For LY’s Birthday This Year… May 1, 2012

Happy Labour’s Day! Thank you for your thoughts and wishes, so far my phase 2 implementation has gone by a lot smoother than the first round! Being in UVW Bank really taught me a lot of stuff, but too bad I’m too stingy to share with my ex-colleagues, trololololol. I will talk more about what happened when it’s actually been rolled out for at least 2 weeks. Don’t wanna jinx myself!

Anyway, I’m in the mood for posting up old pictures, so here’s pics from my sister’s birthday celebration earlier this year. We went to Serai in Empire Gallery for dinner and I bought her an ice-cream cake. I thought that it was something unique and different, but sadly, it didn’t last quite long in my fridge. By the time LY hacked the cake open, it was getting quite gooey. *sad* I always seem to mess up her birthday cakes. Another unique thing that happened during the birthday celebration was when we took turns carrying Ben (my nephew in case you don’t know) so that another person gets to eat. For some reason, Ben was sooooo antsy that day and he kept crying and couldn’t be pacified. His cries were so loud that other patrons were starting to give us the evil eye. Kris said to me, “LeeCh! You are such a bad mother. You better bring the baby out of the restaurant.” WTF! Kris is the bad father lar!

Our drinks at Serai.

ALL THE FOOD WE HAD! We had mainly Asian set meals, though they do serve Western cuisine as well (that’s my brother’s pasta up there). I just felt that their forte lies in the “nasi” sets. Very worth the price you are paying for as it is guarantee to more than satisfy you. A very filling meal indeed.

LY’s ice cream cake from Baker’s Cottage. I actually got the idea from my colleagues who bought an ice-cream cake for another colleague’s birthday celebration.

Birthday girl and her naughty son! Don’t wan to look at the camera, tsk tsk.

Father and son. (Again don’t want to layan the camera… hmph!)

My happy sister, LY. Look at ben’s serious business face! HAhahahahahahaHAHAAHa!!

Obligatory photos of Ben for his fans on my blog. ^^

Bulan Bersocial October 2011 – The 2nd Week! October 19, 2011

Taking a break from the Hong Kong posts (though really, there’s not much left!) and it’s my ACTUAL birthday celebration week. =) Was supposed to celebrate TTM with Tron on the actual day (it was Friday!), but due to unforeseen circumstances, he only met me for an early dinner, and then meet me up for dessert. *sadface* The dinner wasn’t anything to shout about either ((but I’m not complaining, just to clarify in case you thought it was)), but it was just Wendy’s. Still, really appreciate that he rushed back from KL just to see me before he had to go off. And he was helping me to fix my laptop that had overheated. FYI, my laptop is not 100% fixed, but it is definitely better after it had been administered by Tron. Hehe.

At 9pm, Tron came back from the function he had to attend and took me for desserts at …. SS 15!! Ok, it may not sound like much to you, but Tron has absolutely no sweet tooth at all, and no matter how much I’ve pleaded with him to take me to Honeymoon Desserts | Tim Pan Kor Kor | Snowflake, he would resist. I know I can go there by myself, but isn’t it much nicer to taste TWO different desserts instead of only just your one? Typical previous attempts at getting him to go to those dessert parlours are like this :
“Ok, we’re in Kota Damansara and I have to accompany you for your haircut. Why don’t YOU accompany me to Snowflake before you get your haircut?”
“Huh? Cannot! I made appointment already!”
“Ok, then you accompany me after that!”
“We shall see.”
“NO WE SHALL SEE. IT SHALL BE!”
“Ok ok…”

And after the haircut, Tron will just start walking towards his car, away from Snowflake! When I protest, it wil be like :
“Huh? You still want to go?”
“Are you really sure?” (Like forgotten all the previous promises)
“You really want to eat those things meh?”
“It’s full of sugar.” (Appealing to the last remnants of fitness freak in me)
“We’re late already lah.”
And we will be standing under the hot sun going thru this, and in the end I just give in, because if someone hates it that much, no point to drag them thru it, right? Sigh…

In SS15 on Friday night, all the dessert places were packed to the brim! It was almost as if Tron arranged it so that I still wouldn’t get to eat my desserts, hahaha. But somehow, there was this place that just opened called “Snova” and they were giving away RM5 vouchers. So we decided to try it…

Verdict? Well, I’ve since managed to try Snowflake (without Tron, will put in separate post) and I have to say that the taro balls and the yam balls are very similar to Snowflake. However, Snova doesn’t have the grass jelly ice, just plain ice. So for the same price, I would choose Snowflake HANDS DOWN. However, since Snova had the RM5 off… this was very, very worth it. Tron’s mango shaved ice was also horrible. Tasted of fake-y mango, not authentic at all. So that was the item that turned me off from this place. Oh well, luckily what I chose was good. ;p

The next day, Tron took me for a quickie lunch at Delicious before we attended some AGM. He made me proud by not ordering the aglio olio again! Hahahhaa.

It was some cream beef bacon risotto… super filling wan.

It was very, very sleep-inducing, but also interesting to see how that particular AGM was run. After that… Tron took me to this AMAZING place for my birthday dinner. AMAZING! The posh-est restaurant I’ve ever been to in Malaysia! The decor, the food, the service — all super! My only regret? That I didn’t dress up to the nines, hahaha. Tron wanted to surprise me, so he didn’t tell me where we were going. -__-” Oh, he also doesn’t want everyone to know about this place, so I won’t tell you the name, but here’s some pictures from the night :

Us… dare not use flash because it would spoil the “atmosphere”.

Free starters in the form of freshly baked bread and some unique types of butter. Cannot buy the bread separately, they make it specially for the starters only, lol.

This is Tron’s wagyu beef…

… and this is my organic rib eye.

Our sauces and a side of creamed spinach that I ordered. This Tron said “of course they will give the sides, this is a high class place”. But he dunno that high class places are the ones that make you pay for your sides separately! Hahahhaa. But I have to say they have generous portions for the sides. I only ordered one side, and it was more than enough for both Tron and I.

Meanwhile, I had the Argentinian Chimichurri sauce (I would describe it more as salsa than anything particularly spicy) while Tron stuck to tried-and-tested mushroom sauce.

Looks not that impressive? Well, I have to tell you that it is DELICIOUS. Everything was delicious… and super satisfying. That’s what I thought at first. I was already quite happy with my rib-eye, but then Tron gave me a bit of his wagyu beef and I was like OMG WHY IS IT THAT THEY ARE BOTH BEEF AND THEY TASTE SO FREAKING DIFFERENT?!!?? Sigh… while I was there, I thought this will be a one-off experience for me cos I’m not someone that into fine dining, but I feel like going back there just so I can have an entire slab of wagyu beef for myself. Now I know what the hype is all about. *sniff*

I’m quite sleepy right now, so I’ll update the rest of the second week of the birthday celebration in another entry. Peace … outside, bruthas!

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.

I Like Birthdays March 15, 2011

It is that time of year once again when we celebrate the birthday of our founder and chairman of XYZ bank! With great pomp and flair at the Mines Convention Center. I don’t really need to spell out which bank this is as you’ll be able to see from the pictures. Actually, once a year, there will be 3 such great events to attend – the Chinese New Year dinner (usually on the 3rd day of CNY – 1st for paternal, 2nd for maternal and 3rd for your “corporate family”), the Tan Sri’s birthday dinner and the company annual dinner. It *is* a form of “company benefit”, I suppose. =)

This year, his lucky colors are blue, green and black. Lucky! Last year it was purple, and purple evening gowns are not easy to find. The thing is, the shades of blue and green used to decorate the dining hall is EXACTLY like the Standard Chartered corporate colors. Hahaha! Or maybe Windows XP colors… Anyway, at first I was quite gung ho about buying either a blue or a green gown (wanted to be extra-special mah), but wound up just wearing a black gown that I had in my closet. It was my prom dress when I was 18! Eh, I am glad that I can fit into a dress that is 10 years old… =) Just wish that I could say that it was a little bit loose (except a bit tight around the bust area)! Muwahhahhaa…

I went to the dinner with Pauline and LiTeng, as I was too lazy to drive so far. Previous year, Raymond generously fetched me from my house, but since his daughter was born on the same day, very unlikely that he would attend the birthday dinner. He has someone more special to him to celebrate birthdays with! Anyway, I drove to Pauline’s house and waited for her to get ready. She told me something funny! She said she found one website that I “sure will like”. In the end, it was Stomp.sg! WTF! Hahaha! I have been browsing that website for more than a year lor. And indeed it was the Singapore Seen section that she wanted to highlight to me. Actually, I’m trying to stop myself from visiting that site too much because it’s full of pat-poh-ness and full of silly people who don’t dare to reprimand people in real life. Instead choose to go home to become keyboard warriors.

Learned my lesson from previous year, and stuffed myself with a McDs double cheeseburger before we headed to the convention center. =) No more being doubled up over the toilet bowl! This year was really good though… everything proceeded in a timely manner. Expected a lot of talking and award presentations, but none such this year! Got to eat by 8:45pm…

Oh yeah, this is pre-arranged seating, and I had to sit with 4 people with the same surname as me from the IT division, and the rest were business managers from the branch. Got one business manager kept making fun of me when I took pics of the food… sheesh. -___- Very spoil mood lah. At least if I’m with my other IT buddies, they are used to my random photo taking and won’t keep pointing it out. (For every dish that I took a photo of, it would set the business manager off into a long self-dialogue about why I wanna take the photo.)

There was no “special announcement” for us like previous year, where they gave one-off bonus… so sad. Some more my boss heightened my hopes by saying maybe they will announce that they give out 1 lot of shares per person. Hahaha! I was so sad after nothing was announced that I purposely seeked her out to ask her. This morning she had to further emphasise what she talked to me about that night by sending me an sms (she is on leave today) :

“Leech***, u must be very disappointed dat tan sri didnt give us surprise news. Wat v heard is juz a rumour, notin 2 disappoint abt. U juz think bac, if v expect tan sri 2give us d surprise news every yr, then it no longer cal it ‘surprise news’ ! Ha ha:-)”

-_____-

Anyway, we got some chocolates and another “rice bowl” door gift from him. We got an orange one last year, this year it is a funny shade of blue. My team mate that performed in the staff performance this year is so excited about getting the rice bowl that she says she wants to perform every year so that she can collect the rice bowls! *fainted* I’m happy that she likes performing so much. Oh yeah, the staff performance was actually really enjoyable to watch this year. It was themed “Seasons” and had spring, summer, autumn and winter.

This year was more interesting because they sang more recent top hits (usually they like to re-make oldies). I tell you, they modified the lyrics of all the songs in order to praise the Tan Sri like nobody’s business. Seriously a lot of apple polishing that night. Sometimes I think that we praise him more than we praise God in church! When I told my dad that, he said, “You can see the Tan Sri, but you cannot see God”. WTF.

The funniest modified song lyric is “Love you, Love you Tan Sri Teh… ” (sung to “Baby” by Justin Bieber)… but they also ‘remade’ Ke$ha’s “Take It Off” (became “Show It Off”), Katy Perry’s “Hot & Cold”, Janet Jackson’s “Together Again”, etc. Very funny. It’s so easy to change the lyrics… anything with the word “Baby” you change to “Tan Sri”…

The only part that I’m disappointed with is that I thought a certain Malaysian beauty queen which has now been linked to the illustruous founder was not there. Sigh… at least previously, we got a chance to take photos with Amber Chia. Everyone complained about the food being cold, but actually I didn’t mind too much. The only thing that was *really* unedible was the ultra salty prawns, and even then I ate two of it. =p