) - perfect for her! :)

Honey's V-Day gift - a Guess watch that he absolutely adored:-Bought these funky stationeries for dear Catherine but still haven't found the time to mail it to her *bad bad*

Gurney Drive Hawker Centre

2007-03-15T21:07:00.000+08:00

The hawker centre down Gurney Drive continues to hustle and bustle nightly, and I went there with my bf to grab a bite and hang out a bit recently:-

Sitting there with all the stalls staring at you, my bf couldn't resist himself and ordered grilled cuttlefish - claiming that he hasn't tasted one in like n years already.....

* this post is for you smm - refresh your memory on Gurney Drive's hawker centre, where cerine's dad sells muah chee here :)

Double Good Restaurant

2007-03-15T20:39:00.000+08:00

Had lunch with some of my co-workers the other day and andy suggested to eat at Double Good which serves rice with dishes...

After a while of thinking and lots of recommendation from the attendant, we settled for these dishes:-

Specialty ToFu:-

Seafood Otak-Otak:- (That's Suchi's fingers posing for the otak otak shot) Chilli Asparagus:- 3 cup chicken (that's what they call it in chinese :) Nice stuff they serve here and it's not too pricey too - it's this nice and cosy place located located off the right turn going to BJ...

Swensen's @ QueensBay Mall

2007-03-15T20:17:00.000+08:00

Met up for a nice shopping trip with my gal pals Ling and AC last Saturday @ QueensBay Mall, being an ice cream sucker as I am, and Ling having a full stomach of McD, we went for Swensen's coz I was very fond of their special ice cream delights back in the olden days when it was still on a Mount near Batu Ferringhi.

Sat down and scanned the menu...they only had the likes of pizzas and sandwiches as their meal offerings outside of their specialty - Ice Cream, so AC and I ordered a chicken and tuna sandwich each, and all 3 of us ordered ice cream :)

The sandwiches were normal - but the chips were pretty good I would say - nicely done, not too oily, not too brownish, not too salty.

AC had a 1-scoop butterscotch flavoured ice cream:-

Ling had a mango combo thingy going on:- And I ordered a good ol' Banana Split:- I was a bit disappointed on the ice cream quality - firstly they served my ice cream even before they served our sandwiches; and the ice creams tasted just normal like those from Wall's or Nestle - I thought that being a specialty ice cream parlour that they claim themselves to be, the least they could deliver was custom made ice cream or something?

Anyway, guess the only time I'm gonna go back there is when I feel like having a sizzling ice cream combo - that's cool - we saw a couple ordering that and AC sampled one of those before the last time she came - but some of her friends commented that it's all too sweet but it's tolerable for herself.

P/S : That's my super slim friend Ling paying the bill at the counter - poor Ling had a bike ram into her bumper today while doing a good deed of fetching me for lunch... sorry Ling! I hope your car will 'get well soon' - smile always ok? Let me know if you need any help...

Diamonds.... are forever...

2007-03-15T19:09:00.000+08:00

Isn't this lovely? :D

CNY Days 4 & 5

2007-02-28T20:56:00.000+08:00

Lunch @ Zealand Cafe Gurney Drive

It was a very crowded afternoon at Zealand when we arrived, we were lucky to have someone attend to our order not long after we were seated, coz half way through our lunch, the couple seated on the table next to us were STILL waiting for their remaining orders to arrive :S :S :S and they ended up paying the bill for the food that were served and walked away in a very pissed off manner (IMHO they should've done that ages ago, considering the fact that they have asked and asked about their food numerous times)

Brought my bf there for lunch as they serve tasty Bak Kut Teh, hence we ordered a set of bak kut teh and a side dish of their specialty 3-flavoured ToFu (this is one yummy tofu i tell ya)

Some sceneries in front of us while we eat (more waiting than eating)

Gurney Hotel & Sanctuary Spa

The lobby

The roomThe recreation centre @ 7th floorLooking down from 7th floorIt's a Bull's eye! The guy behind the bull's eye..... (my bf)Sanctuary Spa