Sustainability ESG 2020 August 11, 2011

Usually, I’m darn stingy and I don’t like to share where to win contests, especially for a contest where the grand prize is still yet to be determined. However, since the organiser is an NGO, and the founder of this organisation is a very nice man, I decided to publicise it on my blog! Also, I first found out about this contest through another girl’s blog, so I’m paying it forward, so to speak.

Search for “Sustainability ESG 2020″ on Facebook, like the page, and take part in their weekly contest. It’s very simple… they have a Photo Album with a 2011 “calendar” on it featuring people like Levy Li, Datuk Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar, etc. Each of them have a “quotation” for each month talking about sustainability and why it is required for businesses to be concerned about sustainability ratings. Every week, the organiser will ask a question related to the quotations on the calendar. Like an open book test, just refer to the calendar, and email the answer to the organiser. Find out more on the Sustainability ESG 2020 Facebook page!

I also find that the whole non-profit organisation has very noble goals. From the “About Me” page itself : “Sustainability through Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) is an initiative to help a country or corporation to be rated by entities like the United Nations in its business or development sustainability efforts. Trillions of dollars of responsible investment are waiting out there to be tapped but bodies like the UN will only give the green light if countries and corporations fulfill the ESG criteria.”

What does this mean to me?

Well, it would mean that corporations that actually care about being in our country for the long run would have to take more social responsibility in the country they are operating in. Not just doing business for the sake of doing business, but ensuring that their business model as a whole is beneficial to the country environmentally and socially.

I’ve been asking my friends to take part in the so-called “calendar quiz” on the Facebook page, but a lot of them are doubtful. They wonder whether this whole organisation is even legit. If getting spokespeople like Levy Li, etc are not enough, the organiser himself also frequently writes articles in business magazines. He has a column in Malaysian Business, and his latest article is called “Hide in Plain Sight” – about corporations that make a big hoo-ha about corporate social responsibility (e.g: planting trees), but behind the scenes are contributing (directly or indirectly) to something going in the other direction (e.g: mass deforestration). You can read the article here.

Maybe this is all very boring for you and you’re wondering – “What’s in it for me and what’s in it for them?” Well, the organiser is just trying to create awareness among the rakyat, and making businesses sit-up and take notice. Even now, I am sure that companies that you are working in is starting to take steps towards corporate social responsibility. Their prizes are sponsored anyway, so the prizes that they are giving away won’t come out from their pocket. But of course, the organiser takes the time out to actually present the prize to you and to talk to you more about their good work.

For the weekly calendar quiz, you can win :
Top prize : RM3000 worth of products & vouchers
Consolation prizes #1 : Elle / Esprit Sunglasses
Consolation prizes #2 : Ladies handbag from Sacha / Giofiore

And guess what? I randomly took part, just tried ONCE, and I won the top prize! A lot of my friends & family members are doubtful about whether I will actually get to collect the gifts. In fact, Tron worriedly asked me where I was going to collect the prize. Maybe I would end up kidnapped? Well, the RM3,000 worth of prizes are the sunglasses AND handbag, and a booklet of vouchers. Even if you don’t plan to use the vouchers, you still have a handbag and a brand new pair of sunglasses…

Handbag from Giofiore… quite good quality though it’s not one of your ‘super branded’ handbags. It looks like a Guess design lor! Quite happy with it because I’ve been thinking of buying a simple black handbag (I don’t even have the most basic of basic handbags… tsk)

And these are my brand new Esprit sunglasses. You can choose from the range in Malaya Optical yourself. This pair costs about RM460. I chose brown because I’m a simple, natural kinda gal… there are those huge, oversized sunnies also, if that’s your thing. I contemplated getting it, but in the end I decided that if I don’t use it, it’s easier to get my mom / sister to wear simple chic sunnies than huge oversized ones, hahaha.

At the end of the calendar quiz period, you have to submit your answers for all weeks, and you will be in the running to win the grand prize of a luxury VIP stay in a holiday resort (sounds mysterious!) and RM2,000 worth of vouchers. See? By telling you about this, I’m actually increasing more competition for myself. Tsk tsk.

Many are also wondering — what are the vouchers you won? Really got RM2,000 worth or not? Well, it is lah… if you can use all of them. I’m not taking a photo of the vouchers because organiser asked to be hush-hush a bit, let you all see for yourself when you take part. Hahaha. Well, when I entered the contest, I was thinking that a pair of sunnies would be nice… so I did get a pair in the end. And learned more about sustainability and why we should get businesses to display their ESG ratings!

Oh, I might give away some of my vouchers too. Anyone planning on a getaway to Genting Highlands? I might have just the thing for you.

Crazy Little Thing Called Work June 1, 2011

Today is the implementation of this huge project that has been a monkey on my back for the past year or so… I’m praying it will go well. I’m on standby, hence, staying up to blog while waiting for potential midnight calls from the IT support in another country. I am a nervous wreck. While I drove home after the final, final, last, last, LAST, ultimate LAST round of testing had been done, I just kept running through the stuff I had to do. Suddenly thought of something that I wasn’t sure about. I tried to turn back to the office, but made a wrong turn.. and wound up on the road to KLIA! I was so freaking scared because the road lights were OUT, so I was driving in darkness. Well, I drove with the high beam on lah. -___- Thankfully managed to find my way back to the office, but I wasted 30 minutes driving around. Anyway, was relieved that I did turn around to check. Thank God….

I didn’t officially blog about this, neither did I feel the need to announce it, but I suddenly feel so overwhelmed. This is actually my last 2 weeks in XYZ Bank. I served a 2 months notice somewhere in April … and I never imagined that time would fly by so fast. In case you’re wondering, YES it is very difficult for me to tender my resignation. This is a place that I have been for 7 years. Heck, 1st of June is EXACTLY 7 years to the day I started work here. I read through my blog entries when I first joined XYZ Bank, and I was filled with such hope and love for this place. I was overwhelmed with gratitude that such an awesome place would hire someone like me, would give me a chance. It has been extremely exciting working here. Who else could say that they started out in treasury and telebanking, using Cobol on an AS400 server. Then developed a treasury & accounting software from scratch for an offshore subsidiary using Java & JSP. Then revamped a retail banking system for our overseas subsidiaries using Visual Basic? Every few years our team were faced with new challenges. From learning about money markets & placements, then to how interactive voice response systems work. Then went 180 degrees to web applications and even dabbled with e-Banking, and then to COM+ technology for retail banking. Switched to learn about frontline operations, loans, general ledgers, demand deposits and such. Spent 2 months in Cambodia. Went to Laos twice, each time for a one month stretch. It’s insane. But it was a good run.

I know the typical response to my positivity would be — so why would you want to leave if you had such a good time in XYZ Bank? I just felt that there are more avenues that could be explored that I couldn’t do when I’m in XYZ Bank. Can I just leave it as that? Just that I want to give myself a chance to explore the aforementioned avenues, and not be placid. Plus, one day I will tell you how I came to join ABC Bank, and it is truly something God-send. It is an awesome testimony… which I will save for another day. =) Or you can ask me in person, cos as always, with stuff about companies, can’t talk about it so openly.

So in the next few weeks or so, I’ll be blogging about farewell lunches and all that… I can’t say I’m a super sociable person, but I guess when you’ve been in one place for 7 years, there are people who know who you are. =)

Anyway! In the spirit of randomness, let me continue my entry with something totally different.  I won two tickets to watch Magical Musicals in the Sunway Lagoon Amphiteather on the 10th of June thanks to All Malaysian Bloggers. If you wanna read my raves about the musical (note: advert-worthy…! And since I am anti-advertising, maybe you shouldn’t read it… but I felt that it was well-written and truly shows my love for musicals… *self praise) : click here

I also managed to get my grubby hands on Mariah Carey’s entire discography. I really love her songs so much, though there was one time in my life when I was being all judgemental and I couldn’t accept how sluttily she suddenly dressed. Hahahha. Actually, I find her quite an enigma – she has a fantastic voice, so she definitely doesn’t need to show so much T&A to sell records. So why does she do it? As a Youtube fan wrote – as hard as it is to believe, Mariah loves and is comfortable with dressing trashily. Anyway, as long as she keeps belting out amazing #1s, I will remain a fan. Loved her from her Emotions, Fantasy, One Sweet Day, Always Be My Baby (no matter what you say, David Cook’s version is TERRIBLE and does NOT deserve the praise it got on American Idol. It was a bastardisation, and Mariah was right to NOT be impressed by it [Edited on 3/6/2011 : According to someone in my comments box, Mariah Carey was actually impressed with his version and I was misinformed about it (yup yup, I didn't do my homework, shouldn't deserve to even blog because I didn't do my homework, etc). To be honest, I didn't watch the AI episode where he sang it, I only heard it on the radio... someone else told me MC didn't like it and I found that more believable than her saying it's haunting and what not. Oh well. BTW, I don't hate David Cook, I just hate this particular song he did.]  ) and Dreamlover days. Even when she was supposedly “going cuckoo”, there were some gems in her albums, like Heartbreaker, Honey, My All, Breakdown, Butterfly. Then when she made her comeback, I wasn’t impressed with Say Something’ and It’s Like That, but was drawn in to her songs like Through the Rain, Touch My Body, I’ll Be Loving You Long Time, We Belong Together, Don’t Forget About Us, I Stay In Love and Bye Bye. She’s definitely THE diva that I like the most … sorry Whitney Houston (my bf likes her) and Celine Dion…

She also has a duet with Nicki Minaj… surprise surprise. But it’s not one of my favorites. It’s still pretty catchy…

Oh, and this is the I’ll Be Loving You Long Time video with T.I. I told Raymond about this video and I said it’s so funny how T.I is all pimped out in the middle of a jungle, while Mariah just *has* to be wearing a very sexy swimsuit lah. Hehe. Sometimes, it’s interesting to see just how she can top herself in each video. There was one where she was dressed as a Vegas dancer… very random. And if it’s a ballad, then she will be rather covered up, but still have a lot of cleavage, and the outfit must be skintight. Haih.. Mariah, you crazy but you’re also crazy sexy and I <3 you.

Sigh… why can’t the Shiseido workshop be on any other day but the 18th!!

Cleo’s Most Eligible Bachelors Speed Dating… and more April 18, 2011

I didn’t plan on blogging this til the end of the week, but what the heck… I’m up doing night support anyway, so I might as well blog. UNexpected night support to boot. I wonder if I can come in to work later tomorrow? The ironic thing is that I had just finished giving myself an anti-eyebag treatment. Just as in few seconds… and then the phone rang. Was planning to sleep by 12am, but now it’s 12:30am and I foresee being up til 1:30am. Well, let’s just grin and bear it. *cheerful*

Okie, I knew my weekend was going to be on the UPswing since Wednesday afternoon, when I got an email from Cleo Magazine saying that I have won an RM100 voucher from Kitschen in conjunction with their Cleo’s Most Eligible Bachelor event. Cleo and Cleo’s Bachelors go wayyyyy back for me. ;P Back when I was 14, when they first launched this contest, it was such a BIG thing in Malaysia. I don’t even remember who won the first one, but I remember the one that I liked the most at the time was a guy called Gary (I even remember the full name, but I shan’t embarrass myself by writing it out here, all Google-worthy). After that, every year, me and my friends went to KLCC to support the bachelors, even though we didn’t know them personally (wtf… damn shameful, this). I remember being so char dou when my junior Cheryl loudly say she dowan to follow me to Cleo bachelor event because “only hamsap por go.” -___- Eh, I go there for the laughs only la, k. How often do men get treated like meat? Usually women are the ones who have to wear sexy outfit and pose (e.g: car show girls, beer girls, etc).

Anyway, after that I started work la, and the Cleo bachelor thingy wasn’t such a big thing anymore (to me, at least). I won a date with a Cleo bachelor and it was fun, but the main reason for going for that was because I wanted the goodie bag! Lol! Honestly, I’m not all agog and fangirl when it comes to Cleo bachelors because as time goes by… they are getting younger and younger than I am. *shameful admission again wtf* Plus, I think that Tron deserves to be in the pages of Cleo more than some of the participants. *bragging now* So no more syioks factor.

So truly, I took part in the Kitschen event because I wanted the Kitschen voucher, not because I wanted to go for the speed dating thing. Okie, in fact it’s something like this — they had 3 separate contest in conjunction with the event. One was Redken, the other was Kitschen and the other was to win tickets to speed date with the bachelors. The winners from the Redken hair makeover and the Kitschen fashion makeover could get seats at the event, but we won’t have the “joy” of speed dating with the bachelors lah. So I thought… why not? I seriously like Kitschen clothes. Especially their shorts… I think I blogged about it before, so no point rehashing. Actually, at the beginning of the month, Tron took me shopping at Kitschen and I actually saw a LOT of stuff that I liked, but I was grumpy that day and didn’t want to go into the changing room so much (heh) and I had a REALLY strong feeling I was going to win this contest (SOMEONE UP THERE hinting to me to be patient), so I didn’t. Am so glad I didn’t!

Anyway, back to the main topic. So I won the contest, and they said that I should share the fun with a galpal, and if I bring a galpal, she would get an RM100 voucher too! Woohoo! Good or what? I decided to invite my sister, as I don’t think I treat her enough when I do win contests. Plus, haven’t seen her in a bit… so should share some sisterly day out.

In the email that CLEO sent to me, they clearly stated to me to collect my prize + tickets for the speed dating event, but that “winning this contest does not mean that you are taking part in the speed dating.”. Hey, that’s right up my alley. Don’t think that Tron would be happy with me speed dating other guys too, especially since he went with me that day. When they called me up later to confirm attendence, I CONFIRMED again with them that me and my galpal is NOT gonna be taking part in the speed dating event, and she said, “but we will organise some activities for you.”
Me : *start to panic* “What activities?!”
Her : “Oh… some fashion makeover.”

So my fears were allayed. Fashion makeover mah makeover me lor. Never did think of myself as a fashionable sort, so if they could make my pear shaped body look hot hoochie mama… then wonderful! Then my sister scared me and said, what if the fashion makeover thingy was like, being madeover by the bachelors? I tell you, we both also panicked when we got that idea, because surely guys don’t know how to dress up girls properly wan. *generalize* Then we both decided to throw caution to the wind, and make sure that we dress + makeup nicely on the day itself so that “at least our before picture will look nice”. Oh, and we thought that we would just like, take our fashion vouchers, then maybe watch the show for 1 hour, then leave. I told Tron that he only had to wait for him for 1 hour to 90 minutes!

Went to 1U early that day with Tron, and we all had lunch together at Delicious before going off for the event. Had such fun catching up with my sister, and then both Tron and I guilt-tripped her into visiting my parents later. Hahaha. That one off-topic. This was our food at Delicious… by the way, Tron is in loveeeee with the flourless orange cake now!

Separated from Tron, and my sister and I scoped out “Kitschen” before registering first, since we were early. I saw all the stuff that I wanted to buy, while my sister only really wanted one dress… so she said that she will let me have the “remainder” if she can’t buy enough to cover the RM100 voucher. So sweet, huh? Really selected the top galpal to go with me. ;p Anyway, then we registered and got our vouchers… and then we also got a pass to the Cleo finale in Mist Club on the 29th. As we were sitting down and enjoying the “VIP” seats (near the stage but not too near as we don’t want to look desperate, wtf), we were further pleasantly surprised by Cleo staff who gave us ANOTHER goodie bag. Now this was not expected! Shamelessly opened the bag to see that we got a recyclable bag from Alliance, a perfume & EDT from Playboy (which I also wanted to buy when I saw it in Guardian! And I got the scent that I wanted to… it was seriously such a blessing! I wanted to buy it but told myself not to waste money since I got darn a lot of perfumes at home already. Now I got it for free! – Play It Sexy!), a Redken shampoo and a Redken toiletry bag!

The event was delayed by about 40 minutes… during which time I really pitied Tron because he was waiting for me. But I told myself that since he wasn’t making a lot of noise (ie : calling me up), that he was having fun shopping. During the waiting period, Cleo staff went around taking video interviews of the gals there, asking them which bachelor they supported and why… some of the gals brought along the magazine so that they could continue ogling over the guys. I tried to clue my sis in on as much about the bachelors as I could (since I didn’t bring the magazine, and I didn’t really “study” everything, so basically we were just gushing about how weird it would be to see people speed date.  It’s like intruding on someone’s privacy right? Already speed dating, both couples are feeling awkward.. what more with spectators?). Finally, the shocker came when a Cleo staff said that there weren’t enough people for the speed dating event, and they might need us other contest winners to take part also! OMG! And though we tried to protest (you would think that my sister had a really good excuse, her being MARRIED AND ALL)… they said, “oh it’s just 1 minute, all we have to do is ask questions” and that we would also be given something. Then since we don’t want to give them too much trouble, and also because they look like they really lacked people to take part… we agreed la. TO HELP OUT AND ALL.

There was a fashion show by 10 of the bachelors wearing Kitschen stuff… during this time, kept praying that those people who actually WON the speed-dating contest would FREAKING TURN UP. Hahahhaa…

At the end, we still had to take part, and most of the girls who won the ‘non speed dating’ contests were grumbling cos obviously we didn’t enter the speed dating contest for a reason la… cos we don’t want to speed date! All looked so shy and want to die only. Hahaha! And we had no idea what the contest was going to be like. Suddenly from evil-ly gossiping with my sister on how fun it would be to intrude on people having a “first date”, we would be on the receiving end?! My sister said, if any guy falls for her, she will flash her wedding ring, wtf. Anyway, the Cleo staff gave each of us a list of questions and said that we have to ask the bachelors those questions, and we would be quizzed about it in the end. What!?!? Suddenly from speed date it became an interview? I was totally lost!

There were about 37 bachelors on the stage… and they stood around in a circle. We had to stand opposite them, and when the cow bell rings (after 60 seconds), we move on to the next bachelor. So the sneaky staffer who said we only have to quiz the bachelor for 1 minute is very sneaky indeed. 1 minute per bachelor still adds up to 37 minutes lor! And since I didn’t really know what was going on, I interviewed the 1st bachelor like a CNN interview. Ditto for the 2nd… 3rd… by then I was getting thirsty and I sneakily suspected my sister (who was just ahead of me) wasn’t asking questions from the cue card anyway. So I also didn’t want to bother. I just chat with them and ask them typical questions like… who put you up to this? Hehhe… If there’s really nothing about them that I wanted to talk about, or some of them are like quite shy also, then only would I ask them a random question from the cue card, and see whether we could strike up a conversation about something else from there. Anyway, with just 60 seconds, how much can you really ask.

Their “calling cards”… so that you would remember them.

I would say ALL of them are really nice EXCEPT for one guy with attitude problem. Seriously, his attitude problem is SO great that I really felt like slapping him right then and there. When I came to him, I just asked him some simple questions… and he said, “Seriously, all the answers are in the magazine… pick it up and read it”  <—- said in a bored, effed-up voice. I was like, who the heck do you think you are that I would memorise facts about you? Your head really up your arse, man! Maybe he thinks that we all entered this contest to speed date THEM so therefore he has a right to act all high and mighty. Then get that head so firmly lodged head outta your butt and keep in mind that you are not a celebrity… and “even a fool will appear wise if he keeps his mouth shut” — some of us were ASKED by the staff to take part! We are doing THEM a favor, we are NOT clamoring to meet you! (Off topic, but in case you are wondering why we didn’t insist on not taking part, it’s because my sis scared that they will boycott us from winning contests in the future… and also because we are helpful people. We are compassionate people who understand from the organisers point of view that this “game” has to be played with the right number of people, else it’s gonna be weird. I am serious about us being compassionate, this isn’t a tongue-in-cheek thing.)

Apparently he did the same thing to my sister, so probably he did it to all the girls. *yawn* Since he was so un-accomodating, I relegated him to the “just ask him questions from cue card” category, and then he said, “I have all the answers typed out already.” And he showed me this printout with all the answers for the questions on the cue card. Wah, I think this guy must have a fierce gf already who said, “You can take part in the speed dating event, but no way you can talk more than 10 words to each of them.” I really cannot think of any other plausible reason for him behaving like such an idiot. I thought this speed dating thing was to PROMOTE yourself and make people want to vote for you? Not to make people want to push you off the stage and stomp on you? Probably a misogynist? Why trouble yourself.. just stay at home and troll people from the comforts of your own home instead. Anyway, I told him quite frankly that I bought the magazine to enter contests, and not to salivate over bachelors, and definitely not him! *yawn*But I said it in a nice way. Hahaha. I really don’t know how I manage to spend the remainder of the 1 minute with him, but I seriously felt so thankful when it was all over. It was the longest 1 minute in my life! Thank you for making my life seem so long!

After that, I happened to meet one other bachelor…  who was so friendly, and don’t know why, but somehow he asked me how it was so far, and I was still bristling over the other guy, so I said, “All of you are great! Except one…. *moody voice” And he said, “who is that? let me punch him for you.” Oh man… an offer that I would love to take up. There are many nice chaps there that day, I wish them good luck, whether in winning this competition (or winning any sub-categories) or in finding a gf (if they don’t already have one). =) Oh, and one of the bachelors ask me if I’m mixed Japanese… hahahaha. Actually, I was quite rude.. I told him he doesn’t look mixed… cos he’s mixed Chinese and Irish and he just looks pure Irish to me. *feels bad* I was just in shock. Oh, and I had a good laugh at some of them because their profile pic in Cleo is DAMN DAMN BAD, but in real life they look better. I have to give credit to ALL the bachelors (minus one) for being such good sports. Seriously, takes guts to be in your position and probably there were girls who unintended-ly said something not-so-nice to you (it could’ve been me…) and I just wanna say thank you really, for being nice and friendly. Enjoy the limelight!

After the gruelling 37 minutes was over, the “giveaway” was express lane to the bachelor finale in Mist Club. -__- If you have the “regular” invite, you have to line up, but with the express lane — well, you’ll be partying like a VIP. So to win it, they will ask you a random question from the 10 questions you are supposed to ask them, and it could from any of the 37 bachelors. Well, since I didn’t plan to go to the finale, I didn’t answer the questions. =___= Also, because I wasn’t really doing my duty in interviewing them. I’m really surprised at some of these girls that memorised everything! Good job! =)

Was so thirsty after that, and I was so scared that Tron would be angry cos he ended up waiting THREE HOURS for me. I feel so bad (especially since the reason was that I had to take part in a speed dating event that initially I had told him I wasn’t participant, just a spectator)! He said that he should have just gone home and I could hitch a ride back with my sister… and I agree. There was no point to him waiting… since after that, we went home directly. Sigh.. hope my sister had an easier time explaining to her husband why she ended up speed dating 37 guys. Hahahahhahaahhaha… Luckily my sister told Tron that we had already tried our best to weasel out of it. ~_~

Aww.. Tron bought me a present. I shall pretend that it’s my anniversary gift.

Cutest bachelor of all. Undeniable!

And the reason why I didn’t have dinner with Tron, but went home was because … as mentioned earlier, I thought the whole thing was a quick get-my-voucher-and-ciao thing, so I thought I would be spending all day with Tron, and I could have dinner with Dull at night. -___-  I decided to arrange a dinner with Dull using my Groupon deal at Chillout Bar since Tron was getting sick of all my group purchasing shennanigans. Dull said she could understand Tron’s point of view, but she is glad to join me for any other future cheap buys. The Chillout Bar deal is RM30 for an RM95 meal consisting of mushroom soup, an either grilled lamb / chicken / fish, and ice-lemon tea. This was our meal :

**noticed how the sky has changed color from the first pic of Dull to the last one.. hahahhaa. We were there for about 2.5 hours! All alone and enjoying the privacy of the upper deck!**

Dull didn’t know how much it costs… and guess what? She thought that the discounted price I paid for is the original price! *fainted* Hahaa… the portions for the food are REALLY small, but it tastes good. The mushroom soup was heavenly, even. But I do agree that I won’t pay RM95 for “fine dining”. Still, thanks to Groupsmore for the experience. We sat at the upper deck by ourselves (everyone else preferred to sit in the air-conditioned area), so we could gossip and laugh loudly about everything that’s been happening since the last time we met (almost a month ago!). Was really fun… and Dull told me that Chillout Bar serves great pizzas and the happy hour prices are really worth it. So we might be coming back in the future. All girl’s nite out! Yay!

Okie, I initially wanted to squeeze in the Sunday update together with this entry, but my rant got a bit too lengthy. So I shall update another post later. By the way, yes I am still up and waiting for the batch run to complete after resolving the issue. It’s been 2hrs 20 minutes since my plan to go to sleep early has been disrupted. ^^

Peaceful & Sunny April 12, 2011

Another Saturday, another group purchasing coupon used. This time, we went to Rosemary Bites in Aman Suria. To be honest, I had no idea where it was, just a rough idea from Google maps (which later, we misread). Aman Suria is not that hard to get to la, just that it’s not some place that we would usually go to. We used a Milkadeal coupon – RM14.90 for one lemonade, one mushroom soup with garlic bread and one Columbus lamb chop. Pretty good deal, I would say.

The restaurant was cosy, clean and the chef / owner was friendly. In the end, we even took a Grandma’s Apple Crumble with vanilla ice-cream for dessert. It’s pretty cheap – RM6.90, and the portion is bigger than Dish Deli. Therefore, Tron rated this restaurant better than Dish Deli. However, I would say that we couldn’t really do a fair assessment since both of us actually don’t really like lamb chop. Hahaha! Actually, not that I don’t like lamb chop, just that I find that it is something that I wouldn’t choose to eat. Thinking back, I don’t know why I bought this Milkadeal also. Think it’s the first EVAR deal I bought, and I was very hyped up.

Still, a nice place that is worth checking out if you’re ever in the Aman Suria area. The mushroom soup and garlic bread were very yummy, and the portion for the Columbus lamb chop was also generous. I really do like the whole Aman Suria area – a lot of nice shops nearby for you to poke around in. E.g: Tron found a place selling something that he has been looking for for over a year in Aman Suria. We might be going back there again to get more stock. ^^ (I told him that we can use my other Milkadeal coupon there — for Just Pies. He said no. =[ )

One thing that I have to mention about this place and about group purchasing in general is that... there was no one else in the restaurant using coupons, other than us.. AT FIRST. Then this middle age couple came in, asked to see the menu, flip thru it and check it out and all that. Then after that said they are using the Milkadeal coupon. I found that so strange and time wasting. If you wanted to use your coupon, why still ask to see the menu and pretend like you wanted to order something? The coupon already stated specifically what you can order. Maybe they want to see what else there is so that they can come back and order next time? But that is very optimistic right, considering that you haven't tasted the food yet. Tron said maybe they are not as thick skin as me to just walk into the restaurant and announce, "I want to use this coupon." -___-"

That evening, I had to go to church as well for "Vision Hour", which is basically, getting to know the pastors on a more personal level. Actually, I'm quite intimidated and awkward around things like this... but it went well and it was interesting to get to know more about the church. I'm actually very excited to start serving again... whether in IT, or in communications (like newsletter layouts and stuff like that), or with Sunday school. Obviously I won't be teaching (since I'm a newbie), but maybe help the teachers look after the kids? *really really excited*

Had lunch with a fellow church mate on Sunday... who also works in the same bank as I do --- Peter. We had lunch in D'Italianne Kitchen in Jaya 33... which I just had lunch there last Wednesday. I was ... celebrating something alone, so I went all out and had the cheese stuffed beef, with a side of pureed potatoes and sauteed mushrooms. It's just too much, and IMHO, the beef didn't taste that good either. I ordered the lamb and spinach cannoli which had too much cheese. Super zhai. Should've gone with my instinct and have a salad instead, but the salad menu seems to have changed recently. Think Delicious still has the yummiest salads in town.

I was on leave on Wednesday to clear up some banking matters... and when I was opening a bank account (for some Air Asia savings thing) --- I think I've been cheated by **this** (not telling you which, don't want them to see this entry til I clear all things up... maybe if everything is cleared up I will be crowing happily pulaks) bank I tell you! They called me up saying that they would deposit RM50 into my account if I open this AirAsia savers deposit account and until now I don't have the extra money. BUT they did deduct RM8 from my opening balance for annual fees la! What the...!! And then the main point of this account is to access to this part of their ebanking website, whereby I can bid for tickets earlier or something. Even though my account name has "AIR ASIA SAVERS" in it, it says I cannot access that part of the website because it's only for AirAsia Savers. WTF?

Anyway, another stupid reason why I opened the account was because I had a fantasy that I would be winning a contest organised by this same bank. They have already released the list of winners and I'm not on it, so obviously the fantasy remains a fantasy. -____-" But hellooo... at least bank in that RM50 that you told me that I would be getting for opening the account. Right now you just made me feel like you conned RM8 out of me la.

But you know what? I did win THIS instead... *very very very very very very very small consolation at the moment.*

**This picture was name "Failed Mirror" for a reason **

[Edited on 13/4 : 1:36am] I beh tahan and called up **the** bank’s hotline… and apparently I have to do some manual tagging to be able to access the AirAsia Savers section. Even though I can view the account under my details, and they *know* I have an AirAsia Savers, I have to “tag” it… like saying, “Hello… I hereby declare I DO have this account!” There’s some explanation on why this occurs, but this is not special to **The** bank… most banks have this kinda procedure as well and I’ll explain more when I am not sleepy. Also, they said the RM50 will be deposited to me within 8 weeks time… omg…! [end edit]