edward's last day in axa

A young colleague of mine, Edward, has left my company after just 10 months of service. Though his time in AXA was short, he did go to great lengths to prove himself a valuable addition to my department.

The lunch gang brought him to The Ship in celebration (dunno if you can call it dat) of his final day in AXA.
 
Edward loves taking pictures AND having his picture taken.
Something that Yin Pheng enjoys as well.
People are looking more happy than glummy that their friend is going away.
This is one ship that's heavily decorated with CNY trinkets and all.
What's worth having is The Ship's Set Lunch, whereby you can choose from 3 choices of either the Braised Chicken with Mushrooms and Rice (no pic, forgot to take, however i can tell you that the serving was huge), the Salad (as seen below; comes with very delicious ham or is that spam)
or Lemon Butter Fish (this has a very nice sauce though the fish tends to be too small a serving for guys).

Set Lunch comes to you at only RM 13.90++ (includes a cordial drink and fruit and soup) and for the ambience you get, this has got to be a steal.
Plus, if you go in a crowd, for every 6 sets, you get the 7th one FOC. Now that's just swell.

It was kinda sad that Edward aka 'Giant' aka 'Sepilok' was leaving us - he was always.....

the guy we called whenever we needed someone to replace the water dispenser......

the guy who would always hold the lift door for oldies like me....

the guy whom we enjoy teasing whenever any new chick joins AXA....

the guy who does more charity work than anyone i've ever known....

but most importantly, he's the guy who would jump at any opportunity to learn new things or gain new experiences without the slightest hesitation.

He's certainly made new guy friends.
And girl friends too.
But for some obvious reason, I think I shall always remember him as the one who loves eating absolutely anything.
ok, ALMOST anything...
keep in touch, fren! >.< 

a weekend in my kampung

Part of the excitement of going back to my kampong on weekends is deciding where to bring my parents to eat. Unfortunately, I get really clueless when it comes to finding (new) eating places in Malacca as compared to KL/ PJ. And as far as Malacca is concerned, the best food is usually tucked away in some nook or corner, waiting to be discovered by my Dad. Yup, good 'ol Dad who goes around on his bike hunting for food. 

Once in a while, I bring my parents to a nice cosy cafe to experience afternoon tea with an 'English-feel'. With mum being a huge coffee lover, I brought them to Coffeebean. Coincidentally, I got 20% off the bill by using my CTB bank.

Mum's a scones lover, hence she got herself a raisin scone.
       
Most popular cheesecake from Coffeebean - New York style Cheesecake, dear's fave.
The Red Velvet Cupcake looked too pretty not to be ordered, so I did the obvious.
And sad to say, it tasted pretty bland. Maybe it's just for that particular outlet we were at.
Never judge a cupcake by its topping. =(
Chipotle Roast Chicken Sandwich - my all-time fave. Loved the side salad with raisins and almond flakes.
Would have preferred it on Panini bread though.
After a brief afternoon tea (there were drinks too, just no pics), we drove about an hour to Pantai Kundur.
My first time on this beach and my oh my, was I impressed.

With mum and dad
I so want to dip my feet into the sea..
The beach was so beautiful especially during sunset, all I wanted was more time on the beach, playing in the water and walking on the sandy beach....
...but unfortunately, it was time to fill our tummies (again).
Off we went to this nearby restaurant just opposite the beach where we were taking photos.
Nothing fancy-looking about this place, just another coffeeshop recommended by someone.
Dear, to be precise.

We had a Hakka dinner (obviously, since it's named Restoran Hakka Pantai Kundur).
This is Yam Abacus, which I didn't quite enjoy. For me, it tasted too fake, like chewing on a small deflated rubber ball.
Next came their signature Steamed Fish. It was RM 41 and all we got was half the fish.
Steamed Salted Kampong Chicken was RM 15 for half a bird.
Everyone enjoyed this Preserved Vege with Pork. Anything fatty is just yummy.
Simple stir-fried Vege dish.
My eating frenzy that weekend didn't end just there.
The next morning, Dad brought us to this place for Malacca's famous fish head noodle.
Little did he know I've already identified my fave one in Cheras. Hence, I was excited.
Somewhere inside this coffeeshop,
is a stall that sells Hee-Kiaw (that's actually noodles with fish ball, cake, etc..)
and lots of balls swimming in soup.
But THIS is the stall that is the busiest!
For some reason, looking at this picture of fish head noodle in harm-choy (salted vege) soup, makes me cringe. The style here is 'without milk'.
It may not be d best tasting fish head soup, but I certainly got real meaty fish and that's a nice change.
Uncle Richard joined us too.
We headed back to KL after breakfast and stopped by Kajang coz I was suddenly missing some authentic Kajang sate.
I had no idea how big they have grown!!
No, not the sate but the famous Hj Samuri outlet.
And the size of the sate?
On the contrary, the sticks have outgrew the meat.
And that's a tad too much peanut sauce for 10 sticks, dunchu think?
Unless I was thinking of drinking the sauce like I drink soup.
Look at the amount of chilli oil used to mix in with the peanut sauce!
This reminds me of a rumour I heard years ago about someone finding a certain something in the pot of sauce.

Trust me, you do NOT want to know about it.

i'm dreaming of a white ci-ty...

whether cruising on the highway,
or parked in the driveway
i'm thrilled to say
great to have you around;
from monday to sunday.

 many places we have been
for work or for play 
omg you were actually green,
all this while i thought you were grey!
though i've known you for hardly two years,
you were always by my side;
and now it appears,
that the time is here,
no longer will you be near,
who will own you now, it's so unclear.
as we bid our goodbyes
thanks for changing our lives
a white city becomes a choice so wise,
now we become the envy of all u guys!
(kidding, kidding)


moving office

This is my new toy, C5-03 which has got to be one of the most economical phones to buy at this moment, if you're looking for a user-friendly touch-screen phone with GPS, a 5 MP camera and most importantly, SLIM. I had the opportunity to try out the camera for these past few days during my moving day at the office....
  
 I've been real busy packing boxes and boxes of stuff from my old office to my new one, just two blocks away.
 My cutesy colleague, Jin looks like she could pack herself into one of those boxes!
 Buh-bye to my previous work station ....
 It was fun while it lasted ...
 HeLLO to my NEW work station!!
Facing the wall most of the time, I feel like a delinquent child being punished and made to stare at the wall. +_+


It is actually an older building we had shifted into, compared to our previous office.

You can easily tell by looking at the pathetic state of my colleague's telephone...
 Sorry Jac, I couldnt help but show your phone to the world. wakakakakaka....


wedding : jade and adrian

Jade (my bro-in-law's younger sis) and Adrian held their wedding dinner in Noble Banquet, Jalan Bukit Bintang couple months back. With their name so closely resembling another restaurant also in the same Oriental Group of Restaurants (i'm talking about Noble House), we did the thing that i'm sure have happened numerous times - we went to the wrong restaurant. Luckily they were both situated close by. What a joke it turned out to be when I kept telling my sista I have arrived at the restaurant and yet, she could not spot me. =_=
   
 It was yet another family affair as I was introduced to more 'uncles' and 'aunties' of the Ho side of the family, my sista's in-laws. It was kinda cool we were seated so close to the VIP table and stage with the live band playing. Made me felt important. eh-hem...despite me not knowing 99% of the people there.
 The bride, Jade adorned really pretty gowns that night. Too bad I could only get a shot of her in a cheongsam as lighting in the hall was pretty dimmed when she was in her other dresses. Oopsie, is that the bride's belly showing? heehee.
 Frankly, what I liked best about that night was umm......
I mean, to me the highlight of the night wasn't when the bride was toasting with guests, looking extremely high-spirited despite being 3-mths pregnant .... with twins!,
 Neither was it the highlight when the surprised groom had to down a baby bottle-ful of Hennessy.
 The best part of the night (for me at least), was the dinner itself.
Need I say more when I confess to taking more photos of the food rather than with the bride and groom...
I guess thanks to my sista for suggesting this place to the happy couple in the first place.
This was what I feasted on that night ...... (salivating)
 Gonna show some of the more memorable creations, such as this irresistible bowl of Shark's Fin Soup with Clams and Mushroom. Would you believe I drank the entire bowl with extreme guilt for those poor
<*)}}}><  ? .... (wat, dun look like a shark meh?). The least I could do was to finish every drop of the soup so at least, the sharks did not die in vain mah.
 My very sweet Poached Tiger Prawn with 'Shao Hsing' wine and 'kei-ci' was very richly soaked in wine, I was worried all the young kids at the dinner would start jumping all over the place like little monkeys.
 A simple-looking yet elegantly-tasting Braised Ee-fu Noodles with Lobster meat. Perfect for my palate without the saltiness or alkaline taste from the noodles.
 This has got to be a first for me at wedding dinners - Deep-fried Soft Shell Crab in Money Bag. Being a Jap food maniac, I lurveeeee my SSCs (Soft Shell Crab).
Can't say much about the $$ in my bag tho',  all I found was a piece of cucumber.
 And THIS has got to be the most awkward-looking dish I've ever seen in a wedding!
I would never have guessed a 'Yin Yang Pomfret' would end up looking like this. Btw, 'Yin Yang' in Chinese means one negative, one positive .....like having the two extremes.

In this case, the creator must have thought it interesting to cut out the flesh from the fish to be stir-fried with the vege, then deep-fry what's left of the fish, bones and all.
What I don't quite understand is why make the fish stand upright and what's with the gaping hole in it?
 When it came to dessert, it wasn't the traditional Shanghai pancake (halleluyah!), but instead it was a very nice eggy soft steamed sponge cake (mmmmm, fluffy) and peanut ball (a bit like the mua-ji)
 The perfect pastry to complement the not-too-sweet Double-boiled Snow Pear with Sea Coconut.  I love their generous portion of tiny bits and pieces of chewy stuff in my warm dessert.
 And finally, I think the dish mostly enjoyed by everyone was the Braised Chinese Cabbage with whole Abalone.
 I took two teeny-weeny bites of the abalone and that was it.
 Sorry I'm no abalone fan, so guess it was my loss and someone else's gain.
Now wipe that grin off your face, Mark.