I’ve Got A Fever… April 13, 2011

From left to right, top to bottom : Raymond, Khairul, Barry, Andric, Lim, Pauline,

Fuzzy, me, Tron, LY, Justin, Dull,

MrSee, Beanz, Mr AIP, Ben, Sifoo Wong, myDADDY

Back To My Own WordPress… December 1, 2010

Have been neglecting my blog a little bit because I’ve been busy with the church’s website. Been doing housekeeping and learning how to upload audio sermons, memory verses, etc. It’s all been a really, really great learning experience, and within the past 2 weeks of serving, I’ve already garnered enough knowledge to start my own online business! Well, about 85% there la. All I need to know is what I want to sell. *HAHAHA* The interface all can be done up easily (and looking real professional) now. Muwahaha. Oh, the power of WordPress. =)

So yeah, no big surprise, I’m serving in the IT part at the moment. It’s really funny, it started with the lady in charge teaching me even what F5 key does and now I’m like the admin of the website! Whoa, with great power comes great responsibility indeed. I’m really lovin’ it at the moment!

By the way, I was baptised on the 28th of November, and it was definitely a memorable experience. I will write more about that, but at the moment, let me upload my backdated entry. I wrote it for the week ending 21st November.

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Hello all! What’s up, what’s up? I re-read some of my latest posts and I realised that I talked a lot about my church. Almost every weekend got activities ya, that’s life. Last time used to gym so much… I still miss my gym, but what to do, need to take a rest. As my friend Alfee said, “For things related to your body, if the doctor says you need rest, then you listen to him la. Don’t try to self-diagnose.” Actually, after about 1 month of rest, my knee feels good again! Like, not even a twinge of pain anymore. However, I don’t want to take a risk and jump around again. Mana tahu, after another two classes, start to pain again, then really jia lat lor. Wasted 1 month worth of resting just like that. So yeah, just take it easyyyy. I still do my weight training and cardio wave though.

I did feel jealous when I saw my gym buddies tagged in the 4th quarter Les Mills workshop… there’s a new presenter for Body Attack! This lady, I actually noticed her in the beginning of the year, because she wore something super skimpy for BA, LOOKS like a bikini top and super short shorts. I was super impressed and jealous la, hahaha. Cos she was super toned! Then I saw her doing un-assisted PULLUPS outside the studio. If you’ve never done a pullup before, you wouldn’t know how tough it is la. She was doing one after another in QUICK SUCCESSION. There and then I already knew this lady is not your regular gym goer already. So anyway, here are some of her pics from the last quarter 2010 workshop :

Yeoh introducing the “strength” in the new BA team.

Strength indeed. (That’s Prudent behind)

Check out the toned body!!! That’s June on the left-most, I still like her a LOT. June has my dream body… *envy*

Jump! See how much air they get?

Amazing form in the front kick.

According to Janet, this is the track that she presented in.. conditioning.

(pictures were taken from Osman’s Facebook…)

I wish I was there to see how she is as a presenter la! That’s it la, must train up myself properly so that I’m fit as an eagle for 2011 launch! *determined*

Saturday was a day out in Midvalley & The Gardens again… I forgot what Roberto and I did there, definitely did not watch movies as there was no movie interesting enough to catch our attention. But on the up side, we saw Megamind…

As in the “real” Megamind! Hahaha. The movie, we watched some time back already. Had lunch at Kim Gary, and dinner at Delicious. Our meal at Kim Gary costs more than Delicious lor! Isn’t that insane? And everytime I eat at Delicious, I reckon that I could make the stuff myself, because the dishes are so simple, and so easy to break-down. Some olive oil, chilli flakes, feta cheese, some rocket leaves, black pepper and voila! However, I think the complexity is in the simplicity of it all… after all, 2 years down the road and I still can’t make a proper aglio olio. *shy*

Ever since I re-installed Photoshop, seems like I have more and more uses for it. Relax, I have not been Photoshop-ping male colleagues onto female singers. My cell leader asked me to design some invitations for a Christmas gathering this coming 18th of December. So I submitted 2 designs, a cartoon-y one and an “elegant” one which, actually, probably only myself thinks looks elegant. I mentioned that I submitted 2 designs but below has 3 pictures because the 3rd invitation, she sourced a graphic for me to work on, and that’s what came out.

By the way, the middle one was selected in the end…

Anyway, so anyone wants to join us for Christmas celebration? Hehehe… the address will be revealed only if you’re truly interested la. As for the RM5 and above gift exchange, I already plan to get a SCARF… because they are surprisingly cheap (buying from the wholesaler) and yet quite elegant. Slightly above RM5 only. Girls who get the gift will be delighted, and guys who get it can lol and camwhore with it as well. =) Good idea leh?

I’m also in charge of making cakes (!!!) so if you want to try my famous(?!) mini-cheesecakes, come come come! ;P At first, I was thinking of doing a simple plain cupcake, and then use icing to decorate Christmas trees, candy canes and all on top. But to be honest, I don’t like icing. I know I eat tonnes more fattening stuff than icing, but still the mentality is stuck there. =p So I decided to make something tried, tested and proven. To make the cheesecakes more festive, I will use strawberry & kiwi jam instead of apricot jam.. so it’s all red & green… hahaha! As you can tell, yes I am excited about all these things!

Recently (just yesterday, actually), Kenny & I were in charge of food for the cell group. I was feeling lazy, and not confident about my cooking skills… so I decided to just buy some Hokkien mee and “Sing Chao Mai” for them… and maybe some fried veg. But then, I wound up taking leave, and so ended up cooking a LOT at home. =B I first made a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache as an experiment. It was actually quite disastrous at one point, because my mom said, “I think I smell your cake burning”, so I rushed to take it out of the oven. When I stuck a fork into the middle of the pan, it came out all gooey. Ew! Totally not done or burnt, ish! So I had to pop it back in… and because the cake had been “fork-ed”, the middle part cracked open like a volcano, hahahaa. Pouring the chocolate ganache over it just seemed to highlight the cracked surface, and although I think I’m a whiz with ganache, and proudly showed the finish work to my mom, she said, “How to call yourself pro with that crack right in the middle.” True that.

So to not end up humiliating myself, I quickly chopped the entire cake into little squares, so that nobody can tell whether got crack before or not. Muwahahhaha….! Photo of chopped cake :

Don’t mind the crumbs on top.. I don’t have a big enough tupperware, so I had to stack the chopped pieces on top of each other.

My test subjects (white mice) said :
~ Mom : “You should use cooking chocolate for the ganache instead of semi-sweet / dark chocolate, now it tastes bitter. And why your cake is so ‘zhai’ one? Super filling lo… I know how cake is supposed to taste like ok.. this is too thick!”
~ Raymond : “Not too sweet, luckily you used dark chocolate, complements the cake. Ya, it’s kinda ‘zhai’… but at least eat small piece is enough…”
~ See : “Very zhai la… but tastes good! Good job, Leech!”
~ Lim : “Oh, quite nice la. It’s not ‘zhai’, that’s the way the cake should be what!”
~ Pauline : “Oooh, it’s the brownie type of cake… I think it would be nice if you microwave it for 5 minutes, serve with a side of vanilla ice-cream, and then put WHIPPED CREAM ON TOP!!
~ LY : she said about 90% the same thing as Pauline… I think women who bake are generally more discerning … and always thinking of ways to make the dessert more special
~ Kris : “Yes, it’s good… I ate like two pieces already!”
~ Mr Lee : “Got some more?”
~ Roberto : “I eat til very syiok. My mom asked me, ‘Who buy this cake wan?’ She say its nice.. “

So overall, people think it’s zhai but nice? I maintain that this is the type of cake that you will pay RM16.90 for outside, served the way that Pauline described. And they will give you a very very small slice some more… cos of the ‘zhai’ factor. By the way, zhai = super filling.. it’s the thick type of cake, not the chiffon type. Like a chiffon pandan cake, I think I can eat one whole cake by itself. But this chocolate cake… definitely will die of gluttony if you eat the whole cake by yourself. =) But their comments are really appreciated. The reason why I am making cake is also to experiment as I will be making the cake for my cell group leader’s birthday!! Oh my God!! Since I will be serving the cake, I think I will slice it in half, stuff it with chocolate buttercream, to make it SEEM bigger. Can’t wait to show you the actual outcome! Hopefully it will turn out good, man!!

After the cake making, was online doing stuff when my cell group leader mentioned to me that I should cook something for cell as they have not tasted my cooking before. I was feeling a bit not confident about doing that… hey, if I poison anybody, it will be like 10+ people. Scary! So in the end, I decided to make my “tried, tested, proven” and n00b-friendly Tandoori Chicken! Thing was, Carrefour ran out of Tandoori chicken powder, and I only had 1 packet of the thing at home. 1 packet is for 400g of chicken… I had 1.6kg of chicken to marinate! So I decided to “make” my own version with paprika, curry powder and lots of my favorite cajun spices. Was soooo nervous when I was baking it because I didn’t want it to be burnt, and also flipped all the chicken properly so that it will be evenly cooked… wah, really cooking for others makes you a more conscientious cook. If I was cooking for myself, one side burnt and one side raw also I will still eat. XD And the brilliant thing about my “re-worked” Tandoori chicken is that it doesn’t even look like Tandoori chicken (not red at ALL) so it is quite mis-leading. Tastes good too, and smells WONDERFUL. Haha.. so if you want to save money on pre-packaged spices (if I really wanted to follow the recipe to a T, I would have needed to buy 4 packets of powder, which would equate to almost the price of the chicken itself!) , why not make do with cajun spices and paprika?

When I was out buying the chicken (and having lunch), got an sms from Kenny suggesting that I make dessert as well… I thought what the heck. Had been planning to make coconut milk (santan) and gula melaka jelly for some time, but decided against it as my family can’t stand the smell of the santan. So it was good that could share the jelly with my cell group mates instead as they don’t have such reservations. I was very happy that at the end of the night, all the jelly and chicken were finished, the Hokkien mee was the only thing that was left in abundance (later I gave it to my parents for their lunch… wakakkaka). Oh yeah, forgot to mention that Kenny also bought roti telur & roti kosong to contribute… we really had a “kenduri” that night! Amazing!

No pictures… really regret that I was soooo rushed that day that I forgot to take pictures! Grr… !

That’s all the cooking I did on Wednesday la… whole day cooking lo. Asked my sister to lend me her mixer some more. Until now I’m too stingy to buy my own mixer, even though one is just RM70 (clearance stock in Carrefour, haha). Sigh… buy me one, pwetty please? I don’t even mind weird brands. As long as can work.

More on my “stalking” of wholesale providers… I am SO stupid ok. I bought something from the super expensive website (the one where I said that it can be up to 300% of the original price), and I found it being sold for cheap cheap. Ok la, I bought a bra. Cos I wanted to see if I could wear XX size, but too shy to see the salesgirl… I always have this paranoia that if I take up a bra that is larger than what the ultra-sharp eyes of the salesgirl judges as TRUE CUP SIZE, she will announce loudly something like, “Please la! Don’t pretend la! If you buy that one, you will need to stuff one whole box of tissue inside!” Then I will need to melt into a puddle on the floor and just… evaporate into thin air. Ok, this has never happened to me before, but as mentioned, I somehow have this fear in me. So I wanted to see if I could fit into XX size, and I bought it online. WHAT A PAINFULLY EXPENSIVE EXPERIENCE JUST FOR THE SAKE OF BEING “SHY”. Let me show you some styles of what is available on this super expensive website (and I also found for cheaper later) :

RM59.04

RM68.36 (By the way for items from this supplier, the color in the picture won’t match what the site sends to you. Pattern and design same, but the color totally different. I’m not saying I bought these specific designs, but this is general truth for the website and also wholesale websites that I’ve encountered so far.)

See the prices that I have wrote out under each style? I can help you buy the same bra & panty set for like RM20 only. (Giving myself very very small profit…) You want or not? I told you this place sells the stuff for 300% of the price lo. Ok la, it’s Yesstyle. You can go and check it out for yourself if you dunch believe me. I think Dawn Yang must be kaya-raya since she keeps asking all her blog readers to buy from that website.

As for the conclusion about the bra sizes and what not, I will be writing it out in a private entry… girl’s only! :p

All I Need Is Love, Good Food, Makeup and Books… November 18, 2010

My cell group leader says that for new believers, usually the first two years of our life will be revolving a lot around church. I have to put my disclosure here (I learned this is so important due to an incident, whereby I believe my flippant way of speaking might have caused others to misunderstand me) : it’s not that I don’t like it, and I am someone who likes to learn more, but from someone who used to be 24/7 gym to become 24/7 church, it is  a huge huge drastic change. From jumping around, it’s like sitting quietly to pray, to discuss the Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth, to hear testimonies and such. It is very, very different. And sometimes during the weekend, you want to catch up with friends or with your household chores or even do your usual hobbies… and there’s not enough time!! Yes, seeing friends at church is one thing, but I only know them for a few months, not the same as those high school friends catch-ups la… Seriously, I am envious of those people who just grew up with childhood friends in church. It’s like such a close-knit family.. how can I ever be as close to them as they are with each other? They probably know each other for like 80% of their lives. Again, this is just my disclaimer…. I don’t hate it or dislike it. This is just some internal frustrations with me due to my own time management.

So on Friday nights, I now have to set aside time for prayer meetings as well. Sigh.. it’s so hard to do group prayer. I don’t really know what to say. I thought prayer is quite personal…? But during prayer meetings we are supposed to pray out loud. And I don’t really know what to say… I was quite impressed with this Nigerian dude who could go on and on for about 10 – 15 minutes, so eloquently and so passionately. When can I achieve this level? When I told L about that, he said that prayer is just getting your point across to God, you don’t need super flowery language.

Impromptu first meet-up on Friday night, was so unprepared and my nerves were so highly strung… but it went well, I guess. Fingers crossed… I was given a box of pineapple, all eaten by my mom & dad … I didn’t even get one piece. But at least I got the turkey, bread & Italian wine. Thanks L…

Saturday morning, had a “road adventure” to find Food Foundry, and in the end tak jadi because L didn’t even know where it was, and in the end, thank God for 3G la… A quick search with my handphone and we were on the right road! But all for nought, as Food Foundry only opens for business at 11:30am, so we had chicken rice at Ayam James instead. The chicken is ok ok la, but the best part about the place is the char siew (juicy juicy, fattening stuff!) and the chop suey (pedas syiok!) and…. Uncle James! Hahahaha! He is one friendly, no-nonsense owner who talks so frankly, cannot help but laugh at him and with him. Okie, and I’m a bit scared of him. When he said that we must come back every Saturday, I feel like we have to… but not like he’s giving us discount also. ;p We ta-powed back the chop suey for our parents… then went home…

… as I had to go for “Workers Conference” at the church. It is basically updates and testimonies from the pastors in our overseas branches. We had talks from Pastor J in Nigeria, Pastor YW in charge of Philippines, Pastor HH for India and Pastor WL for Myanmar and Nepal. It was very enlightening and moving… and we had more group prayers. My heart is always beating very fast during group prayers! ** don’t want to embellish more details on this matter ** When I met L for dinner that night, he asked me how it was. After talking very long about what each pastor said, I ended with, “Oh, and during break time got sausage bun to eat… and we were blessed to have Seremban siew pau too…”
L : “Aiya, you go to church only to eat wan lah you.”
T___T

One thing I have to share about the worker’s conference is… you really feel so small. JP says she feels small because she thinks that she is not doing enough, frequently saying that she has too much on her plate (she serves in two ministries) as well as has to disciple the new comers. Her saying THAT made me feel small, because I keep complaining that it is one course after another… I haven’t even started serving yet lor, though things might change this Sunday… *wink* Anyway, JP said she felt small because when comparing herself to the pastors that evangelize overseas, especially in countries where Christians are persecuted, it made her realise how small her efforts are. And miniscule mine are then. Fuuuh… but what *I* felt small about on the Worker’s Conference was simply at how much faith and love that people in countries like India, Philippines, Myanmar, etc are feeling for God, that they still worship and praise Him when they have so little. Even now, I feel like God doesn’t listen to my prayers, but in fact I have so much more to thank Him for than others. Yet why is my faith so little, and theirs so large? So I vowed to change and work harder to build up my faith & spirit… this coming Sunday, we have yet another course… after that will be the start of Christmas celebrations! Fuuuh…

Had dinner at Otak-Otak Place at 1U on Saturday night… nothing much going on there, basically following L around to do his DIY stuff. Best part is managed to get a magazine rack that I wanted from Home-Fix. It is exactly what I had been looking for!! Cheap and cheerful, that is the theme for my decor. T__T In the room decorating mood again, hehe. ~ The DIY theme continued after Sunday service, with more searching around USJ for stuff for L’s DIY frenzy. Ate at Lorong Seratus Tahun.. checked out houses that I can’t afford at the Sime Darby office too. Sigh… when will I get my own place to stay? It was way too hot to do anything on Sunday, went back home and got ready for dinner with my gal pals – Dull & Fuzz. Decided to go to Summit because I wanted to buy Adobe Photoshop in order to make pictures like this :

Left to Right : Sifoo Wong as “Babi Spice”, Andric as “Spotty Spice”, Justin as “Definitely Scary Spice”, See as “Pork Spice” and Binz as “Gingivitis Spice”.

Arrived with Dull darn early, we were in the talks of selling a certain make-up brand in Malaysia. I super love the service of the supplier, and the pigments for the eyeshadows are AMAZING. You just need a small amount to make a huge difference. Each palette comes with 5 colors and the number of looks you can get through just 5 items are amazing. I’ll tell more when I have more pictures, but basically if you are interested, tell us! We confirm for a palette of 5 / 10 eyeshadows of this brand will be cheap! Like, less than RM40… (not including postage, but prefer meet-ups).

Teaser color swatches :

“Jazz Night”

“I Dream of St Thomas”

“I Dream of St Lucia”

[The above 3 are the 3 sets that Dull got for me for my birthday! Love youuu!! <3 I'm gonna have lots of fun mixing and matching before I show you my 'experiments'. ]
By the way, Summit is an awesome place to get cheap clothes & shoes. Wish we had more time to shop around, but it was late and we then met up with Fuzz for dinner at Mandy’s (our default place to eat in Summit). Since I was with the girls, I wasn’t able to shop so much (I mean, we could see a lot of things, but didn’t manage to buy much as shy to buy stuff in front of them… hahahha whattT??). So on Wednesday, it was Hari Raya Qurban, and I went back to Summit to finish shopping. I tell you, I did so much stuff on HRQ… I felt so tired and can’t even wake up early for work today. Usually I will be on time to work if the previous day was a holiday… haha. I had to wake up early on HRQ as well to take my parents out for dim sum. We went to some cheapie store in SS15 though my mom was hinting that she likes the one in BSC a lot. -___- Wah, really like give an inch and try to take a foot. Called up my sister and bro-in-law to join us as well, but my sister slept through like 10 miscalls that I gave her! Beh tahan!!

All these food… and shared out among 3 people only… tsk tsk!

After dim sum, went to Summit to buy cheap stuff (even then, forgot to get the slippers that I wanted…-__-), and was aghasted at the HUGE crowd there. OMG! There was a Popular bookstore warehouse sale, and I swear, the line for the payment counter was NEVER ENDING…. going round and round and round the concourse area. Even if I had anything to buy, I think I won’t buy la… waiting in line ALONE is not my idea of a fun holiday. I also think that the people in Summit got some mental problems… caused by selfishness. There was this woman in Watsons that used a BRAND NEW Rimmel mascara on her own lashes… note – it is NOT a tester! In fact, make-up counters will NOT put mascaras as testers, how unhygienic is that? What if the feller has some conjunctivities sheetz going on? One brand-new tube of mascara is just gone just like that man! So grossed out! And she was the typical aunty kinda look… sheeesh, so selfish and uncivilised!

There was also some people who when they see you already walking down and aisle, rather squeeze in past you than to wait til you have come through. -___- Not to say you are dawdling or something. Seriously, why so impatient? This happens on the road as well. Sighh… some more not like I’m so slim that when you squeeze past me you won’t touch me at all… lol. (FYI, not a ‘ma lat lo’ squeezing by, but a young girl, otherwise I will totally RAGE already.)

Anyway, I got myself:
~ cheap Made-In-Thailand shoes for my upcoming trip in December. I had in my head this “vision” of buying a floral-ish, summer-ish kinda espadrille type of shoe, but it had to have woven details + floral CLOTH details. And I got a pair for RM25.. hahaha! And it really fits my description 100%. ;P
~ a pink gradient pashmina for RM10
That’s all. :] I’m very stingy nowadays… especially since I paid more than RM500 to switch the plane ticket dates for my trip to Singapore… T___T Very siong sam, but what can be solved with money is not something worth crying over. *being philosophical*

Now, want to cerita about 4 stories that I finished reading recently… it’s a compilation of stories from Reader’s Digest, actually. I didn’t actually want to buy it, but was semi-conned into it through their ‘brilliant’ mass-mailing. See, I bought a book from them (home remedies book.. I am currently on a ‘kick’ of wanting to eat more organic stuff to cure myself instead of depending on pills… lol!), and later they sent me this letter asking whether I wanted this compilation-of-stories book as well. There was no specification on how payment is to be made, so I thought, “free thing who dowan…” and I sent in the request for them to send me the book la. After the book was sent to me, I ordered another book from Reader’s Digest (Imponderables). Later, my Imponderables book didn’t arrive, but they charged me thru my credit card for the book, AND they sent me a bill asking me why I didn’t pay for the compilation-of-stories book. I was quite cheesed off… wrote to their customer service to say that they had a lot of cheek to ask me to pay for an RM29.90 book when the RM169.90 book did not even arrive but they had started billing for me already. Oh my God… it is soooooo frustrating dealing with the customer service people! You have to keep chasing them every step of the way for the updates, and the way they answer you is so flippant, makes me feel like they are sticking their tongue out at me and going “Nyeh nyeh, got your money, you can’t do nuthin’!” -___- In the end, I managed to get the book, but seriously, that’s the last time dealing with them lah!

The RM29.90 book consists of 4 stories by various authors:
~ The Watchman (2)
~ Stories from an Irish Doctor in the Countryside (3)
~ True Evil (1)
~ One Night At The Call Center (4)
The numbers next to the titles are the order in which I read them… After getting the book, I didn’t really have any intentions to read it so soon as I actually have a BAG full of books my sister loaned me that I still haven’t cracked open (and just last night, JP gave me another BAG of books to read). However, while on the crapper, I flipped thru the book, and the synopsis of “True Evil” caught my eye. Basically, it’s a story about an FBI negotiations expert who uncovers a plot by a lawyer & a scientist to help rich men kill off their spouses in order to avoid paying alimony. Then, it’s a race against time as the negotiations expert helps the next victim avoid the ministrations of the scientist, while trying to crack the case. This story was quite thrilling and interesting, but I didn’t like the ending. I think the author was trying to write a screenplay for a Hollywood action movie, so there were a lot of speedboat / car / whatever chase which I think would translate better on screen than to be read. Seriously, I hate it when books get into those kinda “action sequence” descriptions. >_< Anyway, “true evil” wasn’t really “true evil” to me. I’ve read many other books where the villains are much, much, much more evil.

“The Watchman” is about a guy who is in charge of protecting a young girl who is a witness of a car accident, and suddenly becomes a target of the mafia who want to kill her before she takes to the stand. Interesting characters, but the author kinda lost me in the end, I still don’t know why the mafia want to kill her. Lulz.

“An Irish Country Doctor” is probably the favorite out of the lot, though the “hero” in the novel is kinda annoying, stick-in-the-mud kinda shtick. The old country GP is a much more interesting character, and I found it annoying how the young doctor even dares to think the old hand is a charlatan. The people & description of the countryside-life was nice though, and I loved the ending. One part I didn’t like about the novel was when the young doctor tried to get fresh (as in, have sex) with the love interest, like, on the 2nd date. And she pushed him away and said that she wanted to concentrate on her college degree. Then he became quite cold towards her. I don’t get it? Is it Western culture or what? 2nd date already expecting to get into her pants? And then become butthurt when rejected? What? Whaaaaaaaat???

Finally, just finished “One Night At the Call Center” yesterday while getting my haircut. Storytelling wise, it was my favorite, but I think the whole prologue and epilogue kinda killed the novel. Leaving those two out, it would’ve been my favorite. Basically, the story is about 6 friends in a call center who one day get a call…. from God. Ahh.. and to find out how that happens, you have to read the novel to find out. The whole call from God thing is a very delicious teaser, but I would say that the story about the lives of the 6 friends are much more interesting to read about than to find out why God calls them. Also, as the author explains, everyone seems to know someone who works in a call center, so somehow or other, you can identify with the story.

All in all, quite a good book to read when you have nothing else to read. Not a must-read compilation by a far stretch, but a nice book to pass the time by, when you are having your tea-time. Also, I re-read “The Nanny Diaries” recently, and I am surprised that I quite like the book the 2nd time around. I distinctly remember not liking it very much the first time I read it, and was soooo disappointed that people were saying that it is a must-read. I think I found the character of Mrs X too far-fetched. Surely, there can’t be people so self-absorbed and self-centered? And I think I found myself occasionally siding with Mrs X as I found Nanny a bit too “mengharap”. For example, Nanny was being too drama-mama when she found out that she got earmuffs for Christmas instead of a designer bag & cheque. Last time, I thought Nanny was being unreasonable as a gift is a GIFT, you don’t like, EXPECT your employer to get you a Prada clutch for Christmas. However, after re-reading it, although I still stand that you don’t EXPECT it of your employers, I suppose that if you had to gift-wrap everyone else’s gifts and THAT’s what everyone else was getting, then you might start to put your hopes a little higher. So yeah, starting to identify with Nanny a little bit more. :p

But I still don’t like the movie, and no, it’s not because of Scarlett Johannsen, cos I love that girl!

Lastly, I went to the doctor recently due to my eczema, and conveniently decided to ask my doctor about the slight hypertension that I have. Actually, I just wanted to clarify with him, when the normal reading is 120/80, what does the “80″ signify? As my reading is 130/70. Does that mean that if mine is over 80, it should be 140? Which means definite high blood pressure? The Indian doctor looked at me as if I’m cuckoo and after my long explanation, said, “Let’s just take your blood pressure again, ok?” And then he took it using a stethescope and that pumping thing (dunno the scientific name for it). After a full minute, he said that “What? Normal what. Low.” So now I have swung from being slight hypertension to normal/low blood pressure?!? According to the doctor, I shouldn’t trust the electronic reading (Which is how they took our blood pressure at the office). Further rantings to my colleagues have revealed that in fact, I should have done periodic readings throughout the day, and if it’s consistently high, only then should I worry. So either the first reading is wrong, or my DASH diet is working! DASH = Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. Basically, more servings of fruits, nuts and veggies a day.

I didn’t change insanely la… just that my usual “chap fan” of 2 veg, 2 meat became 3 veg 1 meat. I used to eat 1 – 2 servings of fruits, but now eating 2-3 servings of fruits a day. I don’t like eating the muesli with nuts for breakfast, I usually prefer muesli with fruits. But for the sake of my blood pressure, I took muesli with nuts. AND I GET FREAKING HUNGRY AT NIGHT BECAUSE SO MUCH VEG AND SO LITTLE MEAT IS REALLY REALLY NOT ENOUGH…. huhuhu…. T_T

But despite how “holy” I am during the work week, holidays and weekends are still times for pigging out. I wonder why I bother anyway. Cheers!

L and I watched Megamind at Gardens… in 3D hehe.

Being Cultured September 20, 2009

Lots of pictures in this entry because I went to the Lourve on the 3rd day in Paris, and there are just too many pictures there to share within one measley entry! On the 3rd morning in Paris, Ben was dead to the world and told me to go to the Louvre by myself because he could not wake up before noon. THE LOUVRE OK!! After my travels around Paris, the only tourist attractions that I would visit again are the Louvre and the Eiffel (only to view from afar, not to go up again). It’s THAT good… and this guy didn’t want to go! Sigh… anyway, I didn’t want to pressure him, and semi-confident about my navigational abilities, I forged ahead.

Once I arrived at the Louvre, I was already lost. Hahaha. I’m so blur —- I didn’t know that the entrance to the building is via the Pyramides (Ben later said, “I didn’t give you directions on HOW to enter the building cos I thought EVERYONE knew that. I didn’t know there were people that don’t…”) … that’s how lost I am. I ended up walking around the whole parameter of the building before realising oh so THAT’S how you get in! Along the way, I saw the Jardins de Tuilleries (Royal Gardens) — which wasn’t impressive at ALL and the mini Arc de Triomphe. I’m not sure what it’s called. In fact, at first I thought the mini Arc was the real thing. Was so impressed with myself that I would be able to cover the Arc d’Triomphe, Jardins de Tuilleries and the Louvre before Ben even puts on his contact lenses. Hahaha!

Pyramides, surrounded by the Louvre and Tuilleries Palace which I didn’t know how to get into wtf.

Is the entrance here? *continues walking* (Louvre courtyard)

Jardins de Tuilleries. Unimpressive, to say the least.

Finally, I’m in! This is the view of the outside world from INSIDE the Pyramides.

Of course, I couldn’t cover the whole of the Louvre. It’s impossible. Even if I spent a week here and went to the museum every single day, I wouldn’t be able to see everything they house. So for my first visit, I covered the sculptures on the Ground floor of the XXX gallery, most of the Italian renaissance paintings and a smattering of the French and Spanish ones. Before I came here, I vowed to get myself an audio guide so that I would know more about each masterpiece, and learn to appreciate it more. However, I was so late that the audio guides were actually OUT OF STOCK. T__T I know that they come and go as people return them… but I’ll be damned if I were to wait around for it… after a while I just looked at the paintings and literally just took things a face value.

The hall with all the sculptures.

At first, I took pictures of almost everthing I saw, even things like this, which though nice, are not SPECTACULARLY BREATHTAKING, which is what we are all looking for, innit?

The 4 statues of a man looking at his twisted cock. All identical. Donno what it’s supposed to represent also.

I found it interesting that there were so many sculptures where the “adult form” seems to be denying some kind of pleasure to the child next to it.

My favorite sculpture — Psyche revived by Cupid’s Kiss. It’s based on a Greek mythology, about how Cupid falls in love with a gorgeous mortal named Psyche. They go through a lot before getting the blessing of Venus (Cupid’s mom) to be together.

Up close. Such feeling…

Hermes. Messenger for the Gods.

Hercules kills the Hydra.

Paintings galleries. Mainly Italian paintings in this section, but a few famous ones by Spanish and French artists.

Even the ceilings are intricately decorated and painted.

After a while, I decided that my mission would be the find the most disturbing / strange paintings that I could find :

I forgot the name of the artist who painted this picture…. but I like his style. Always very weird and disturbing. Hahaha.

Portrait of Napolean. I only found it funny how they ALWAYS make the horse foam at the mouth in the pictures. Like Napolean randomly posed for the portrait after running his horse half to death.

“Go on now… kill your husband.”

Dunno what’s happening here, but I am amazed at the style.

This is : “The Coronation of the Emperor Napoleon I and the Crowning of the Empress Joséphine in Notre-Dame Cathedral on December 2, 1804″

Another famous one.. forgot the name to it, but it’s something about Freedom stopping wars or something. *Blur*

I like the way the light reflects off the torso of the reclining man.

Random wtf picture. Flying monks? (And only his upper body… ish…) Wonder what the artist was thinking when he painted this?

The crucification of Christ is a popular theme during the era.

I  didn’t know that Salome was a story from the bible! Ben told me it was a story written by Oscar Wilde, hahha! So I was shocked when I saw so many pics of Saint Jean Baptiste in the Louvre . (Me thinking: “Hmmm.. I think Oscar Wilde plagiarised that story from someone… and now I have the proof.” WTF).

This is supposed to be a portrait of Cleopatra. Do not know the relevance. Hahaha.

Another wtf painting. Women with bare bosoms, birds and babies frolicking around. And soldiers being peeping Toms. Hmm..

All in all, I only walked around TWO floors — that’s why I’d come back to this place again. Out of all the “absolute must sees” in the museum, I only really really adore the sculpture of Psyche revived by Cupid’s Kiss. The Mona Lisa is probably the most photographed painting in the place, but I really do not know how to appreciate it. When I was a kid, I asked my parents what was so awesome and genius about this painting, and they said, “Oh, from whicever angle you look at it, Mona Lisa seems to be smiling at YOU.” Erm… no, I don’t think so. Ben says that it’s because of the mysterious yet knowing smile on her face — so what? Itulah dipanggil senyum tersipu-sipu. So many people do it. Then there are apparently debates about Mona Lisa supposedly being Leonardo da Vinci as a woman. WTF?

A famous painting that was hung opposite the Mona Lisa… “The Wedding Feast at Cana”.

Famous Spanish painting called “The Club-footed Boy.” Don’t see what’s so special about it anyway.

Nah. Mona Lisa.

Had to “bersesak-sesak” to get this picture ok. It’s such a pity. A famous painting, but no one can go up close to appreciate it nearer.

The Raft of Medusa…. another disturbing piece. From the Louvre official site :
“Romanticism’s manifesto, this work caused a huge scandal at the Salon of 1819. For the first time, an artist had depicted an event from contemporary history without having received a commission and had filled his composition with anonymous figures in a format hitherto reserved for historical painting. Precursor of the critical spirit that so often motivates art today, the subject was a caustic statement on the government then in power: in 1816, the frigate “Medusa” sank because of the incompetence of a captain who had obtained his post through political relations. Due to a shortage of lifeboats, 149 people piled onto a raft that drifted for twelve days. Only fifteen survived the ensuing slaughter, madness, and cannibalism.

Seen from one corner, the raft appears very unstable, while two diagonals heighten the dramatic tension: one leads the eye to the vast wave that threatens to engulf the raft, the other leads to the tiny silhouette of “The Argus,” the ship that eventually rescued them. This long oblique line evokes the tragedy — the torso of a man who has perhaps been devoured by his companions — and the various psychological states of mind: the dejection of the bewildered man holding his dead son, the dying man rising up with a start, and the desperate hope of those waving to their potential rescuer. But at this point in time, nobody knew which way the scales of fortune would tip. The only hero in this poignant story is humanity, and that is what still moves us today.”

Narcissist.

Michaelangelo’s “The Dying Slave”.

The Venus de Milo. Famous because of the “drapery” style at the bottom half of the statue which was apparently very advanced for its time.

I forgot the name of the “garden” with all the sculptures and statues… but it’s very beautiful and just too many masterpieces to look at…

Lovely.

The only piece of art that I camwhored with, cos it’s just toooooo odd. Hahaha. This is Hercules, killing something again. What a brute. ;P

Umm, yah there he goes again.

View of the Pyramides from inside the museum.

Napolean’s Apartments.

The whole outing really makes me appreciate paintings more, and also … the artists. What drives them to create? How was life back then for them? Who commissions them to paint these weird and horrible scenes? Who are / would you consider as the Michaelangelos and Matisses of today? Will we only recognise their talent when they are dead and gone?

By 2.30pm, was done with the Louvre — after a mere 3 hours. I invested in a Louvre calendar to continue the attempt in turning me from a Philistine into a cultured human being. Hahaha :

Met up with Ben, and we proceeded to walk to Champs Elysees after having fun camwhoring around the place.

Ben at the Mini Arc de Triomphe, haha.

And I! Ben said I have “legs that belong on a stallion” in this picture. -_____-”

Touristy picture at the Louvre courtyard.

Awwww I like this picture!

Before actually reaching Champs Elysees we first had lunch! Again, we went for a restaurant listed in his trusty list – Au Pied de Cochon. The place looks very classy and chic, so we went in eagerly. It didn’t seem TOO expensive either, since it had an express menu (which is usually a set meal offering either entree and main for a set price, or add in a dessert for a little extra). The maitree’d was very nice, but the waiter who attended to us was extraordinarily unfriendly. He was very brusque and seemed like he couldn’t spare us his time because he thought we were poor Asians. (I’m not saying we are not, but we are decent tippers.)

This is where a vicious circle starts – waiter is mean because he thinks Asians are bad tippers. This causes the enraged Asian to NOT tip because he’s being unfairly treated, thereby reinforcing the waiter’s belief that Asians are not worth being attended to. Maybe I’m just being too paranoid / self-concious.

Pretty restaurant. But found it wasteful that they had all the lights on when it was soooo bright in the afternoon.

They advocate cruelty to swine.

We both had French onion soup to start – a humongous bowl that instantly made us 70% full. It was alright lah … nothing spectacular, but not rubbish. Then we shared a plate of escargots to further whet our appetite. Unlike in Malaysia, where the favorite way to cook the snails are to drench them in a thick butter and garlic sauce, the French sautee it in some mint kind of sauce, which serves to enhance the slug’s taste, not hide it. It was ok lah… but I’ll stick to my garlic butter escargots next time!

After that, we just chatted and joked while waiting for our mains to arrive (both of us ordered steak — perhaps inspired by the previous day’s excellent steak at Verse Toujours)… now I know I said that the waiters take their time serving you because they want you to relax and chat between meals. They don’t serve you like lightning, so at least you won’t feel like you are being rushed out of the restaurant. But for this case, it was pretty ridiculous. After a very extended wait (where the waiters seem to be hiding), we were finally asked if we wanted the bill wtf. It was only then that they realised that we hadn’t even had our mains yet. -___- And thus begins another longggg wait.

In the end, the steak was a disappointment. So salty, but at least the portions were big. Nothing special, unlike the Verse Toujours one. Ben was already annoyed that the waiter didn’t even bother to ask him how he wanted his steak done. For me I don’t carelah because I always want it at the “usual” medium-well. So I didn’t notice they forgot to ask. Anyway, the waiter also tried to overcharge us, so we left without tipping him. Ha! This is one good aspect about tipping. Wish we could abolish service charge in Malaysia. I like holding back tips from being who don’t deserve ‘em. XD [And it's a pleasure too, to give more when you can see that they bust their butt to make sure you enjoy your meal...]

French onion soup.

Mint-sauce covered escargots.

Steak and fries.

My secret love child. Hahaha. Isn’t he sooooo adorable?

Another funny moment which we encountered at Au Pied Du Cochon was this Chinese family sat next to our table, the father with stacks of travel how-tos printed out and the mother carrying another stack of travel documents. They had two sons… should be at most around 10 years old? The mom was carrying flight itineraries using MAS so we stopped talking in Malay (we talked a LOT in Malay… private mah. Those who diss Malay as a “useless” language will be so relieved that you have this language to fall back for private bitching when you’re in a foreign country WTF) and eavesdropped. The family spoke in mandarin, but had a thick accent, to me sounded like they came from China. Ben was still doubtful, so we talked less and eavesdrop more.

Anyway, when the menus came, Ben said that the father ordered on express menu set (entree and main), and when the waiter asked, how about madam / de lil brats? The father said THAT’S ALL. Zomg… want to dine at high class place but can’t afford it then you might as well eat large portions of bread, at least your kids won’t go hungry. -___- I also heard the father tell the son, “This place charges you for the water, so I didn’t order anything. You have nothing to drink, ok.” WTF #2.

Okay, I’ll stop here for part one. Continuing part two soon, promise!