Fireworks and Pork Noodles in KL

During the Merdeka weekend, I went down to KL to visit Saucer and also to meet up with my family members who also coincidentally were down in KL for a holiday. I reached there on the same night the Malaysia International Fireworks Competition (MIFC) was held in Putrajaya. I had to beg Saucer to bring me there because he was complaining on why would we want to go there and get stuck in traffic jam. :(( Anyway, we managed to go there with the help of GPS (again! I'm loving it!) and we parked a bit further from the fireworks exhibition so that we could be the earliest to when it ended, to avoid traffic jam, you see. The fireworks were brilliant! Too bad I didn't have a good camera or else I would have taken pictures of them. The ones that I managed to take were really lousy.

I only managed to take a nice 'artsy' picture of the bridge. *LOL* Not bad considering it's from a point-and-shoot camera. :)

Putrajaya Gemilang bridge

Pretty fireworks (Source)

The next morning, we had no idea where to go for breakfast. And we did something totally random and new! Using the GPS, we searched for Food and it gave us a list of nearby restaurants and stalls. One of the names was 'Famous pork noodles' and it was only less than 2km away. So, the adventurous us followed the signs and ended up in this coffee shop (Kean Fatt, if I'm not mistaken) near SS1, PJ. At that time, it was more than 50% occupied, so we thought it should be safe to enter. I always had this rule that we shouldn't enter a restaurant if it's TOO quiet, which could mean something's not right. I know I know, not good to judge a book by its cover.

Anyway, it turned out that there was a LONG queue for the noodles and we had to wait for 30 minutes even though the coffee shop's not exactly packed. Luckily the wait was worthwhile. The soup was very tasty, and the pork was rather delicious. The only thing I didn't really like was the pork liver. *LOL* And they gave plenty of those! I guess next time it would be better to inform them not to put pork liver inside. :)

Pork and organ noodles

After breakfast, we left for Mid Valley Megamall. Did you know that during Merdeka weekend, Baskin Robbins ice-cream has 31% off for 3 whole days? That means on 29th, 30th and 31st of August! Not on 31st only. I guess not many people knew about it because the Baskin Robbins in Mid Valley was not really crowded. I still remember having to take number and wait for a long time if I were to buy ice-cream on the 31st! Oh well, luckily this time there was no queue and we had all the choices we wanted to choose from. :) And the wonderful part was, the portion given to us was huge! Look at the picture if you don't believe me. So nice of them eh? :)

Rum Raisin and Jamoca Almond ice-cream

OK I can't write longer now. I have a flight to catch soon! More updates on the SS2 PJ food court soon!

Flight tickets to Singapore giveaway!

Calling out to all HSBC credit card holders out there! Does any one of you want to fly to Singapore? Just a couple of months ago, HSBC had this promotion where they'd give out a free return ticket to Singapore by JetStar for every 7 swipes. Well, I think I would loosely use the term 'free' here because you still have to pay for fuel surcharge and airport taxes (just like when AirAsia declared their RM0 flights). Anyway, I have a total of not one, not two, not even three, but FIVE of these coupons from HSBC. Yes, now you know how much I spend. *sob* Anyway, I do not think I will have any use for these tickets, so I thought of offering them up for anyone out there, rather than wasting them. However, the catch is that you have to have a HSBC credit card holder to book the flights. Therefore, any HSBC credit card holders, feel free to drop me a comment of send me an email if you are interested. :)

HSBC seven swipes to Singapore promotion


Flight details and benefits

Some details of the flight:
Departure: KLIA
Arrival: Singapore Changi Airport
Booking period: Now until 30th September 2008
Travel period: Now until 28th March 2009

Just for the curiousity of it, I tried to book the tickets by following the instructions on the HSBC website just to find out how much I'd need to pay for the taxes and surcharges. And the answer is... RM145 per way. So for the return tickets, expect to fork out RM290 with these coupons. The price without coupons would be RM707 return, so that's more than 50% discount. :)

Total price without discount

If there's anyone interested, don't forget to let me know ok! Time is running out! :)

My wish list

• A Nikon D80 DSLR
• The new iPod nano - Love the colors and the aluminum casing!
• A Coach handbag =)
• Toaster oven
• Complete 10 seasons of F.R.I.E.N.D.S DVD
• A French manicure
• A complete makeup set
• Macbook air
• A trip to the US

"No eye deer" where to go?

Have you ever been in a dilemma when deciding where to eat? I know I have, and I suppose this occurs to most girls as well. We'll most probably come up with phrases like "Don't know", "Whatever", "Anything", "No idea", "Up to you", etc. Well the good news is, there's really a place called "No idea", except that it's spelled "No eye deer", a homonym. :) It's still better than having no place to go at all, don't you think so? I had the opportunity to frequent this place with my fellow sickawans a couple of weeks ago, just before Stan left Penang. *sob*

This place is located in Tanjung Bungah, just opposite the Island Plaza shopping mall. The main reason they chose this place was because of the cheap beer! RM35 for 5 bottles of Tiger. Cheap? I don't drink beer, so I wouldn't know what's the market price for it.

No Eye Deer

The restaurant is located on the first floor, and has a rather small dining area. I suppose it is not catered to large gatherings, but rather, to small groups of friends or family enjoying the night with loads of beer. *LOL* Of course, this place also serves food in addition to beer. I would say the food is a mixture of American and German cuisine. (Think steaks, lamb chops and sausages)

Cashier

Since I don't drink beer, I ordered the Mango Lassi, which was quite good. While the rest of my friends were enjoying their second bottles of Tiger, I was out of drinks so I ordered a second drink of mango + yogurt + something. So now you know, I love mango. ;) And my friends were so keen on getting me to drink beer that they poured some into my mango drink while I was in the washroom! Luckily my sharp senses and sensitive tongue managed to catch it. Hence, girls, there you have it... A classic example of never leaving your drinks unattended. Not everyone has sensitive tongues like me, so be very careful. *cough*cough*

Mango lassi

Here is one out of the ten bottles of Tiger beer that they ordered.

Tiger beer

We had french fries as appetizer, partly because we're starving and partlybecause they went very well with beer, I heard. Anyway, the fries here were amazing! They're freshly fried, crispy and juicy. You know how some fries ended up to be crispy and hard inside? That's the result of too much frying and re-frying. But these were not like that. I could still taste the moist of potatoes within the fries. Pretty well done. Can't say so about the sauce though... It's a weird watery sauce which I didn't really like. Well, to me, fries should always go with chili sauce and chili sauce only. :)

Piping hot fries

Since there were 4 of us, we ordered the huge sized mixed-grill-like dish. It was given a fancy name in the menu, but I don't remember it now. *shy* Anyway, it had a mixture of lamb sausages, chicken wings, chicken kebabs, black pepper lamb chop and BBQ lamb chop. Each variety came in 4 pieces! Just right for the 4 gluttons there. :P This dish was priced at RM68, if I'm not mistaken, so if you have a party of 4, it's just RM17 each for a plate of wholesome awesome mixed grill. The lamb sausages were splendid! And everyone agreed. Chicken wings were chicken wings, nothing to complain or shout about. I liked the kebab too, well-marinated. The lamb chops were pretty good as well, and I liked the fact that they didn't use fatty lamb. :) Overall, slightly above average for the mixed grill, and definitely above average for the fries! ;)

Mixed grill

After dinner, we stayed around and crapped with each other as usual. This is Stan looking bored. *LOL*

Stan looking bored

Apparently chiaoju was still not full after the wholesome awesome mixed grill :P so we ordered a second helping of fries (which I didn't mind!). We also ordered a plate of calamari rings, while we're at it. The fries were wonderful, as expected.

Fries were so good we ordered a second helping

But the calamari rings were a total opposite. They fell flat on their faces, metaphorically. The flour that was used for frying was too much and you'd know it when you take a bite into the crispy shell to be met with sticky flour inside. *yuck* I ended up removing the outer crispy layer and only eating the calamari inside. Definitely not recommended. Just go for the fries next time.

Calamari rings

Before we know it, it was nearly 10pm and it was time to go. Working the next day, you see. *sigh* Not before we asked the kind owner to help us take a group picture of us though! I didn't drink the beer I was holding OK. :P Happy smiles!!!

Group picture: witch, chiaoju, Stan, Yen

Address:	98-1-26 Prima Tanjung (opposite Island Plaza)
	Jalan Fettes, Tanjung Tokong, 11200 Penang.
Tel:	(04)-899 0488
Fax:	(04)-899 3488

Things I did over the weekend

What I did over the weekend:

Friday night:

• Watched HK series (War of In-Laws II) for 10 whole episodes! Non-stop. That's more than 400 minutes, which is more than 6 hours, and I ended up sleeping at 4am. *yawn* Vowed to self never to watch another series at least for the next few weeks.

Saturday:

• Woke up at 12.30pm! What did you expect? I had to get my 8-hour beauty sleep, no less :P Went for lunch and followed by grocery shopping. I managed to get my favourite mushroom cocktail sausages from Ayamas. Yum! They're PERFECT with instant noodles! Bought milk and fruits as well. :) Oh I grabbed the latest Cleo magazine from the book store, too.
• Reached home by 4.30pm and read my magazine. Cleo is running a full coverage on their Cleo Beauty Hall of Fame, where they review a range of beauty products and give ratings as well. I am currently using Dermalogica products and they NEVER have any reviews of them. *frowns*
• Suzie the neighbour came to visit me, for the first time! We spent hours chatting and gossiping, and ended up going for dinner. If you didn't know, Penang was gifted with rain the WHOLE of last Saturday. That's right, from the moment I woke up at 12.30pm right til the moment I slept at night. Where did all the rain come from? Anyway, we went for Bak kut teh dinner, which was splendid for a chilly night. :)
• After dinner, we went back to our separate homes to freshen up, promising to meet again after our showers. *LOL* Suzie came again later on and we had a marathon of HK series (again!). Oh no! What happened to my vow of not touching HK series for the next few weeks? *gasp*

Sunday:

• Woke up at 9am and did my weekly house chores of sweeping and mopping the floor. Got ready for breakfast.
• Had the Coffee Bean breakfast set because Paddington House of Pancakes was not open yet at 10.30am! Wanted to have pancakes for breakfast initially. Anyway, the salmon foccacia was just as good, if not better. :)
• Since it was still early for my hair appointment, I went to Borders to look at books. Ended up buying two books: Marley & Me by John Grogan, and Message in a Bottle by Nicholas Sparks. *excited*

• Went for a haircut in Theatre hair salon, Queensbay Mall, out of a recommendation from a friend. Well, it was more of a trim because no one noticed any difference after the cut. :( It only cost RM33, together with a hairwash! I thought it was a steal, since the cut was done by the manager himself. :) However, I started to change my mind when no one noticed any difference with my hair.
• Had lunch in Dragon-I. I ate the Sichuan La Mian as usual, but this time I found the soup a tad too oily. Note to self: Never order that anymore. It's safer to stick to the claypot chicken rice there. :)
• Went back at 3pm and managed to make 4 more bracelets! :) Weather was still cold with the prolonged rain, just right to settle down with a book. So I started to read Marley & Me, and continued for a couple of hours. It's indeed a great read. :) Occasionally sad but always giving me a warm feeling nonetheless. It must be the dog. Marley is the dog, if you didn't know yet.
• Dinner time came and I had dinner at a place nearby. After which I went home and watched a DVD lent to me by a friend.
• "You Don't Mess with the Zohan" sucks! I am so glad that I didn't watch it in the cinema. I am really disappointed with it, and Adam Sandler as well. :( I have always loved him, but this movie did very well to take away all his brownie points. Oh well, I guess there should always be movies as crappy as these to make you treasure the good ones. :)

Well, that's it! My weekend just passed by rather eventfully. Looking forward to the next one already, because it's going to be the Mooncake Festival weekend! Mooncakes, anyone? ;)

Farewell Class of 2008 (Part 3)

This is the last part of my farewell trilogy, which took place during our last final examination day. We were absolutely exhilarated after we handed in our papers! Anyway, we then headed to TGIF, as suggested by Allan, aptly renamed to "Thank God It's Finished!". *LOL* We reached there just barely past six, so the restaurant was still quiet.

TGIF at 6.30pm

This entry will be loaded with pictures, because I would like to have an imprint of everyone's picture in my blog, in case I forget their names in the future. :) Some of them have appeared earlier in my blog, but some are brand new faces. Starting with Melvin - soft-spoken guy from Malacca, who's working in Kulim.

witch and Melvin

Here are the guys again, Kulim gang: Manager P (Paraveen), Allan and Melvin, all of whom always went for the famous roti bakar breakfast during our lecture breaks. And end up entering the class later than they should be. :P

Manager P, Allan & Melvin

This is Thomas and his beautiful family, the guy who managed to weather it all despite becoming a new daddy. That's his cute little daughter Gwyneth, who's always with a frown. *LOL*

Thomas and family

The nice guys at Friday's drew this adorable balloon to cheer Gywneth up! Can you recognize what character it is? *wink*

Can you recognize this?

A group picture with the guys here: Giap Yong, Manager P, witch, Allan and Melvin. In case you didn't notice, my class was largely populated with the male species. But too bad most of them are attached. *LOL*

Giap Yong, Manager P, witch Allan and Melvin

This is the most important figure in our class, our monitor! I cannot imagine having a more suitable person as monitor. He's responsible, dedicated, smart and has the monitor look that demands respect from everyone! Or maybe just me. :P But I thank him for stepping up to accept the challenge of being the monitor of our class, not an easy task at all.

witch with monitor Tham

The number of guys in a picture is growing!

Another group pic

This is Jennifer, who insisted that I should take a picture with her standing up, just to illustrate how tall I am, or how ... never mind. Jennifer is one of the youngest in the class, and always the earliest to complete her assignments or tutorials. It's amazing how she could do so many things with so little time.

witch and Jennifer

A short detour to show you some random pictures of drinks. I thought they looked pretty interesting with bright red and green colours. I wonder what they tasted like though.

Colourful drinks

Oh I forgot to mention our monitor Tham always has this look of frown on him whenever he's serious. I asked him to repeat the frown in this picture but he looked so funny it's more cute than serious! *LOL*

Monitor Tham with his incessant frown

Since our party was huge, we ordered loads of food. Looking at these pictures always makes me hungry. *Argh*

Yummy chocolate cake!

Back to more pictures of people. This was taken with Mok. He's a kind and helpful guy that I didn't manage to get to know better. :)

witch with Mok

Boys invasion here! Mok, Keong Woo, Giap Yong, Melvin, Monitor Tham, Manager P and Allan.

The Guys

witch and doryfish, another picture to illustrate my height. :P

witch and doryfish

Picture with Allan again and his red face. *LOL* Manager P in the background, feeling embarrassed after the picture when he realized he wasn't supposed to be in the picture. :P

Allan and witch, with Manager P in the background :P

Here is a proper picture of Manager P and me. :) Paraveen, you still owe me lunch right? *LOL*

Manager P and witch

This is Kent, who appeared earlier in my Part 2 post. I still haven't visited him in Klang yet, and he promised to bring me to a nice bak kut teh restaurant! *drools*

Kent and witch

Another of the rare females in the class, rare because there were only 4 of us. :) This is Ying Ying, who's a very quiet person in class. :)

Ying Ying and witch

And finally, Thomas with the witch! I believe I've taken pictures with everyone who attended the dinner. Too bad Vickna couldn't make it, and also a few other guys. Well, we hope to have dinners like this more often in the future, just to catch up with everyone once in a while. :) But man, does it feel good now that it's over!

Thomas and witch

Guilty as charged

I am utterly fuming as I'm writing this post. Is there any word stronger than anger to express anger? This coming from an Umno division chief himself on a ceramah! I am flabbergasted to say the least. In case you didn't know yet, the innocent Bukit Bendera Umno division chief, Ahmad Ismail has outrightly claimed that he's not guilty for mouthing racist remarks last week. And to quote him: "As far as I am concerned, I did not say or do anything wrong. So why should I apologise?". I have never heard of anything so ridiculous! The fact that he could openly declare that he's done nothing wrong even after the Deputy Prime Minister himself apologized on his behalf while he was busy having fun with his sepak takraw game, totally baffles me. How could anyone be so irresponsible and be outright bold about it? Without a feeling of guilt? Just to refresh your memory, Ahmad was allegedly claimed to have described the Chinese as “immigrants squatting in the country, thus were not entitled to equal rights in Malaysia”. Which part of that statement is not racist? I say the whole statement is so immersed with racism that I could smell it from 100miles away! And yet he still refuses to apologize, claiming that he is innocent and did nothing wrong. As far as I'm concerned, he can certainly go to hell with such remarks.

The fact that he could boldly stand by his racist remarks and claimed that he's not done anything wrong would definitely spark fire in the Chinese community. This coming at a time when BN support is at one of its lowest (if not lowest), will really boost the popularity of Anwar Ibrahim, who has stood by the notion of racial equality in Malaysia. I applaud Anwar for being able to look at people past the colour of their skin, unlike some. What I can say is, if Ahmad still refuses to apologize and admit he's done something wrong, havoc will occur especially by the Chinese community, and rightfully so.