t o d a y ... 29/08/09

stay tuned, folks coz i'm going away

won't be back until a couple of days

to dear Malaysia, happy national day!

now that i'm done, i'll be on my way...

..oOOO

jin's birthday

This 'little' girl celebrated her birthday recently. can you see what jin's holding up?

And this was the cake - Lavender's Almond Coffee Cake.

Why the funny birthday greeting you ask?

Let's just say my dear friend likes to 'lay low' when it comes to her birthdays, so we're 'forbiddened' to throw her the usual lavish roaring birthday party we all like.

Hence, this was the most creative greeting we could think of to put on her cake.

'xiao bai tu' means rabbit and yup, that's my friend all right.

Can you like smell the aromatic coffee?
Even the card has the picture of a wabbit on it.

And as usual, we proudly display our creative skills in decorating any birthday card.

The office gang celebrating for Jin,

who still looks not a day older than 17! aaaah, the benefits of being petite-sized..

today...28/08/09

today I finally visited District 9;

cool storyline, aliens looking so fine;

cat food's their favourite to dine;

gonna get the dvd and make it mine!

\/

today...27/8/09

lunch today was at Bangkok Expresso;
cimb had this fantastic merdeka promo;

even though the food was only so-so,

it was 50% off so how could we say no?
^_^

t o d a y ... 26/08/09

Today rain so heavy

Make me sleepy and lazy

To Moon, my special buddy

Happy Birthday and stay haPPy!

*_*

l o b s t e r m a n i a ! !

If you're looking for a lobster place that's above average yet affordable, I suggest Lobsterman (www.lobsterman.com.my).

I've heard people mention Victoria Station serves a good lobster meal. I however, beg to differ for it is not only costly (-ier) but I think the food quality has taken a turn for the worse, ever since my last dinner there on a Valentine's day.

Here I am at their SS2 outlet, enjoying their special dinner set @ RM 120++.

Don't worry, it's a set for two, not one.

My set consists of half a dozen escargot,

a bowl each of home-made mushroom soup

soup tasted so good i had forgotten to take photo of it earlier

Seafood pasta or you may choose Baked Seafood Rice,

and ta-daah....the star of the night... *_*

You can choose the method of cooking your lobster.

Obviously, I went for the all-time popular Lobster Thermidor (baked with cheese) and I loooooveedd it! The cheese wasn't hard at all (you know how some cheese hardens when it gets cold..?), soft and chewy at the right places and the lobster meat was surprisingly real easy to deshell. The meat so tender and fresh and 'crabby' (like crab).

I wouldnt bother teaching people how to 'attack' a lobster since there are probably a whole lot more profesional lobster eaters out there. My philosophy is, as long as you can pry your way in to retrieve the flesh, I don't care if you whack the shell open with your shoe.

If you go to a fancy restaurant, you may even choose your preference of Mr Lobster or Mrs Lobster. You learn this by checking out their 'swimmerets' (small feathery appendages beneath the tail). If they are hard and bony, it's a male; soft and feathery, then it's a female. In fact, females have a wider tail too.

Bet you also do not know that a male lobster is called a 'cock', while a female is a 'hen'.

Took me a good 30 minutes eating my share of half a lobster!
The fun part is definitely the twisting and breaking and pulling motion just to get that teensy-weensy bit of white flesh...hmmm...

And to top it off...........fresh fruit with a tiny dollop of whipped cream and mint leaf! It's a cute, unique presentation of the usual 'Fresh Fruits' taken off most menus.

Tea or Coffee or me?

Now, at this point of time, I was already rubbing my belly with the biggest grin on my face. (NICE!!)

After all, lobster IS one of those very few meal choices where you can actually choose your victim.

And isn't there something about lobsters being an aphrodisiac?

it's fasting time again...

AYAM PERCIK!!

ROTI JALA!!!

What's the big deal you ask?

Well, tomorrow marks the first day of puasa month for the Muslims and wowee for me as this means...

* time to stuff myself with my fave pasar ramadhan goodies - Ayam Percik and Roti Jala!
* I can start demanding for raya cookies, lemang and rendang ayam from my Malay friends (Elly, Molly hint! hint!)
* I can look forward to my company's annual buka puasa dinner
* no more long queues or sardine-packed me in the lrt after work, as half the population would have gone back early
* I get to exercise my limbs as I join the crowd rushing to grab an empty table in one of those fast food outlets during time to berbuka
* I am more likely to win an argument with my Malay buddies as they should have less energy to argue with me..(hehe, pls dun hate me)

Not all is 'sugar and spice, and everything nice' though, as this month also means...

~ my favourite ikan bakar stall will be closed for the entire month (i've always wondered where they get their income during this month)
~ for the stalls that stay opened, you can't blame them if the food suddenly tastes bland or 'off-taste'.
~ you can suddenly see hoards of people hogging the mall food courts from as early as 6pm, watching the food on their trays turn cold.. ^^
~ it sucks that my Malay colleagues can get off work an hour earlier!
~ really limited choices for my morning brekkie (shucks, no more nasi lemak or apam balik)
~ no more snacking (or drinking water) in the open ....gotta respect la sikit

Nevertheless, time flies and in the blink of an eye, I'll be eating at the PM's open house, singing 'Selamat....Hari Raya...kepada saudara serta saudari...' (jom! jom!)

haPPy BirThDay cko!

It is...

something so beautiful to be able to celebrate each birthday with the people you love and who loves you back...

something so miraculous about how a person's love can know no boundaries, it brings new meaning to the phrase 'till death do us part'...

something so important to each and every one of us that we should never take for granted the people we love in our lives.

and that is something we can all learn from this couple...

I have twice joined in the birthday celebration for cko ever since the incident and just like any other day, we are all wishing and praying he's back on his feet in no time.

(ok ok, i'll get you a strawberry ck for your birthday)

a huntin' i went ... in axa

My company holds this annual games event and for the very first time this year, I got to compete in an 'Office Hunt', which was like a Treasure Hunt + The Amazing Race.

First of all, let me introduce my team members which I can proudly say, I hand-picked myself..eh-hem. Team Dark Knights :- Sahrizah, Gwen, me and Nasha

And here were the other competing teams...

Team Power Rangers
Team Wolverine

Team Phantom

Yes, as you may know by our team names, we were to name ourselves after a cartoon/ comic character. I think you'd agree the name 'Dark Knights' sounds perfect(!) to instil that fear and cowardice in the other opponents...

... even if it means I have to destroy another team's cheerleading props. muahahaha...

Let the games begin....!!

As we listened attentively (have to pretend ma) to the instructions being given, you start to wonder what da bejesus are we expected to do with a plastic tray and an empty styrofoam bowl sitting inside it.

Lo and behold,

We were to melt a huge block of ice (about the size of a soft drink paper cup) to retrieve our very first message which was frozen smack in the middle of the ice!

Hence, ideas started pouring out to melt it using the fastest and easiest methods like
using a towel,

using our hot breath

...or rubbing it against the arms for body heat!

alas, shy to admit we were the last team to complete the melting task... ;0(

oh, how our hearts melted away as we saw the champions title slipping away..

Due to our slightly 'off' tactic, we took like 13 minutes, double the time of the first team (dang those Phantoms!) to retrieve our message which was like all wet, torn and tattered by the time we crawled and gnawed our way to it. See how tergopoh-gapah we were! LoL..

Our next task had nothing to do with eating a bowl of my fave 'lok tao sui' (green bean dessert).

We had to drop spoonfuls of the beans to fill up this container...hands off!

Gaya man, Sahrizah...like smoking a cigar!

Half of the time, we had to search high and low, left and right, in and out for 'buried treasures' like balloons, pens, and whaddaya know, green beans too.

Here's one at our Customer Reception area.

This was me molesting the potted plant. GUess I was too engrossed, I didn't even noticed the 'treasure' was right where the arrow pointed.

yiPPee...even though 'Counter Closed', but these girls were still working hard cheering us on!!

ho ho...my favourite has got to be the Balloon race.

It was a race against time and limbs(!) as we worked in pairs to transport a balloon from one end to another using our heads, shoulders, buttocks, knees and fingers!

gee, it was like back to being in my primary school during telematch day.

Glad to say we championed this part of the hunt.

SEE, we even got to play Snakes and Ladders!

Throw in some trivia questions like 'name the most poisonous snake' and it becomes a game for adults.

The final hurdle was a Q&A on what else, but AXA.

Luckily we had Nasha onboard to remember which meeting room is Mawar, Orkid, Melur, ...(??) And who even notices how many fishes there are on 27th floor's fish tank?!

Amazingly enough, despite losing out so much time in the 'icy' task, we were the first team to complete all tasks. BUT weren't sure yet who the winners were as points still need to be tabulated.

So, while waiting for the rest to check in, we were so itching to be crowned champs, we just had to take this photo pretending we were number 1! lol...

Turns out.. we WERE number 1!

suffer up gunung bunga buah, laughter up bukit tinggi

How about

"LEECH"-ing on gunung bunga buah,

"BITCH"-ing on bukit tinggi..

Now that I got your attention, don't worry, there wasn't any bitching around.
Not that there's anything wrong with a Babe-In-Total-Control-of-Herself anyway.

11 July : This time, the 'pha-san kakis' decided to hike up Gunung Bunga Buah in Gohtong Jaya, Genting Highlands. This 4,690-ft high mountain is a great training ground for :

- beginners who attempt to turn pro hikers (like yours truly, eh-hem)
- anyone who is about to scale Mt KK and is looking for fast-track training (have I mentioned before that Gunung Nuang is another excellent place to test your stamina and discipline those muscles?)
- anyone who vows to counter the fear of leeches;
- anyone who wants to feel like they're in a scene from the series 'Lost' (I'm serious...certain parts when I was running through stretches of long lalang, I felt like i was acting in one of those 'fleeing-from-the-enemy' scenes...)
There are 2 entrances into this mountain - one from the roundabout right after the police guardhouse leading into Genting Highlands and the other from behind Hotel Sri Malaysia (where we started from). You'd need to get approval from the authorities first as both are considered private roads, which basically means Uncle Lim will have his guards shoot you down if you're found trespassing.
Thank God I made it back alive.

check out the fog behind us!

This was us right before the start of our climb.

Best thing about this climb was....I hardly trickled a drop of sweat!

It was like the entire hill was fully air-conditioned....which also made breathing a tad difficult at times.

And the not-so-good part, when it rains, it can get real chilly...brrrr..

and muddy!

Here, we're taking a long hour's walk along an old quarry road, before the climb actually begins.

Remember those jungle scenes from 'Lost'? This is SOOO like it.

Mary looks more like the wicked witch of the east with her poisoned apple!

Halfway through, we reached the Rock Garden - a place to best view the panoramic Genting Highlands, on condition you are lucky enough to get a clear sky. We won't, though. All we could view was the marshmallow-like fog hogging the skies.

oh oh, who's this standing so close to me??

it's Marky Mark and lol, he has to stick close to me coz we were standing on the very edge of the rock!

tsk tsk, how we sacrifice our dear lives just to take great photos to show you...

and since i'm on this topic, i've this message to a particular someone......

never assume, coz you'll just be making an ass out of u and me, get it? (snigger)

Finally, we've reached the peak!
Nothing much to see here, as the area was small and covered with trees so don't expect any oooh-aaahs of the view from up here.

And I have no idea what this structure on the peak was all about. Looked like some abandoned unkempt tower of some sort.
Didn't really mattered to us though...look at our dead-tired faces! lol

So glad we brought Alicia with us! hehe...

Thanks to Alicia, we got hot Milo to drink and hot kuah to eat our Roti Canai with!

yup, you got that right.

Meei Lai and her smashed curry puff.....we were so hungry, anything goes and everything was gone!

According to the 'experts' in our group, leeches avoid white-colored attire, hence our white goddess, Meei Lai!

Nevertheless, when you take the risk of wearing all white,

even her towel is white...hahaha

....this is what you might end up looking like.

can you see the blood stains?

Wearing tights is an option to prevent leeches from prying through your pants.

Remember though, if your tights are too tight, movement may be restricted and you might find yourself rolling downhill like this.

Though a tiring almost 8 hours climb up and downhill,

at the end of it all, it was no doubt one helluva ride, leaving you wanting more!!

ok, that sounded so wrong.....i'll rephrase.

at the end of the day, it was no doubt one heck of a climb, leaving you more satisfied than ever, never mind the body aches and leech marks!!

Though nothing to awe about its scenery, nor did I find any rare species of flowers (or fruits for that matter, no pun intended), this was still a nice mountain to hike up. Partly because it's very secluded and you hardly find other hikers up here.

The other part, I almost believed the climb would bring me to the entrance of First World Hotel where I could at least play a few rounds in the casino.

Leech-wise? Everyone is bound to have a few crawling up here and there. Nothing to be panicky about, as long as you got plenty of salt-solution as ammo, a pair of sharp eyes to target in on the leeches and the occasional flicks to rid yourself of the blood-sucking worms.

Some even wore lady stockings due to their very tiny holes.

Me? I wore TWO socks (the sports kind) and ta-daah... did not donate even a single drop of blood. heee.

Hard part's over.........

We touched down around 6 in the evening, freshened up (by this I mean, stripped myself naked for a leech check...wouldnt want those creepy crawlies up the wrong places ma!) and had a nice dinner at Gohtong Jaya.

ok, this is the only photo of our dinner then..too busy eating to take more

Then it was time to check into the Berjaya Hill Resort, Colmar Tropica in Bukit Tinggi for a well-deserved night's rest. By the way, this was my first time in BT. Frankly, I had a really high expectation of this place (after hearing so much hype about it), and errr..oo..aah....let's just say, the company was what made my time in Bukit Tinggi a real bLasT!

Big HuGs going out to the pro photographers for making us girls look so gorgeous and irresistible in every shot during this entire trip.

Thanks to them, I present to you the following WaCkiEsT shots of the Pha-San Kakis..............

BUT not before showing you how poor Moon slept that night.....lol, hope his mum's not reading this

At the balcony of our 'modest' 1 bedroom apartment (2 units shared by 13 of us!)

LoVe the GreeNery!!

no, we weren't pretending to be in a shampoo ad - it was freaking windy actually!

(Entrance of the French Village)

Paid RM 10/pax for entry. Too bad the Japanese Garden was closed that day due to a fallen tree blocking the road leading to its entrance.

gee, can you tell we were looking at the sun's direction? lol..

then we got used to the glare,

and was able to make silly expressions!

At the Wishing Well

(err, the well's somewhere in this photo..)

just the ChiCks...

How the 3 Stooges would react to a wishing well...

Pong in action!!

don't ask me what they're doing...

wow, what are the chances of you getting tatooed up in Bukit Tinggi?!

(nah, it's only temporary)

Found... IronMan!

Found....my Dream Son!

aint he the cutest!

And our attempt to kidnap him?

Foiled, when big brother came to his rescue!

we stumbled upon these children who were actually hotel guests and couldnt helped but take photos of them. holy cow, they looked like a really young KiMi Raikkonen.

Then, we found some empty wine bottles and what else to do with them but...

wow, didn't know i was getting the wong-fei-hong left and right!

Up close and personal!

And that's another feather to my cap!