myPhone! April 11, 2012

Okie, time for a break from all my awesome holiday photos… to tell you that I bought a new phone!! After using my previous one for more than 5 years, it was starting to break down on me. The navigation button fell off, and stupid Nokia said I had to replace the entire keypad for a few hundred. No thanks. The port to charge also fcuked up, and again – need few hundred to replace. No thank you, again. Phone started randomly shutting itself down whenever it liked. Behave, why don’t you? And in case you’re wondering how I charged my phone, I charged the battery directly. Whenever I took out the phone battery to charge, I would put my SIM card into my dad’s backup phone. Yes, my DAD’S backup phone.

I think I whined a lot about my phone on my blog before, just doing a recap before continuing, haha.

Anyway, the MAIN reason why I took so long to get another phone is simply because I DON’T KNOW what to get. There are so many choices for smart phones nowadays. All I know is that I did not want another Nokia because I am so sorely disappointed in my last one. In the end, the strange, strange thing that “encouraged” me to change my phone is … my boss. I think he has shares in Apple or something. Everytime he saw me using my old + crappy phone, he would say, “Hey, just get an iPhone la!” He made it his mantra for a few days, and then I really did go and buy the iPhone! iPhone 4S to be precise.

You can slide in a 20sen coin and can prop your phone up. But that’s not why I bought this casing. I bought it because it is “spongebob yellow” and was the only phone casing I liked in the Mont Kiara mall, where I bought my phone.

Before buying it, Tron also did encourage me to get a new phone, but he is not as consistent as my boss. He used to be a BIG supporter of the Blackberry, but now he starts to complain a whole lot about it. Hehe. Then he liked the Samsung Galaxy S2, but after a while said it was no biggie. I think he’s interested in the Galaxy Note now, lol. So he was confusing me, who was already a confused soul. So instead of being confused and buying the “wrong” phone, I just continued suffering with my previous phone.

OH — another reason it took me so long to make a decision : I am not the gadget loving type. If I buy a phone, I know I will be using it for a longgggg time. I didn’t want another phone that I would hate after a year or so. :\ I suppose another reason would be that I’m just stingy about gadgets in general, and was hoping I would just win a damn phone so that the decision on what model to use would be made for me. Unfortunately, no luck there … YET. ;P Anyway, I have been chalking up a lot of huge expenses recently, so it was kinda like a, “Meh.. what’s another few thousand”. O_O”

I’m still exploring the apps, so if you’ve got any cool apps that I *must* download, please do tell me! Currently I’ve downloaded mostly camwhoring apps (hehe) and games. My favorite game at the moment is Bejewelled. And according to the app, when I had the phone for merely 4 days, I had already chalked up 8 hours of game time. O_O” Yes, that is how bad my addiction to the game is! I have other serious apps that Tron passed to me (he uses the iPad). Mostly stuff like things to read PDF files, lol. Yes, my boyfriend is a very serious guy. But I’m more into using this phone for fun times, so please recommend games to me! =D And yes, if you see me Tweeting more often than usual, this would be the reason! And I Twitpic more often too!

Oh, and I’m really loving the camera! Yes, one of things I loved about my old phone that other phones did not have was the front-facing camera. The iPhone 4S has a front camera, so I feel like there’s some continuity there, hahaha. But my old phone’s normal camera is pretty slow and I don’t think the Carl Zeiss lens is that special. I rarely took photos with the back camera for my old phone because it is sooooooooo slow that it’s not really “whipping out my camera and casually snapping something” anymore. But with my iPhone 4s, I have become so snap happy.

Ok, so it’s pretty much a bimbo phone for me, and I’m proud of that! I never claimed to be a gadget geek, so when I’m able to do small things like take photos, install apps, use wi-fi, etc, I’m really happy. Cos I didn’t have that with my old phone! In fact, I feel less inclined to switch on my laptop cos I can already do what I need to do on my phone.

If you’re wondering how Siri is for me — Siri reminds me why all my Australian / American vendors don’t seem to understand me. *sad sob* Actually, I’m changing, I speak really slow when talking to my vendors so they don’t think that I’m rapping / speaking chinese wtf. The first time I asked Siri to call my boyfriend, he said, “Sorry, cannot find Show LX Shoe”. LOL! So you can try and guess what is my boyfriend’s real name. When I dictated an SMS to Siri, he came up with some gibberish! Other things that Siri doesn’t understand : He thinks my “Change” is either “Cheesy” or “J”. “Cancel” is “Kennesaw” and “Review” is “Reviewal”. Whaddaheck! Am I really pronouncing so many extra syllables?!?!

Oh God, I just had a most irritating conversation with Siri:

“Send a message to Andrew”

“I don’t know who Angel is”

“Andrew.”

“I don’t know who Angel is. To whom should I send this message to?”

“Mommy” (decided to change contact since apparently I pronounce “Andrew” like “Angel”)

“I don’t know who Angel’s mother is. I don’t know who your mother is. In fact I don’t know who you are.”

WTF, why so rude! Anyway, just abruptly ending this entry with all the photos from my iPhone so far! :X

First photo taken ever on my iPhone… at the Apple store! That seems apt. By the way, my colleague told me that at some places, even the 4S is out of stock, but though I did not have to line up to get my iPhone in the Mont Kiara branch, I have a few bones to pick with the Maxis store there. Firstly, kept telling me the 32GB white casing is in stock, but when time to pass me the phone, it is suddenly NOT in stock. Told me to wait 30 minutes while he gets the phone from another branch (when I insisted I wanted the white one), but ended up waiting one hour. Then my credit card couldn’t go through, so I had to pay in cash!!

Random at work the next day, where I discover that a fully charged iPhone cannot even last til 6pm for me.

Muwahahha.. all the cute cam apps have been installed at this point!

Taken by my loving boyfriend, who was so into my phone when I first got it! He helped me with all the security settings!

My oh-so-adorable nephew! We love him and he loves us!

Present that Tron gave to me… for my phone! But nothing to dangle it from, so I use it for my pedestal key instead.

Arr… more camwhoring. On Sunday, had usher duty, where we always have to wear a white top and black skirt / pants and black sensible shoes. For me, it means that if I go anywhere else after church, people might mistake me for a sales assistant.

Random giant bed bug.

Yes, you always have a way of brightening up my day.. iPhone…

Just taken today! Went to 1U with my man.

Here we are at O’Briens, which was super understaffed today. They made us wait 30 minutes for two freaking sandwiches and 2 cups of terrible coffee and tea. They forgot our order la! I should have gotten the hint when the chinese uncle before us was ranting on why his order was late. What really got my goat is how they NEVER apologised for their mistake and we didn’t even screw them upside-down for their mistake, in fact didn’t scold at all! We just asked where is our food!! But another Malay group that actually arrived later than us AND got their food earlier than us, I heard the cashier say sorry to THEM. Wtf, I don’t want to pull out the race card, but it is really racist lor. I ban from visiting O’Briens already, seriously. Damn disappointed, starting the day on a bad note.

And you think the sandwich in O’Brien damn hard to make? Look at this la, there’s no veggies or anything also. Sheesh! And the group after us (that was apologised to) ordered the triple decker and all the other more complicated sandwiches lor. FTS seriously!

Ok, guess where we went to watch “Wrath of the Titans”? Storyline is nothing to shout about, but I like the action I suppose. The last good movie I watched recently was Battle Royale, which is something I may or may not rant about in the future.

Tron said some aunty was tsk-tsk-ing at us when we took this photo… lol. What’s wrong with camwhoring wor.

Dealmates Stalemate! June 30, 2011

[I got a refund from the restaurant today, so they honored their word of refunding me... but I still want to warn all of you who are buying deals from Dealmates. Be wary of their policies... please be aware!! ]

Of all the group purchasing websites I ever encountered, the worse “deal” I ever bought has to be from Dealmates. Please take note, if you are a coupon-purchasing freak like I ONCE WAS, Dealmates is probably one where you should AVOID. You know why? Because they have a clause to “wash their hands off the matter”. If you don’t ask for a refund within 14 days of the deal going live, they are NOT going to refund you. So if you buy Dealmates, faster use the coupon, that’s what they are saying? It’s damn dumb… cos if you have a coupon that is going to expire in 3 months time, most probably you are not going to rush to use the coupon right away… cos you might have OTHER coupons to use, or maybe you just have a life and your priority is not to use coupons ASAP.

Dealmates really PISS me off.

Continuing from this entry, and a recap, if you may. On 24th of June, I made a booking at Z* restaurant for 2 for 25th June at 12:15pm. I was told by the person answering the call “OK”, so the next day, Tron and I made our way to Z*. Only for the restaurant to be CLOSED. We were darn upset, and we even called the restaurant multiple times, each time getting a voice recording. We had no choice but to dine at some other random restaurant in the area. FYI, we stay in SUBANG, Z* is not “just around the corner” for us.  Please remember that I MADE A BOOKING, and they did not tell me that the restauarant won’t be open on the 25th.

On 25th itself, I emailed the support team at Dealmates to ask for a refund. FYI, I have asked for refunds from both Groupsmore and Milkadeal before (haven’t blogged yet, but will soon), and they are SUPER efficient. They kind of have a “no questions asked” policy as in both cases, I compiled a lot of evidence against the merchant, and they didn’t ask to see it. As long as I complained, they reverted the funds back to me.

On 26th June 6:39pm, I got a reply from Dealmates saying the restaurant is closed for renovation and therefore won’t be open. Also was notified that the deal has been extended to end of July due to all this problems. This is in fact INEXCUSABLE as I DID MAKE A BOOKING, and the restaurant did not honor the booking. What is the point of making a booking, giving my telephone number, when you are going to be closed, and not going to inform the customer? At this point, I was more angry at Z* than at Dealmates.

I replied to Dealmates on 26th and 27th June saying that I do not accept this excuse and I just want my money back. I do not want to make another booking, because I have learnt that making a booking is OF NO USE for this restaurant.

On 27th June 6:31pm, Dealmates replied to me that they will contact Z* for refund for me.

On 27th June 11:06pm, I replied to Dealmates to ask when I can get the money back.

On 28th June, 4:11pm, I received the following email from Dealmates:

“Hi L********,

We just confirmed with Z*. According to them, they never did any kind of renovation. And that particular Saturday was already fully booked for 3 weeks. You would have been told that they were very full house and there was no way they can accommodate anyone. Thank you and have a nice day.

DealMates.com”

PLEASE NOTE THE DISCREPANCY BETWEEN EMAIL dated 28th June 4:11pm and email on 26th June 6:39pm. One time telling me GOT RENOVATION, the other time telling me NO RENOVATION. How can I trust this restaurant or any future deals from Dealmates? I called up Z* directly, and they told me the following :

a. they did make a mistake in allowing me to make the booking for 25th June (Saturday) at 12:15pm as their restaurant is NOT OPEN. [at least they admitted their mistake]

b. Dealmates website shows WRONG information, in fact cannot redeem between 12-3pm for Saturdays.

I double-checked the deal page and also my certifcate, indeed it said that Saturday afternoon is a REDEEMABLE period.

Their website…

My certificate

I do NOT want to make another booking (what is the point? I made a booking before and see where it got me!), I do NOT want to book in July, I just want MY REFUND. Why is it so difficult to get my refund, other websites like Groupsmore and Milkadeal gives refund without so much ding-dong and without me having to FIND THE TRUE STORY from the merchant themselves.

Oh, and today I had to go and call up Dealmates because the ding-donging between me and them are going no where. Plus, as you can see, sometimes they tell me got renovation, sometimes don’t have. At the end of the day, say they give the money to Z* already, so I have to ask from them directly. Like I said… they totally WASH THEIR HANDS OFF THE MATTER. I said, “Hello?? You publish wrong things on the website is ok?” Then they hmmm and haaa… then asked me to write a long ass story so they can pass on to their supervisor.

After I wrote the long ass story, the manager of Z* called me to ask me what happened. So another roundabout story again… to be honest, he tried his best to smooth things over,  kept asking me to go back to the restaurant. The problem is WHO THE HECK WANNA GO WITH ME ALREADY. Plus, I bought it because I’m free on Saturday afternoons. If it ain’t available then, then for what I buy this deal? This is why I said, DEALMATES PUBLISHED THE WRONG INFORMATION. Z* said that they did ask Dealmates to put in the opening hours of their restaurant on the website. But hello… when I wanna redeem a deal, do I check the deal page or do I check the certificate that I have printed out? I already have the cert on hand, why would I log on to my computer again just to check the opening hours on the restaurant when the cert has printed out already redeemable between 12-3pm???! Thank GOD I took printscreens and stuff… at least I can show you all.

As emphasis — my certificate again

Dealmates also has a list of the customers who has already bought this deal, but they didn’t bother to email us to tell us that this deal has been extended due to all the problems customers are facing. Later, I found out that they posted it on the FACEBOOK. You think all your customers must “Like” you on Facebook issit? In fact, I didn’t “like” any group purchasing websites because I didn’t want to get spammed by all the updates, which is usually about new deals. Since they have my EMAIL already (which they keep spamming) then just send one email lah! Guess what? After I told them this, they spam me again. NINE TIMES.

Dunno are they purposely trying to make my blood boil or what! I think I’m going to agree with my friend Steph from now on who says :

At this point, at least Z* admitted they are wrong to go and allow me to make a booking on 24th of June when the time is totally wrong. Dealmates NEVER admit they are wrong for :
- putting wrong information on website
- putting wrong information on certificate being printed
- never emailing the customer who bought the deal, assume post on their FB means everything OK
- telling me Z* under renovation AT FIRST then after that “never have any renovation going on”… wtf, get your stories straight la

By the way, they purposely always answer you towards the end of the day… so that when you reply back, it’s after office hours. You wanna deal with them, just call them directly, don’t bother emailing them! I used to be so gung ho about group purchase deals, as seen from my old entry (which I have updated to REMOVE Dealmates)… but this horrible episode makes me not want to bother anymore. I was talking to Steph about it …

Me (in reply to above tweet) : “Well, sometimes the deals are worth it.”
Steph : “it’s only worth it if the deal is smthg u need or want.. U know I’m right! Hahaha!”
Me : “I usually only buy deals that involve food. Everyone needs food right.”
Steph : “yeaa.. bad food from not-so-popular places! with a crappy set menu or equiv. take it frm a marketing person!! hahahaha…”
Me : “Why are you so against it anyway?”
Steph : “cos I hear about a lot of ppl getting duped”

This case is not about being duped, but I am a person who hates to deal with unnecessary “ma fan-ness” (bothersome stuff)… and I hate that I am dealing with this right now! No more DEALing, that’s for sure! Going to finish the rest of my coupons (5 more) and then close this whole group purchasing experiment behind me.

By the way, since all parties have agreed that I’m the freaking victim here and have admitted their mistakes (except Dealmates, unless I suppose the 9x spamming me with the “notice of extended validity period” is considered as them admitting they are wrong?)… so WHEN CAN I GET MY MONEY BACK???

((This entry will be automatically posted at 12pm if I don’t get my money back. After which I will update this entry WHEN I get my money back… UPDATE ONLY, NOT REMOVE.))

Counting Down… June 28, 2011

I’m starting work at my new workplace on Friday! I know, it’s such an odd day to be starting work right? But I have high hopes for it, hahaha. Plus, if you have a horrible first day of work (I said “YOU” and not “I” because “I” am definitely not gonna curse myself), you can just say, “Oh at least the weekend is here”. Hahaha. To be honest, after relaxing around for so long, I feel really odd about going back to work. How odd, you say? Well, I feel as if I’m a fresh graduate going in for her first job. -___- Gotta knock some reality back into my head. Meanwhile, been keeping busy, especially with gym. Hoping to lose weight a lot of weight before I start my job, but in fact I feel like I have gained weight some more… geez!

Anyway, the main point of updating was to do the “weekend updates” thing to recapitulate what happened on Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Friday started off nicely, with me passing Tron the orange cake. The verdict of most people on the orange cake is that it tastes nice, but why is it so moist? It’s because it’s a flourless cake! They tend to be more moist… at least, that’s what other people are saying. It could also be due to me not being able to 100% puree it properly since I was doing everything by hand. And it’s a job I don’t look forward to doing again (read: please buy me a food processor).

On Saturday, I wanted to treat Tron to a “fine Italian feast” at Z*. I made the reservation a day before, and they allowed me to make the booking for Saturday at 12:15pm. However, when we arrived there — the place was closed! It was awful… why did they allow me to make a reservation and then not even be open for business? Plus, the opening hours for the restaurant is from 12pm-3pm… so it should be open ANYWAY even if I didn’t make a reservation, right? I called the restaurant multiple times, and each time I only got a recording. Disappointing.

WAS so excited to go to Z*… even make-up-ed and dress up nicer than my usual ‘lecehleech’ style.

Closed!!

I know this isn’t concrete proof, but you can see the time from my original photo (if Z* / Dealmates wanna request, I can send over the ORIGINAL photo). FYI we waited until 12:25pm and it still wasn’t open. And if they opened that late, how long before all their staff comes in, the kitchen gets warmed up, etc? What time would we actually EAT?

I complained to Dealmates to ask for a refund… and they said that the restaurant is undergoing renovation, and as such, they will make a concession for this deal to be extended til the end of July. To be honest, Tron and I have no “heart” to eat there anymore. Z* is not an easy place for us to get to from Subang. Plus, when we made the reservation, the restaurant took down my contact details. If they were closed for renovations, they could have called me up to inform me. Do they really think that all people who will be eating there are just living nearby? Sigh… really, really disappointed! Dealmates said they will help me get a refund from the restaurant even though their policy is to refund only deals that have been purchased within 14 days or if the deal doesn’t go through (meaning, not enough buyers for the “deal”). I find that policy really unfair because it is somewhat not being completely responsible in the deal. I had no such problem with Groupsmore & Milkadeal… so I’m really really hoping that Dealmates will help get my refund for me. It’ll give me so much more “peace of mind” to buy deals from their website. Otherwise, boh pian, I will have to take it off my group purchasing list.

Because of  Z*, we had to have lunch at Canton Fare, which was nearby and seemed to be teeming with patrons. The food there is quite worth it IMHO, because the portions are HUGE. The char siu  and the siu yoke is the best part of the meal (no wonder, as Canton Fare calls themselves the “King of Roast”). Tron and I enjoyed the roasted meats so much… at RM18 per plate, no wonder it’s so yummy la.

Tron’s Olive Fried Rice. I didn’t quite like it, but if you do, be happy cos the portions are huge…

The char siu + siu yoke…

My seafood porridge. One huge bowl of this = 4.5 smaller bowls! I was really stuffed!

Played  Street Fighter IV with Tron again… and this time he showed me a list of “cheats” which isn’t really cheat IMHO as it is NECESSARY to know those moves!! Anyway, after some training, I can now do hadouken, hurricane kick and shoryuken with ease… hahaha. Well, more ease than before. I’m going to train up my RYU so I can really whoop ass after this. I <3 Ryu…

Was enjoying myself so much playing games that Tron had to be the one to suggest, “Why don’t we go 1 Utama now?” Hahaha! Sounds like role reversal right? Usually the guy will be playing games and the girlfriend will ask the boyfriend to take her out shopping. Anyway, it turns out that Tron wanted to check out the Club 21 sales. Cis! Not like I can afford also. Everyone says that since I’m starting a new job, I should treat them lunch, dinner, treat myself, go shopping, etc. But they have forgotten that I have not gotten paid yet. And in fact, my old company banked in RM600 less from my usual salary. I have to call them up tomorrow and find out what the jizz is going on. -___- So in fact I’m feeling poorer than normal.

Ate at Cravings, erm… our usual favorites la. Minced pork with peanuts & basil leaf + Fried beancurd + fried kangkung. Everytime I order kangkung, Tron will remind me that it’s a vegetable that grows from a drain, blablabla… but it’s so delicious, especially fried with belacan…

After church on Sunday, Tron and I met up with Raymond at Gardens. Raymond = my EX-colleague now. Hohoho… Raymond just wanted to update me on what’s been going on in the office, and his latest updates as well. Met up at Austin Chase, and in fact wanted to force him to treat Tron and I, but Tron said it’s darn bad cos Raymond treated us to Saba last time. =p *greedy Leech* So, thanks to Tron, I got a chocolate mocha ice-blended… not bad! Quite like Austin Chase, even though Raymond chose this really “private area” lounge where I can’t really talk / laugh loudly as per my usual self.

You might think that there’s not much that we can talk about… but in fact, we were at Gardens til quite late. Zomg! I had another “gathering” to attend after that. But not before I forced Tron to follow me to redeem another group purchased coupon. This time from JackCow. It was a buy 1 free 1 promotion for Ireland Potato. Basically, can be used for all french fries + topping EXCEPT for their super cheddar cheese one. Original price for ONE Ireland Potato is RM8.80, which is darn expensive in my books. However, I used to order it when I ate in Wong Kok, so I thought that it would be quite good?

The french fries are not bad lah, but I think that the portions are quite small… considering that it is RM8.80, and the toppings that I chose is not SUPER expensive also. I took Pizza Sauce and Honey Mustard. Pizza Sauce doesn’t even have any meat inside, just mushrooms! So I am damn glad that I got this deal to try out Ireland Potato, I don’t think I’ll buy it otherwise. Tron said it is not bad, though he is iffy about the type of oil they are using. But the one who REALLY REALLY like it is … my brother! Cos both Tron & I were quite full from Austin Chase, so I ta-powed most of it for my brother.

His first words were, “Ireland Potato? Isn’t it really expensive?” I told him to finish it all off, and he wiped out both packets of my fries darn fast… -___- By the way, I much prefer honey mustard to pizza sauce, which actually has a more sour-ish type of taste…

And yes.. the other gathering for Sunday was… meeting up with Kim & Dee, my friends from college. I haven’t seen Dee since erm… nearly 7 years ago. She’s since moved to Australia (for studies, and now work). It was nice to catch-up with both of them, and finding out how life is like overseas. Conclusion is : life *is* better overseas, hahaha. Oh, and really envious that she had a rocking trip in New Zealand, doing all kinds of extreme sports like bungee jumping, white water rafting, black water rafting (if you’re wondering what this is, it’s apparently rafting in a CAVE), flying fox, etc. Zomg, so jealous!! I want that kinda trip too!  =p

And Kim still doesn’t want to tell me where she’s working, lol. I can’t believe that we were in Tony Romas that long.. like almost 3 hours? But we all had so much to update each other on…

My shrimp scampi pasta from Tony Romas… I loveddd it.

From 3 Outings to 2… June 22, 2011

My boyfriend says that I’m so “popular” because I had three “gatherings” lined up on Saturday. Told him that I couldn’t see him until evening for the 3rd “gathering” which was in fact my mom’s birthday dinner. In the end, the second gathering was cancelled, psh! But I did think that my Saturday was planned out quite “packed”… am quite glad that one got cancelled, though don’t get me wrong — I really did want to meet my friends too.

Saturday started off rather disastrously for me because I was supposed to pick my friend up at 9:45am, but I woke up at 10:05am. -___- I am so fail, and the funny thing is that my friend didn’t call me up. By the time I picked her up and met up with my other 2 friends, the other 2 had finished eating the breakfast. Sigh… fail Leech is fail. However, it was great meeting up with them, and I am glad that I made it in the end. Who are they? They are my primary school mates! The one I picked up is called WSL, the one who organised it is June and the one other one is WJ. WSL used to be the “nerd” back in high school (then again I was also a nerd, so who am I to label others? Maybe this is why we were friends?), and today she is a successful doctor practising in UK. To be honest, I was really surprised to hear that she was back in Malaysia. At first, I thought it was because of Talent Corp’s success in luring back our foreign graduates. But in fact, she came back to pay back JPA for her scholarship. -___- She said it is better for Malaysia if she returns at a later date anyway as she finds that she is gaining way more relevant experience overseas. It’s quite sad when I hear about stories like this — I think I’ll save my “analysis” for another day.

WJ is also a doctor, working in a local government hospital, while June is a lawyer! I think it’s interesting to see how we have all grown up from our primary school days. Oh, June also was from FGT (where  I used to attend), so it’s really a small world. This is a picture of how June & I looked in our younger days :

I don’t have any old pics of me and WSL or WJ, but this is how we all look now :

Myself and WSL

Myself, June and WSL

LWJ & June standing, myself and WSL sitting.

Really a nice meet-up, get to hear all kinds of funny stories about how our lives have been. Some of this girls, I haven’t seen for more than a decade! Luckily my 2nd gathering got postponed, because otherwise I could stay with them til 12pm only. Instead, we chit-chatted til 1:30pm, after which I went to Empire Shopping Gallery to buy my mom’s birthday present.

Oh, in case you’re wondering, I was going to meet my colleagues Justin & Pauline who wanted to treat me to ANOTHER farewell lunch in KL. Japanese food + macarons! You know what, I’ve never eaten a macaron in Malaysia before. I ate macarons in Laduree when I was in France, and after that I felt that nothing could ever compare. So why eat sub-standard products. HAHAHA! Please excuse me, that was me just being an utter snobby bitch. To tell the truth, I don’t remember how they taste, but I remember that exquisite, mind-blowing AWESOME feeling I got when I first bit into a macaron. I’m hoping that there is a macaron in Malaysia that can duplicate that feeling. I don’t know .. I really didn’t bother to check it out. Any recommendations? Pauline and I even talked about making our own before! But it’s a whole lotta hassle…

Anyway, the Pauline + Justin outing got cancelled — Justin called me while I was searching for new shoes (and my mom’s birthday present). In the end, I got her the whole Olay Regenerist range… hahaha! Anti-aging products! I think it’s so apt, don’t you? I also randomly bumped into Dullnut in Charles & Keith (sales generate some kinda magnetic force field that attract us), and Dull said my present for my mom is insulting. Hmph! You don’t know my mom, Dull!

Called Tron to pick me up earlier since I got ditched by my friends, and he gallantly came by and took me out for … McDonalds! That and a few rounds of Street Fighter. Erm… when you play Street Fighter, do you memorise how to execute each move, or do you just mash the buttons? I’ve been mashing the buttons all the while. *ashamed* Tron kept asking me “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” and there was one point when I was using Cammy and he was using Gen… and he kept doing the “snake hand” and I couldn’t even penetrate that move at all. *ashamed* After cruelly defeating me multiple times, he taught me how to do the hadouken… after which I can SOMEWHAT do it, but he can do it ALL THE TIME and effortlessly, but for me, it’s kind of a hit-or-miss thing. Hmm… I must learn more so I can defeat Tron… beh tahan his cruel taunts after defeating me.

My knight in not-so-shining car rescues me from an afternoon of being bored stiff after getting ditched by my friend… :p

Afterwards, we went to Extra Super Tanker Restaurant in Damansara Kim to celebrate my mom’s birthday. My sister ordered and paid for the food, and as expected… it was all super yummy! =) This restaurant is now my mom’s favorite restaurant, and my dad is thinking of throwing 63rd birthday here as well. I’m wondering if I should take photos of food then cos they plan to order back the same thing! =p This is what we had :

Roast duck… half of which is eaten just like this …

And the other half is made into “Roast duck sandwich”! This is the “signature” dish of Extra Super Tanker. When Tron first ate this, he said, “What is this? Why so nice wan?” Hahahaha!

Another signature dish – the thousand layer tofu, which is tofu sandwiched with some pork and sandwiched with more tofu… and pork. Etc etc. Not really thousand layers, of course.

Boiled prawns… absolutely yummy when dipped into soy sauce with chillis.

Most expensive dish of the night (RM115) is this crab meat + mihun + egg + pine nuts concoction which is wrapped within some lettuce leaves and eaten. Healthy and yummy.

Some normal veggies…

Our favorite dish of the night – venison fried with celery and sweet peas.

Assam fish.

Longevity noodle.

The people who attended :

My sister & my brother-in-law.

My maternal grandparents, sharing a joke with LY.

Uncle CF and Aunty Kim. She’s very prepared for my “paparazzi” camera, ever since I had uploaded soooo much of our family gathering pics onto Facebook! I think she looks nice in my “impromptu” shots, but she begs to differ.

See, she posing so nicely here with her son, VH.

My mom cutting the birthday cake…

Which looks like this! Strawberry cheese cake! Yumms!

And of course, my date for the night – Tron.

Next morning — Father’s Day celebration, but Tron celebrated by taking me for dim sum  at Oriental Pavilion in Jaya 33. <3 The place is actually super packed, and I thought the “traffic” would ease up after 1pm, but it was as packed when we were leaving as when we first arrived. The dim sum is good, but I think it’s comparable to a lot of other places, e.g: Maju Palace and Ming Court (both also under the same branch as Oriental Pavilion actually, lol). I think the other two places are not as crowded kua. Then again it was Father’s Day weekend, so who knows.

The bad thing about dining for 2 is that you don’t get as much variety as when you eat with your whole entire family, but I think we tried a lot of stuff as it is already :

Salad prawns… my favorite! Evidently, Tron’s one too since he got this without me asking.

Some pastry with BBQ filling inside… I don’t know what it’s called, but Oriental Pavilion’s pastry is really light, buttery and yummy! The pastry for the egg tart was just as nice. Love it!

The waiter just plonked these 3 types of dim sum in front of us, and said, “Which one you dowan?” So we just said “ok” and it made it easier for us to decide what to eat. Otherwise it would be the same ha gou / siu mai / yu mai lah… at least got something different now. =p

Tron ordered some char siu… but I think can do without it next time. Not so good.

My must have — pei dan (century egg) porridge! Ok la…

Tron’s must have – char siu pau.

Bill came up to RM81++ … thanks Tron! <3 <3 <3  After that, we wandered around Jaya 33 for a bit, and then ended up at a Mary Kay roadshow. To be honest, I’ve never been really that interested in their make-up (cos I don’t know about it. I’m only interested in what I can see, e.g: what I can purchase at the local drugstore, hehehe), but they have some mineral foundation that I am quite interested in! It’s better quality than the Maybelline / L’oreal one that I bought last time, I think comparable to Everyday Minerals. Sigh… should I buy it? But it’s quite expensive lor, going for RM70 per package… I wrote more about the event on my beauty blog, but basically, this is how I look like after the makeover :

And I won their TimeWise Firming Eye Cream (going at RM150) :

That night, I went out to Chili’s — not to celebrate Father’s Day, but to celebrate my brother’s birthday in advance. Reason being that my sister will be going to London and she won’t be back until after my brother turns 21, so best to celebrate earlier. Thought of going to TGIF as I know they’ll be quieter… but my brother said he will “sacrifice” and go for Chili’s as my mom prefers the latter. Sigh! The only Chili’s near my house is the one in Empire, and I know it’s darn darn difficult to get a seat there because they always have so much people. I insisted to them that I’m not making reservations (I know, I’m so bitchy… and lazy), so we should go earlier. Though we arrived by 6:30pm, the waiting time was 20 minutes. After we had waited 20 minutes, we heard the person in charge say the waiting time was now 50 minutes. Crazy! Why do people still put their name down? If it were me, I would just go to Italiannies next door.

Well, I was already angry even before I got seated, because what happened was the person in charge saw me, saw it was only a party of 5 and then said they would check if there were tables or not, I MIGHT be able to be instantly seated! But after ding donging here and there, there were none, and then someone from behind me just put their name on the list and cut me. Wtf! If no table then straightaway put my name on the list la, right? Why go and let someone else cut me? Thankfully, what mine is mine and can’t be taken away, as later the couple that cut me (unintentionally) didn’t come back after 20 minutes, so I was able to get seated after that.

Other rants that I later wrote about in their “customer service survey” that night :
[...] Secondly, there was a table available, but because of such a long line of customers waiting to be seated, they left the table empty for so long before allowing guests to actually come in to be seated.

Thirdly, the waiters frequently pretend not to hear (don’t know pretense or they really didn’t hear) when we wanted refills for our drinks. If you all feel so hard up to give us refills, then just take bottomless drinks off the menu. Even when we manage to catch someone’s attention, they either quickly walk away, or say, “please wait” and then never come back!

Fourthly, when I made payment already, they took my credit card and never came back with it. Someone else cleared our whole table and we were just waiting to sign the bill and go! But we can’t, cos they just took our credit card and never came back to us! Our original waiter (who served us) saw us and instead of checking what happened to the bill, asked us if we had already ordered. We had to actually go to and find the supervisor / floor manager to find out what’s going on, and THEN they tell me they’ve lost my credit card! This is unacceptable! He just acted as if I had never given my card in the first place and waved his hands around the computer / cash register as if to say, “See? It isn’t here”. I was totally “stunned” for a moment.

When he saw I was about to give him a piece of my mind, he said I should give him 1 minute to find the card. During the time period, I was actually prepared to call up my bank to cancel my card. After more than 60 seconds, he miraculously managed to find my card (apparently they placed my card into the “paid” stack … whatever). Should I even be charged 10% for service like this? I understand that it is Father’s Day, but it should be the restaurant’s perogative to make sure they are adequately staffed, NOT MINE!

Oh, and when we were waiting for our table, I noticed other people who were having a lot of arguments regarding bookings being made and their name not appearing on the waiting list. Chilis, please take note of when there are “festive celebrations”…

Yes, at the end of the night, they even “lost” my credit card… damn char dou, really BAN BAN BAN this place and not going to eat at Chili’s — or at least, the one in Empire Shopping Gallery. I repeat what I asked in the survey — should I even need to pay 10% service charge for “service” like this?

At least the food is alright in my books, so when we were eating, we were joyful. Too bad the before and after is not worth it at all!

My dad and mom.

Lol, my dad looks so leceherous in this picture.

The siblings.. aiyah, the one that smile the biggest has the nicest teeth la… lol lol lol

My sister’s quesadilla explosion salad… the portion is GINORMOUS. When she saw it, she was so happy, and kept going, “This is so worth the money!” (I’m paying anyway, lol)

The Triple Play starter that arrived at the same time as our food. -___- But it is our perennial favorite.

My brother’s dunno what lime fish or something …

My parents shared the Big Mouth Bites… I love the onion rings that come with this dish!

My South Western quesadilla combo (honestly cannot tell if I’m eating chicken or beef also. Fail.)

That’s all for the weekend update…. a lot of food, I know! I’ve been trying to gym it all off, and to be honest, it’s very difficult, haha. I’m very tired and sleepy at the moment, but I am trying to will myself to go for a Body Jam class which starts in approximately 58 minutes time. Still thinking whether I want to go or not because the new release for Body Jam is 50-50 in my books. I’m afraid that if I go for it, I will end up too tired to go for Body Attack tomorrow… sigh!