happy independence!

Yesterday ...

Yin : How do I look with Sylvia's specs?

Siu V : =_=
Today ...

Yin : How do I look with Sylvia's sunshades?
Siu V : mou tak teng ah! (means fabulous)
Happy Independence, Malaysia!!

kbj birthday celeb 2010 wong kok

Jin has this peculiar thing about birthdays - she doesn't like celebrating her birthdays because if she does, she will fall sick.


Well, like we care. LoL.

Who doesn't like to be pampered like a Queen in public,
especially if the restaurant also happens to serve free 'Drink-till-you-throw-Up' Iced Milk Tea for the birthday girl.
Jin's fave!
The place looks like damn posh right? Like we are dining in a 5-star restaurant.
As a matter of fact, it's just Wong Kok in Pavilion.
More group photos here.


Ngow Yong and Jin looking so adorable for the cam cam.
Without realising it, Mark has positioned himself directly in front of this aura of light bursting out from his head.
Fong was wearing all black that night, so this just looks like her head floating in mid-air beside me.
Then came our appetizers. These 2 were awesome.
Our mains...
Mine's the 'brainiest' one of all.
Plus Jin's...
Candle blowing was fun as we used a J Co donut instead of a cake.
Obviously, eating it was even more fun for Jin.
Check out those facial expressions, she should really be in advertisements, this girl...
Hope she enjoyed that night and hope she reads this before her 2011 birthday celebration.
Yup, I even wrote about her previous 2009 birthday celeb which she hasn't even read yet.
tsk tsk tsk, this girl is in serious need of Internet access.

hakka restaurant, i'm back!

Eating here brought back oodles of memories as my ex GM from my old company used to bring us here for lunch some 8 years ago.


Of course now Hakka Restaurant has moved some 100 metres down the road somewhere opposite Pavilion KL.


And of course Hakka Restaurant serves ...erm...Hakka food.


The name's real authentic la.

I mean you don't see a restaurant by the name Chinese Restaurant, do you?

Our Hakka meal ...

This pork's deliciously s-a-l-t-y.

Minus the salted fish coating, even better!

I just found out this was Ostrich meat.

Er, I thought it was deer, dear.

What's a Hakka meal without Hakka mee right?

It was OK, still kinda preferred the one in Pandan Indah

This ain't a Hakka dish I think. Probably cooked by a Hakka chef?

The celebration?

In conjunction with Mark's ex colleague, KS who has found greener pastures in Singapore.
May he find lotsa greenery in his future endeavours!

brrr brrr......grrr.

My department has been super duper freezing cold at 18 degrees (no thanks to 'someone') these couple of weeks, that my poor colleague had to resort to wearing gloves. Didn't know you have such green fingers, CP.

I hate the cold in my department :(

D, if you're reading this, please do something about it... :)

night of the renaissance

I can't remember the last time I actually chilled and spent the night in a decent top-notch hotel......until a week ago.
As I made my way into their grand lobby in the west wing...can you guess which hotel I'm talking about?
I know showing you their pool ain't much of a clue but I still would like to show it to you.
Ta-daah!!
Feels kinda weird packing my overnight bag, leaving my cosy crib and taking the LRT to this hotel right in the heart of KL city.
A pleasant surprise awaits as my Superior Room was upgraded to a room on the Club Level..."more spacious", they claim. (hmm, we shall see)
My room! Not as spacious as expected, but omg, the sheets look frigging tempting!!
(must resist the temptation to jump on bed and mess up sheets before taking pics of my entire room..)
They've even got a little workplace in the corner of the room and a flat screen Sharp Aquos to keep me entertained.
As I open the curtains, voila..I got this magnificient view!
Me and my mini-bar - my fingers were itching to rip open the chocolate and wafer bar packets!!
Their bathroom is what I would label as 'spacious'.
Couldnt quite get the correct angle to show you how spacious it was, but trust me, it was!
Very nice quality toiletry set - I never use those provided by hotels but this one's an exception. I especially dig the 'Yuzu Bergamot scented Body Wash'....yummeh.
Found this jar of salt-like crystals by their bath-tub and dunno why I hadn't thought of dumping them into my bath tub full of water.
Golly, I thought they were there for deco.
What a bummer, I ended up soaking in just plain hot water.... =_=
2 things that kinda bother me during my brief night stay here....
1) Where's my foc toothbrush and toothpaste pack?
(The only toothbrush I found was this in the minibar...
...and they want me to pay for it)
Oh well, thank god I packed mine along.
Thought I could chill and sprawl on my bed while blogging in my air-conditioned room, but little did I know that...
2) there is no free Wi-Fi service!!
(there was gonna be a charge of RM 63/ day)
uh..uh, I dragged my laptop there for NOTHING.
Bummer.
Drat.
!@#~!
Sad...I headed to Times Square
and bought this little bird back as supper.

burp*
Followed by some tv ... hoping to catch my fave series perhaps?
But the best thing they had?..... Happy Ghost (there, that HK movie from the 80s)
Wish they had more Astro channels....at least some of the more popular ones mah.
Starworld and at least an MTV Channel is a must ler!
The best part of my stay - the BED!!
Oh, the BED!!!
I want their LONG FEATHER PILLOW in MY own bed.
Can buy for me?
Not so expensive la...oni er.....
RM 230.
I mean, it's better than spending on their hotel massages (minimum RM 300+) right?

palate palette for pris birthday

A friend's birthday is approaching and more often than not, the question bouncing off each other is always "eh, where to eat ah?"

The following question "er when want to eat ah?" makes this first question much easier to answer. When one can only afford to have lunch on a weekday (the time when most are available), choice of restaurants has to be in close vicinity due to time factor.

Unless it's the boss' birthday you're celebrating :)


If dinner is preferred, this means more chillax time instead of spending every minute glancing at your watch. And a bigger budget perhaps? However, not everyone in your original name list will turn up due to various reasons that I've managed to compile over the years :

- not free la, want to go 'pak-tor'
- got to fetch kid from tuition/ school/ babysitter;
- wife/ husband never 'stamp passport' for night outing;
- p.m.s/ migraine/ diarrhoea (the easiest ailments to 'fake').....ok la i'm not saying they were bluffing
- too much work in the office..no choice but to work till midnite!
- nobody to fetch me back la after the dinner
- response from the invitee is "whose birthday are we celebrating again?" (means 'we ain't so close so not interested, get it?')

Taking all into consideration, the office bunch chose to treat Priscilla to a birthday lunch this year. And a mighty fine place we took her too - Palate Palette (Jalan Mesui, KL).
A cosy and humble-looking restaurant and bar that serves Western with a twist of creativity in dish presentation and twang to its flavour.
The different type of chairs add to the uniqueness of this place - Goldilocks would have a field day if she ate here!
There were 10 of us comfortably seated right at the back of the restaurant. See the small rectangular counter behind us? That's the kitchen back there. Nice mural paintings too.
And a whole lotta mags and travel journals for our reading pleasure. As usual, Moon and his keen display of intellect here never fails to impress (the girls).
Their interesting menu design reminds me of my 'buku latihan' (exercise book) during schooling days.
And this is everyone studying hard.
Lots of games to keep customers preoccupied while waiting for food to come / food to digest I suppose.
Beware though - they S-M-E-L-L!! Not the customers, but the game pieces, including the boxes they came with. Imagine how many times these game props have changed hands....ewww yuck.
Birthday girl Pris explaining the rules of 'Congkak' to a very blur-looking Choy Phyll and Vanessa.
I'm with Moon, Ngow Yong, Choy Phyll and Edward (my 'newbie' :}) and let me just say, it really isn't our intention to promote a certain company here.
Throughout lunch, Pris was mostly looking like this...
Coz she has CAMERAPHOBIA.

which basically might have her saying
'I don't like to be photographed because...

- I am not photogenic
- you have the power to make me look bad and you do not have Photoshop in your PC
- I am badly scarred from my stricken past of being caught nude on camera before!
- the camera is like some dangerous weapon shooting at me..and dun get me started on those SLRs and their humongous lens
- I look too damn good on camera that I'll just make the rest of you look like baboons and I wouldn't want to hurt your feelings like that'
Well Pris, you can forget all the above coz I caught you looking juuuuussst FINE here!
The 'privileged' people with the 'celebrity of the day' were Edward, Ngow Yong, Fong and Ivy.
Then came our food!
Everyone started off with this nice warm bun and mini butter ball.
Then the restaurant owner surprised each of us with a small shot of lemonade with gin (I think) on the house.
Choice of Starter :
Choice of MY Starter :
Choice of Drinks :
Long Black Coffee
I forgot what was this. Iced Tea ... with plenty of green in it, I suppose?
My choice was the house fave - Asam Boi.
Extremely sour - just how I like it ;P
The main dish was truly something else. Nothing like your typical stereotype Western menu.
What kinda upset me was there were only 2 types of main dish ordered, despite there being 10 of us.
Hence, there isn't much variety for show here except for the tasty honey worchestershire marinated
"Lamb and Onions".
or in Pris' case, just 'Lamb'.
oh my onions!
I think about 7 of us ordered the "Fish & Chips".
The potato and yam chips were excellent!
No birthday cake as we were all stuffed by the end of lunch, but we managed to order for Pris the highly recommended 'Ginger Creme Brulee'.
I love anything ginger so I definitely am giving my two thumbs up for this lovely dessert. YUMM!!
Overall, you can look forward to a good hearty meal here. Just hope that my food and drink could be served faster. Especially when it's part of their Set Lunch.
For only RM 20++, you get yourself a
1. Starter (Potato Wedges/ Chicken Lollipops/ Cup o'cream Corn Soup/ Mushroom Cappuccino/ Potato Salad/ Shrimp & Avocado Salad)
2. Entree (Japanese Curry Chicken Stew/ Chicken Lasagna/ Oxtail Shepherd's Pie/ Fish & Chips/ Grilled Vege Medley/ Lamb & Onions
3. Drink (Hot or Iced Tea/ Long Black Coffee/ Soft Drink/ Asam Boi)
On a strict budget?
Then, go for their Lunch Sandwich Sets at RM 15++. I just might do so one day, when I find my lunch companion.
Lunch sets only available from Tues - Fri, 12 to 3 pm.
I suggest you make table reservations earlier if your group is big as seats are quite limited and customers may tend to linger here long after they finished their meals. Why not? This place is spacious, cool and nicely decorated.
With high security level too as even the female toilet door has 6 locks attached to it.
Oh, did I mention that their 'Fish and Chips' is so famous that it appeared in a mag before?
A magazine for pets, that is.
Oh what the heck if it's labelled as dog-food, this place is definitely a must-try!