Bulan Bersocial October 2011 October 6, 2011

Ohhhh Emmm Gee, it’s already October! And when it’s October, it’s always time for BBO aka Bulan Bersocial October – the month where I come out of my shy, hermit-shell in order to meet my friends. And probably the only time of the year when my friends try to meet up with me? Hehehhe, I kid, I kid. I’m very appreciative and I do feel oh-so-loved that my friends still remember me and take the time out to celebrate my birthday month with me.

Just one day before BBO kick-starts, Tron actually pre-celebrated my birthday month with me with pizza! He acquiesced to my wishes to have the cheesy lava crust… what to do, my pre-birthday celebration mah. =p =p By the way, the service in Taipan’s Pizza Hut is soooo much better than the service in Subang Parade. The manager is so friendly!

Classic Hawaiian Supreme. I will complain about some of their over-the-top new creations that bombed.

Classic smoked chicken wings. Soooo yummy! What did they marinate it in!!

The first meet-up for BBO is actually not to celebrate my birthday at all, but I slot it in my BBO activities, muwhahhaa. It was a mash-up of meeting up with Sookie because wanted to chit-chat with a fellow just-started-a-new-job friend and having a long overdue meet-up with Ching. I guess Ching also can count as a friend who also just-started-a-new-job, except not really just started la. -___- Oh and guess what? Though it’s not celebrating my birthday in any manner, I also got a free lunch thanks to Ching! Cos he said he wanted to give me a treat after he won the grand weekly prize from this contest which I’ve been asking you all to join! They’ve changed the weekly grand prizes — more vouchers and travel vouchers which mean that the prize worth is MORE, but because it’s vouchers, there may be terms and conditions attached. I hope he finds the vouchers useful!

Absolutely yummy, absolutely heavenly~!

Ooh, and thanks a bunch to Sookie for recommending Departure Lounge to us! I’ve read about it and always wanted to try it, but thought Solaris was a bit too far, just for brekkie. Uptown is much nearer! Love the concept and it’s pretty affordable too. The pricey items are the coffee… (IMHO).

Oldie pic, but this was me collecting my prize last time, lol :

After the meet-up in Uptown, went home and prepared for my family birthday celebration. My sister gave me an option of having my birthday party at either Busaba in Bangsar Shopping Center, Serai @ Empire Gallery or El Cerdo. I have only heard of the last 2. Was not keen on Serai (and anyway, after there was an explosion in Empire, not like we can eat there anymore), and not keen on El Cerdo after I decided to stop eating so much pork (fattening). Besides, El Cerdo a bit too far to make everyone travel to. That left Busaba, which I haven’t heard before. But it’s Thai food, and I love Thai food! My brother-in-law recommended this place, and since he’s Thai, he should know. Hehe!

Tron and I decided to go to Bangsar Shopping Center a little earlier for quality time before the dinner celebration was slated to start. HOWEVER… BSC REALLY GOT NOTHING TO SEE LAH. We were about 3 hours early for the dinner, and after 30 minutes we were really bored out of our minds. So bored that Tron contemplated getting a haircut just to while the time away. Got no interesting shops to poke around at. I would’ve been keen to just spend the remaining time reading magazines for free (like the cheapo that I am), but for some reason, Tron kept sneezing when he’s inside the Times bookstore. Haih.

Hello! Birthday girl here!

Good photo of Tron hor?

One of the things we did to pass the time was to try espresSOUP, this really cute place that serves soup in a bread bowl, with a side of salad. We tried the pumpkin soup, and it was very creamy and delish. The side of salad complemented the whole meal (pun not intended). I found the bread a bit too hard, but Tron said that it’s very healthy and yummy. He even contemplated buying the bread bowl just to eat. O_o”

The most awesome part that happened to us was… when Tron paid for the bill at espresSOUP and he started talking to one of the staff. Saying how amazing the farmer’s bread was, originated from Germany, oh wow. Etc etc. Then the guy so very kindly gave us samples of ALL THEIR SOUP to try! So amazing! Unmerited favor! Hahaha. There was clam chowder, mushroom soup, leek and potato, broccoli soup and MORE pumpkin soup :

Personally, I don’t like the clam chowder cos there is a fishy smell + aftertaste that is a little too strong for my liking. The mushroom soup is alright, better than Campbell’s but nothing particularly memorable. The leek and potato is AWESOME POSSUM!! If you go to espresSOUP, this is the soup that I would recommend you to try. It’s got a very refreshing and invigorating taste – different from normal cream based soups that you usually have. The broccoli soup is a bit too vegan for me (I donno what kinda description that is, but hope you get the gist), and the pumpkin soup is sweet and creamy, but would be better if it was chunkier.

Finally, it was time for Busaba… and I really recommend this place. Service is SUPERB, the dining atmosphere is posh (with live pianist!) and the food is FANTASTIC. Oh, and if you pay with CIMB credit card, you get 15% discount. =p Of course, not like I paid. Hahaha! *damn mengada, I know* Anyway, let me share some pictures of what we experienced that night :

Posh dining atmosphere…~

I highly recommend the coconut ice blended, with fresh coconut flesh, and sweet coconut juice. My sister said that you can get something similar in Hong Kong (in other words, asking me why I didn’t drink it when I was there), but I didn’t see such stores selling it also!

Our starters – mieng kham, which is some kinda traditional Thai dish which consists of goodness-knows-what wrapped in betel leaves. It is actually very light, crunchy and addictive. I actually didn’t expect that we would enjoy this so much! Thought something like Thai fishcakes would be suitable, but I’m so glad we didn’t go with the norm. It was actually Tron that recommended this dish.

Beef green curry… quite good, and comes with a side of buttered naan. This differs from the Thai beef shank curry which features more tender beef (aka fattier parts of the cow, lol).

This unassuming bowl of tom yam soup (creamy) costs about RM20 per serving! Omg! Recommend two people to share one bowl. There are fresh, big, juicy prawns inside it. It’s not TOO spicy, but most of us at the table didn’t like it because it was too sour. Everyone couldn’t drink finish the soup, so just ate all the seafood inside it. Shame.

Otak-otak, bursting with fresh fishy goodness. Oh so yummy!~

Forgot the exact name of this dish, but it’s stir-fried chicken which is slightly spicy. Very good too.

Another interesting dish – stir fried century egg with basil leaves and minced meat. So funny, first time having century eggs prepared this way! It was interesting, but not particularly spectacular.

Simple kangkong belacan.

Thanks to my sister for the treat + baking me my birthday cake too!!

My brother! How much he’s grown… a working man now.

My cute parents.

My birthday cake!! Awesome right? My sister is really becoming a baker extrordinaire already! By the way, it’s small because she randomly took a recipe online and apparently it was a half-serving, but she used a normal sized pan. Hahaha! Smaller servings for us, but it was good also cos we could finish everything off in one day.

A happy + pampered me.

Group pic! But the place is one of those dimly-lit restaurants (for romantic atmosphere), so it wasn’t very conducive for photo-taking.

My greedy mother still ordered mango sticky rice even though we had so much food! Gosh! And still we managed to polish every single plate clean!

My father totally cannot sit straight after all the food… and let his pot belly hang out in all its glory.

Favorite picture of the night… *heart*

I’ll show you the awesome birthday giftS that Tron got for me next time! Really love them! Truly blessed and loved am I.

Surprise For Your Boyfriend June 10, 2011

“After Losing Her Man, Clerk May Now Lose Her Breasts”

This was in our newspapers on June 8th, and if you’re too lazy to click and read a news article, here’s the summary :

a. A woman went for breast enlargement surgery to surprise her boyfriend of 5 years, as he has frequently commented that he wished his girlfriend was slimmer, and with bigger breasts

b. The woman paid RM13,000 for breast enlargement surgery at a clinic “near a major shopping center in KL” to get her breasts enlarged. Instead of inserting silicone bags, the procedure involved taking fat from her waist and hips and injecting them into her breasts.

c. The 2 hour surgery was done without anesthetic as the doctor said he was not licensed to anesthetise her

d. After the surgery, she had severe skin infections, pus came out from where the fat was injected into her, parts of her boobs became swollen and turned black, it was severely itchy, etc

e. Her boyfriend dumped her because (a) he couldn’t believe she spent so much money on the surgery ; (b) her boobs are swollen and black, filled with pus and skin infections

When I first read the news, I don’t know whether to say “serves you right” for being vain (that is so cruel) or to be aghasted at the lengths that women would go to for their boyfriend. My dad said that some people are just not “educated” enough to know about how proper breast enlargement surgery is done (what more go thru it fully concious!), but that’s so hard to believe. I mean, at this day and age, you can’t even Google and find out what is good and proper? And I find it hard to believe that this was done through “word of mouth” (my dad’s theory) because who would recommend their friend to go thru a 2 hour surgery without anesthetic!?!

And RM13,000 is severely inflated. After all, Melissa Faith Yeo got hers done in Thailand for SGD$3,726,  she got stellar treatment  from her surgeon and the nurses AND her boob job looks great! Can’t believe that the clerk got hers done for about 50% more, and without anesthetic. Then again, she would probably tell herself that it was a liposuction + breast enlargement 2-in-1. *sigh*

Honestly, I really wonder how did her boyfriend treat her til she would try to resort to such a solution. Did he MERELY mention in passing about liking slimmer girls with big boobs (how direct can you get?) or did he constantly ridicule her? “Sigh, so fat already, but there still so flat.” I kinda feel bad, because your boyfriend is supposed to support & love you… not make ridiculous demands or set unrealistic standards for you. If you really wanted a girl who is thin and with C-cup boobs, then why get together with a fat A-cup girl?

My dad said, “That guy damn stupid! How the girl can become thinner and big boobs!”

Me : “Er… good genetics? He’s looking for an entirely different person already. Sure there can be gals who are thin and busty, but the clerk wouldn’t have been able to change without plastic surgery la.”

My dad : “The clerk should have told her boyfriend… why you want so big for? More work for you.”

** my mom stops playing Bejewelled, hides her face in her hands **

My dad : *laughing * “So big means you have to use your mouth more. Hahahaha!”

Me : “Another classic line from Mr Goh. Can  I put it on my blog?”

It’s Been Like That Lo February 17, 2011

Haven’t been blogging for quite a bit.. and to think that during the CNY period, I thought I was on fire! Well, life is like that lo… nothing much to say, nothing I can really say that is different from before. Am overwhelmed by thoughts sometimes, but also feel like I’m thinking nothing but bimbo thoughts at other times. I did spruce up my site a little, didja notice? Ok, fine fine, all I did was change the background tiling image… but there were quite a lot of other themes that I switched around a bit. If you noticed my site going crazy, that was when I was experimenting with the various WordPress themes.

Was shocked to notice that I have archives dating back to 20o1. That is like… 10 years ago? Well, come August it will be a decade of blogging. And this is all I have to show for it? I mean, my main purpose of blogging was just to rant (and boy did a lot of trouble come from loose lips and faster fingers), and to make new friends. I don’t think I have that many new friends to show for it, though I did meet a lot of interesting people, and some people that *did* became friends, I really do cherish. I did get some interesting perks at one time, but I never started blogging to get perks anyway. Recently, Tron asked me why I didn’t monetize my blog. I find it so funny… reading back my archives. Once upon a time I kept switching hosts because I wanted to get rid of ads that appeared on free hosting sites. Nowadays, the purpose to blog is to monetize it by placing ads. And writing about said ads. I want to become rich, but I don’t want to become rich through blogging. I really cannot fight with the generation of much more chio-er bloggers. Bloggers I want to live vicariously through. Young, hot college chicks who seem to not really be in college (except for the odd rant about exams every now and then) but seem to be spending more time spending more $$ than I earn a month, driving a car that costs 10x the cost of mine and eating luxurious food daily (which I would think is a treat if I eat it once a month). How to fight with people like that lah… hahaha. Actually, I’m in the midst of writing another post where I will tell you ALL about the chio girl blogs that I stalk. Later ah. Later…

I will write more on my decade-of-blogging when it’s really been a decade. 6 more months to go! And honestly, I feel like giving up. I really feel tired with a lot of aspects of my life. Work, gym, things I do, things I see. It’s all become so routine… but routines are so comfortable, and if you try to break my routine, I will get upset. And yet resent it that I’m stuck in this routine. In short, I just don’t know what I want.

Okie, will stop grumbling about this matter and show you some random photos! Time for another Filler 10 post about the past two weeks :

1. Met up with babes Dull & Fuzz to discuss on friendship dramaaaaaas and… we ended up booking a holiday for ourselves to Langkawi! I’m so excited about going this time because we will be spending more time than usual there and I think this time we will have time to do more touristy things. Last time, only went to Pantai Cenang and Pantai Tengah… and Kuah town. I really really want to go to the Underwater World there, but there was a huge fiasco in Malaysia last time when someone poisoned all the fish in the place and thousands of marine life housed there died. I really don’t know if they managed to restore the place back to its former glory…

By the way, when we were in Coffee Bean, some weirdo guys sitting outside kept staring at Dull & Fuzz and trying to attract their attention. So creepy la! Why do guys think that being psychotic like that will work?

Treated the girls to a piece of cake (3 of us share… so I am not that generous a friend after all) because I got so much angpow this year! I seriously felt so loved ok! I got RM70 from my colleagues alone… yahoooooo….

2. You might be wondering whether I spent CNY with Tron… well, Tron went over to Singapore, and I fed his fish and birds while he was away. When he came back, I was well rewarded with some souvenirs :

Anyway, I did bai nian at his place and vice versa also lah. And the whole bird feeding + fish feeding episode makes me really like birds & fish now. Then again, they are very easy to take care of. ;p The fishies are very cute, you just need to WALK up to the pond and they will start coming up to the surface and opening & closing their mouths to indicate how hungry they are. Though I was asked to feed them ONLY 15 capsules of fish food, I have to admit, I did go a bit heavy handed with the fish food. Only cos 15 capsules is so little!! It’s like the equivalent of someone giving you one piece of Gardenia white bread for the entire day!!

3. While bai nian at our house (actually, a very long and funny story), somehow Tron found out that our house PC isn’t working. It hasn’t been working for almost a month? Basically the power supply unit konked (suspected), and I asked my brother to go get it checked out. He didn’t. So he rather stay without Internet and PC for the past month, and instead allow the worries that it is something more expensive than the power supply unit being faulty get to him. My fault also, cos I told him that he better hope it’s the power supply unit, cos if it’s the motherboard, I suggested he just buy a new PC (our motherboard quite old, still using DDR I), which would be thousands.

Anyway, Tron asked why I didn’t help my brother… and then said it’s such a small issue, I should just fix it right away. So after dinner with my family, he insisted on coming to check the PC out. Then he then and there said, let’s go to the shopping mall and buy the power supply unit. So energetic! So we went out and got it all fixed within an hour. My whole family were so happy with Tron (and must be saying… this LC is damn lazy… one month also didn’t help the brother… see how smart this Tron is… kau tim everything so fast). Especially when Tron said didn’t need to pay back for the power supply unit as it’s a small issue. My dad actually laugh so loud (til can see tonsils) and loudly said, “WAH WAH I SAVE MONEY!” WTF accountant father!!!!

4. Raymond spotted this at our usual lunch haunt and we all laughed like mad. What the heck is a cheese massage? If you do call the number, please remember me and tell me what you encountered.

5. Okie la, Tron did get me something for Valentines. I thought we weren’t celebrating, baby!!! I got him nothing lor.

6. But I got myself a little sumpthin’ sumpthin’! True love… from Nike. ;P

7. This Tron is really bad! He forced me to eat a durian cream donut in Big Apple Donuts, and it was seriously the most hideous thing I’ve eaten in a while! I kept wanting to vomit, but he said I cannot eat any of the other donuts til I gave the durian one a try. And then your mouth stinks like mad afterwards. I don’t care if people in Malaysia say I “rugi besar” for not learning how to appreciate it… I think I’m in fact very understanding to let a fruit that obviously does NOT want to be eaten (sharp thorns, anyone?), stay uneaten! By the way, this donut also hurts my mouth because of all the ‘spikes’. Eh please la, a little LESS realism won’t hurt anyone. (Literally)

8. Speaking of donuts, we also had J.Co donuts earlier in the week. So if I look like I gained weight… you know why la. ;p

9. My sister is having her birthday celebration this Sunday, and I’m making do-it-yourself california rolls, roast Westernised Tandoori chicken (my specialty) and baking her the birthday cake (still not sure whether I want to try this orange chiffon cake recipe she gave me or just go with a basic cheese cake). I’m really excited about it! I was also thinking of doing this bacon potato salad recipe, and making almond cherry cupcakes! But you know… too many dishes will make the cook go crazy and then not even one dish will remain edible… must really make the cake nice nice…. *nervous*

10. Tron and I were quite sick of Chinese food after Chinese New Year. So after that, we were going Western all the way…

At Chillis

Ok, “all the way” is an exaggeration. But after stuffing yourself with all that, it feels like a lot. We reverted back to our AZN roots after that :

Din Tai Foong, Empire Shopping Gallery. I really like the xiu loong baos!! The lai meen is also good, though I don’t like the spicy version as much as Tron does…

Penang Flavors in 1 Utama and the last one is from Little Taiwan. It kinda tastes bad and I never wanna go there again. If I wanna eat Taiwanese food, I’ll go to Yes! Taiwan…

I also caught up on a lot of movie watching recently! Erm… actually only 2 – Gulliver’s Travels and Mr & Mrs Incredible. Both are really “fai” (pointless) movies, but they are really funny. Actually, if someone I don’t like makes a “fai” movie, I will get really irritated (say, Daniel Radcliffe), because they are already wasting my time and to me, not funny (even if they are funny, I won’t find them funny cos it’s someone I dislike already). But when the actors are people I like, they can be telling fart jokes, and I will be laughing til kingdom come. Hey, at least I’m honest about my bias-ness.

FYI, Mr & Mrs Incredible stars the incredibly irritating (to me) Koo Tin Lok, but it also has Sandra Ng (my fav chinese actress, really have a soft spot for her)… which thankfully, Sandra Ng tipped the scale to make me like Koo Tin Lok more, rather than the other way around. But I still don’t fancy him looo…

That’s all for today. Going to dream about soft sandy beaches, yummy breakfasts, smooth cocktails, fun girly times and colorful clothes for next week. I need a holiday!!! Badly!

Pig Brains February 16, 2010

This Chinese New Year has been fun for me, but underneath it all, a little bit melancholy, a little bit bittersweet. I’ll probably write a full entry with pictures tomorrow, but for now, I just want to write a bit on the funniest random thing ever that my dad spouted out. My dad, is now 63 years old and as my mom puts it “gradually going senile”, but of course, it’s all jokes. What she means is he now says things without any care for whoever is around. Like recently, when watching a National Geographic special, my mom randomly said, “Actually, going to India for a holiday is not that expensive.”
Dad : “It’s gonna be expensive when you come back with some weird virus. Then you know.”
Mom : “GKK (my dad’s name) only knows how to be negative. This is because he’s a cheapskate.”
Me : “How about going to Bangkok? I think Bangkok will be cheap and fun for all!”
Dad : “Go Bangkok for what? For me to bang cock ar!! Hahahaha!”

Ok, not really funny and probably a joke you’ve heard many times. But this kinda thing coming out from an old apek is pretty disturbing.

Today, while on the way to my maternal grandma’s for lunch, we were talking about Aunty Anita’s fabulous reunion dinner spread. Somehow, we started talking nonsense about how next year she will top this year’s feat by making a reunion dinner spread themed after the 12 animals in the zodiac. “Roast pork! Roast chicken! Roast dog!” cackled my brother.
“How about dragon? Oh, I know! Dragonfruit!” piped my mom.
“Ya… oh how about monkey?”
“Monkey brains… the people in China eat the monkey’s brains while the monkey is still alive!” said my dad.
“Ew… isn’t that an urban legend?”
“No… anyway, think about the calories!”
“People do make stuff out of rat brains and pig brains too,” my mom informed.
“What!! Who would eat those things?!?” My brother and I were mystified.
“Your Amah made porridge with pig brains for your dad to eat. She thought he was too dumb, so she said he had to eat more porridge with pig brains! That’s why your dad is yan tau zhu lou (human’s head, but pig’s brains)!!!!” My mom laughed and laughed riotously after this statement, pleased with her wit.

Then my father (who had been silent while being called “pig brains”) just randomly said, “Really? If that’s true, then you’re the one who is getting fucked by Zhu Bajie!!!!” WTF!!!

In case you don’t know who Zhu Bajie is, it’s the pig character from Journey to the West…

You can read more on Wikipedia, if that interests you. Hahaha!