Subkhi who...?

I feel so proud watching this guy in the Chile vs Spain match now that I just have to tell you about him.. (no la, not a footballer)


(From Wikipedia)

Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh (born November 17, 1966) is a Malaysian football referee who currently resides in Parit Buntar. He has been a full international referee for FIFA since 2000.

He was selected as a referee for the 2007 FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Canada, where he refereed the group stage match between Panama and Argentina, the quarterfinal between Chile and Portugal, where he sent off three players.

In the latter match, he was involved in a bizarre incident where Portuguese player ZĂ©quinha took the red card out of his hand while sending off Manu, much to the bemusement of spectators and sports commentators, which in turn led to the prompt sending-off of the player. He blew the whistle as well at the match between Scotland and Costa Rica.

He was selected as a referee for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The first game he handled is as a fourth official in the opening match of FIFA World Cup 2010 between South Africa and Mexico. The second game he took off is between Ghana and Serbia on 12.6.2010 and the final game is between Brazil and North Korea on 15.6.2010.

The Malaysian born referee is the first referee in the country to be selected to represent FIFA World Cup Final.

Way to go, bro!! ^>^

what i read in the papers...

My jaw dropped seeing this article in The Star yesterday. Did you drop yours too??


And what about this - an auction opened to public for government-seized assets!
Seized from who ah? i wunder...
250 pieces of fine jewellery and watches to be auctioned off. Like this Rolex.
Hmm, if I want one of these diamond rings, I wonder if they would cost less than buying them from a jewellery store.
Hmmm... ^.^

yey i went to kuantan today

Guess where I went today? Well, technically it should be yesterday since I'm writing this at 1.30am.
A place I've not been to in 10 years............it's in Kuantan la!
And here is me looking REAL happy after answering nature's call in the airport toilet.

It's a really really REALLY old run-down airport. I was told that business was so bad that flights by Air Asia and Firefly here has been cancelled, leaving only MAS as the sole survivor with only 3 flights a day.

And it's a really really REALLY small airport - one that takes you only 2 minutes to alight from the plane and walk out of the airport building. That's way cool from the usual 'walkathon' you need to go through when disembarking in KLIA, don't you agree?

Too bad I wasn't in Kuantan for leisure - I was to give a 2-hr briefing to the Kuantan branch agents.
I spent a generous amount of time in this little room today, reading my Star newspaper. Again. And again.

Then again.

You see, due to the very limited flight times, timing wasn't really according to MY convenience, so there were lots of 'idle time' spent waiting for the briefing to start.
Of course I also had to (pretend to) go through my training slides.
Still (pretending to be) going through them...
Until I was beginning to fade away .... ... ... .....
Oops, I meant my imagination.
Anyhow, briefing was done for a group of 18 agents and in no time, I was back in my favourite room of the day, to 'goyang kaki'.
(Dun worry boss, obviously AFTER mingling around with the agents, pushing them for more sales, blahblahblahblah) :):):)
I recall 2 interesting encounters with both my cab drivers today.
The one who picked me up at 6.30am to KLIA actually had to use his GPS to get there!
And the frigging GPS must have gone bonkers az it kept going 'Recalculating....Recalculating....Recalculating.....' -_-
Makes me wonder that with GPS nowadays, ALL of us could be taxi drivers dy, man!
My so-called 'limo' driver that brought me home just now was even funnier.
Next time you travel by road from KLIA back to KL city (using MEX highway), first chance you get to seeing the KL Tower and Twin Towers against the skyline, try and notice what's on the right side of the Twin Towers.
It is what appears to be a VERY huge ring of bright gleaming orange lights floating in the sky.
After a few discussions, oddly we came up with this conclusion -
It's a U.F.O.
Funny thing was, as he drove further on,
all of a sudden, it was clearer to us and we both went
'OHHHHHHHHHHH.....'
It was Genting Highlands.

waaah...3 months maternity leave??

Trust Citibank to be the pioneer of new things.

How about this next..

'AXA is the first insurance company in Malaysia to introduce 3 months maternity leave.'

sweet.

doggone dream

Guess what....I'm not working today.

Now, before you all go 'eeek so jealous', you should also know that I had a very bad case of food poisoning yesterday. And that means the entire package of purging + vomitting + high fever + sore throat + stomach pain + stomach wind + body aches ... could name a few more but I can see you got the idea :)

Like the Chinese say, when I "yan mou hor yan" (stand until cannot stand anymore), I literally dragged my limpy legs to the clinic downstairs and assumed my role as 'Little Miss Sick Patient'. By that I also mean magnifying the severity of my symptoms (hey, dun we all?) and at the same time, trying to be smart by suggesting the possibility of me having contracted dengue fever? or or H1N1?? or gee I couldn't be pregnant right??

Doc was obviously unimpressed (hmmph! wat man, this girl trying to teach me how to do my job..?) . I guess he decided to give me a jab on my butt cheek just to shut me up =_=

After doing a post-mortem on my food intake over the weekend, my best bet on the culprit would be the 'Spicy Dried Pan Mi' (or what we Chinese call "lat jiu pan min") I had on Sat night. You know the type where you add spoonsful of crushed dried chillies into the noodles till your hearts desire? Guess I must have added a tad too much or the chillies weren't THAT clean.

Bummer, wanna ban that shop dy oh.

Physically, I'm feeling much stronger now.
Emotionally, I'm sitting here sulking at my packet of Golden Potato Bun and Cheese Bun coz I wana eat something tastier!! :(

Doc charges were very reasonable too - 6 types of meds (includ antibiotic) + a Jab for RM 50.
Doc's staff could do better though.
Just found out she wrongly wrote my MC date as YESTERDAY, after I specifically told her I do not work on Sundays. Wat-lah.

I slept throughout the night like a baby and towards the morning, had dreamt that Dad brought back 2 puppies for me and Sis. They were a gift from Lilian Too (?? don't ask me why her). I still remember the breed - Mexican Black Labrador (MBL) and Qatar Labrador (QL). LOL...do these breed really exist??

I was sooooooo freaking happy that I was gonna bring a MBL back to KL with me, couldn't wait to show Mark our new puppy, etc...then the worse happened.

My alarm went off. It was only a dream.

@!$#@ :( :( :( :( to d max.

me wana doggie.

Who has a doggie to give away?

Can you think of me? :p (wag tail)

to Toy Story 3 and beyond......!!

Pixar has done it again.
After the outstanding success of 'Finding Nemo' and 'Up', I was once again deeply entertained and moved by the 3rd instalment of Toy Story.
Every single emotion is being played out here - from laughing at Rex's innocent remarks during a time of crisis to nail biting moments when the toys nearly get killed (umm crushed i mean) to tearing up when the toys are given away.
A whole lot of new characters were introduced but my favourite ones of all aren't Woody and Buzz (surprise surprise!) but....

Barbie and Ken....ok, maybe not so much of Barbie but Ken..it's KEN who'll make you laugh till you fall off your seat!
I've loved bead-eyed Rex since the very beginning. Who wouldn't?
Chomp!
Mr Potato head was so freaking hilarious towards the end of the show!
These little cuties may not have much air-time but they SURE ARE SUPER ADORABLE!
They even zip and unzip themselves...kekekekeke...gawd, i laugh just thinking of it.
Show's just opened in cinemas. I'm pretty sure it's gonna last for weeks but grab it while it's hot. Never mind if you've never seen the earlier Toy Story and never mind if you can only watch it in 2D, this one's an excellent excellent masterpiece by itself. Every son, daughter, parent, grandparent and toy simply must watch it.
Best picture of the year hand's down!

And boy oh boy, was I lucky today;
I got to thank Woody and Buzz personally for bringing us one of the best movie experience!
If YOU too would like to thank him, I'm sure they'll be galavanting in Mid Valley again tomorrow.
Don't forget to bring the young ones!

pop's birthday at renaissance kl

Dad was in KL for his recent birthday so we decided to bring him to Renaissance for a nice dinner.

It was a matter of coincidence that we went dressed in yellow. Though I could say it was coz yellow symbolizes richness and nobleness for the Chinese.

And also coz Dad's name is "Wong" (yellow) Fat (means "rich" btw).
Arriving at the posh hotel, can't help but notice their deco which reminds me so much of sepak takraw.
We've reached Dynasty, a Chinese restaurant nicely tucked in a corner of one of the many wings in this hotel.
Nice quiet ambience for a good family dinner.
We had our own private room, thanks to sis' booking in advance. Outside, not too many tables were occupied even though it was a Wesak night.
Here's my other kind of 'sis', Jade (bro-in-law's sis).

Sucks that I look like I'm in some kind of maternity wear. =P
If you hadn't already noticed, we were all posing with this illuminating light in the background as it was the only interesting backdrop in the room. lol.

Here's what we ate...Everything you see here tastes as good as they look, if not better!

4 Seasons - nice! Everything here was made of fish paste, each had its own unique flavour and texture. Very tasty.

The Roast Duck was fantastic! Didn't expect the skin to be still so crispy so late at night.
That night I learnt something new - stay away from ordering 'sun hock' fish (Marbled Goby). Sis told me this dish alone cost >RM 300. *gulp*

Even with its melt-in-your-mouth texture, the price to pay is ridiculously high, it makes you wana tapao the bones as well to make soup, feed a dog or something....!
This is Black Pepper Lamb. Looks like a big pile of mess but it is blardy good! Meat tender and sauce just right for everyone's palate. Mango salad in tangy sauce complements well as a side dish.
Final dish of the night ... Stir-Fried Lotus Root and Celery in Yam Basket
I love the YAM Basket more than its contents.
Dinner was sadly over...sniff..I was eager to see what other spunky dishes could the kitchen whip up.
Then again, even if our tummies could still take it, don't think our wallets could.
Regretfully, I can't tell you the prices of the dishes though as sis paid the bill and I could only guess the bill to be around 700+? (pengsan)

Most importantly, we all got to spend some family time together and Dad enjoyed every bit of it down to the last crumb on his plate. ^>^

We even got a Cake for Dad.
Making a wish that your durian trees grow up strong and healthy, Dad?
The cake was fine - not the moist kind, but rather compact like it's been sitting in the fridge for some time. Not leftover, I hope.

My first time eating this 'birthday pao' with lotus seed filling.
That HUGE pao right in the middle....had like 7 little paos in it . LOL..i like it, so cute.
We decided to have a little fun after dinner just to see who has the best mirror shot.
This was Mark's.
and here's mine.
I know, this one's so badly taken, it looks like we have a horizontal moustache running across our faces.
And no, I'm not wearing a maternity dress and holding my belly.

nuts over gelatomio

Looks like someone working his teppanyaki skills...

...on ICE-CREAM!

There's nothing more satisfying than savouring on premium ice cream on a hot afternoon.

This is Gelatomio Lounge in Pavilion KL (Level 4).

Right in front of the popular 'Cotton On' boutique (where you can get good cheap clothes >.^).
Good quality ice cream has very little air in them, while gelato has no air added at all during its churning process.
There are over 50 flavours offered, comprising of either its milk-based type (average 95% fat-free) or the water-based type/ sorbet (up to 99% fat free). It's no wonder gelato is the 'preferred choice' these days - they are known to NOT have the 'fattening effect'.
Or so we believe :)
Kinda took a while for me to 'digest' what's on their menu...
Finally settled for Gelatomio Waffle - Regular (RM 9).
My flavour of choice - call me old-fashioned, but I went for the 'safe bet', Chocolate.
No regrets......It was SUPERB!
Very chocolatey (almost like dark chocolate), not too sweet and for the price paid, I got 3 scoops tucked in a waffle cone.
One simply MUST try their ice-cream, ala teppanyaki style...
No cooking over fire (which I initially thought was going to be the case), but it was a process of selecting 2 ice cream flavours + 2 toppings/ sauces for the 'cook' to work on.
I chose Tiramisu (so-so only) + Cointreau Creme a l'orange (damn goood and strong liquor taste!) with Chocolate Sauce + Almond flakes.
Then the 'cook' began mixing everything together on a really really icy cold slab of marble.
It looked gooey at first - it was really a case of everything 'rojak'
then after sticking in some freshly made chocolate 'leaves' and topped with whipped cream...
TA-DAAAAH!!
*Gelatomio on the Rock*
RM 19.80.
Soooooooo Good (50x)
you can even eat it for lunch, like me.