More Turkey & Wine

Just like previous years, my sister will invite our family to have Christmas Day dinner either at her house or her in-laws. This year at her in-laws as there are other relatives joining as well. The food my sister and her in-law prepared were always delicious! Despite is the same every year but I'm always looking forward to the turkey and satay. Unfortunately, the camera-man is my brother and the food pictures is not taken. Hehehe... But, pictures of my adorable nieces never failed to put a smile in this Christmas season... especially when Elisa now is able to talk and run around.

Turkey & Wine

This year, I decided that I want to celebrate Christmas Eve somewhere outside and if possible wanna go somewhere to countdown & celebrate it with some restaurant crowds at the strike of 12. For a difference...

How can Christmas be without turkey?! And wine?! Thus, arranged to have dinner with Scott at Victoria Station, Taipan as I have surf the net to check where I can have both turkey & wine. Since I don't want to take the hassle to go home after work and then, comes out again for dinner, most people gave me a surprise-smile whenever I walked to some other departments at work. Needless me to elaborate more... (for those who knows me well and see me everyday at work, will know why).

Firstly, I had to give credit to Jasmine who gave me a very strong encouragement to organize the dinner last night and also getting me prepared for it both mentally, physically and spiritually. Hehehe... *grin* I'm not trying to exaggerate but it's really true!

Despite that part of the Christmas Eve plan was not able to "materialize" but I'm still happy to have proceed with the dinner. I'm sorry if I may in some ways give Victoria St, Taipan a bad comment but their service and food is really not to my expectation. I had made an advance reservation by a few days and yet, when we got to the main door, the waiter/waitress don't even check if any reservation was made. And the place is packed like sardine and we sat at a corner of a mini-staircase. Yes, I agreed as it's the festive season but it's not the first time, this restaurant celebrate them. They should have hire enough staffs to accommodate the peak-season. We were told that no cocktails or a glass-wine can be ordered by one of the higher-level waiter (that wears a coat). So, we still wanna try our luck so we placed our orders of cocktails with a lower-level waiter. He was a young and friendly waiter that took our orders and came back with the bad news. But he was so much better than the waiter-with-a-coat.

We left Victoria Station immediately after our meals that don't seems to appetizing either and feeling over-crowded and warm at the same time. Scott decided to hang out at one of his friend's place and so we went there to start drinking. Here, I met Yan & Sarah; their baby is fast asleep when we got there. After the introduction & pouring each of us a glass JD, we sat down to play cards. Yan has the obscene cards which the men are in bottom-less *chuckled* After a few rounds, we got bored with the card-games so Sarah suggested we played this boardgame called: TABOO. Gals vs Guys and Gals won! I had a great time with this game!!

Bright Sunny Monday

Surprisingly, it's a beautiful bright sunny Monday for me...

Just got into office about 15 minutes ago and I still have some time to spare before I start my work officially. Thought, I'll just blog a little since I'm feeling good today despite that my body is aching and tired but the spirit is alive... Totally no blues... kekeke... feeling really otherwise!

Last night, I had a very late night... I dozed off almost 1am which is actually today morning. Finally, finish the HK drama: Moonlight Resonance of 40 episodes. It's a drama full of tears and despite the ending was somehow normal but everyone ended happy at last.

Left home about 7.10am and my car-radio was tuned to MIX.fm and happened that then put on many of my favourite songs. And to top that up, Serena C & Pietro as usual have a topic to discuss and debate among themselves and listeners who calls in. Today, as per Pietro, it was proven thru a research that, "Men spend more than women." Hillarious when I first hear it but when you actually ponder over it... somehow, its true to some extend. But Pietro was putting this higher spending expenses of men to blame it on women because they have to buy us many things, for eg. flowers, chocolates, gifts, diamond, gold... the list goes on.

Hahaha... Unfortunately, there are many women callers that agrees with the statement and started mentioning and telling about the men that they know, how they spend and blaaa... Pietro also mentioned how men purchase a quality item which is very costly as compare to the quantity. I just wished I could continue to sit in my car even after I arrived the office and listen on to this topic. *chuckled* I couldn't stop myself from wonder that maybe, the world is turning to a different trend these days... Men loves to spend as much as women nowsdays, if you walk around you and observed, men indeed have been spending on service/treatments that we used to think women only does that. There is nothing to be embarrassed about and of course, we are not always talking about equality between men and women.

I shall leave this post to everyone to ponder just like me this morning and I hope, I'll have a good Monday ahead of me... it started well and smooth... and it shall end like it started. Have a nice Monday and look forward to a Merry Christmas everyone!

Jaime's Pre Wedding Day

Despite there is a new-restructuring in my job scope and things are bit shaky with the changes, I decided to proceed with my annual leave that I already applied a month ago for today to accompany Jaime for her pre-wedding day...

Most of the time, it's not the time or money that counts... It's the ever-super word; "thought" that counts... Guessed, just being there does make a different... Just wanna be there for her...

At about 7am, I woke up and on my phone and there was a sms from Jaime dated today but it's at 12.15am asking me if I could pick her up at the CIMB bank since she needed to hand over her car to Alan. Still in my semi-conscious mind, I'm thinking, "CIMB? Errr... which one... Tomorrow? Is it the 6th or today?" and I decided to hit the bathroom; do the necessary morning routines and get back to the sms. Well, alot of "thinking" always take place in the bathroom for me *chuckled*

So, I had to picked her up at the bank at 9.45am and I was running superb-late because I mis-calculated the timing when I hit the shower and had my breakfast. I left house at almost 9.30am; hit the KESAS-hightway with the speed limit of 120km/hr and surprisingly I reached the Summit-Exit at close to 9.45am but then it was so long queue that I was a running a bit late to pick her up.

We dropped by the Shell-station near Jaime's house and got my car washed as I hadn't got the time to do it for almost a month plus and with the constant rainy days; I really felt it's a waste of energy to try attempting to wash it. For RM8, there isn't much to be complaint about...

After stopping by for an hour in Jaime's house while waiting for Bonnie; Jaime's friend from Hong Kong to prepare and Jaime herself busy with her last minute guest listing re-arrangement, we hit the road to Taipan for our lunch before our Manicure & Pedicure. We settled for Burger King since it's right at the corner and when one is close to starving, anything is good.

I'm impressed with the Nail Shop and I'm very satisfied with their service too. People are friendly and make us feel right at home... It took us about 1.5 hours in there and we came out with a smile on our faces (awaiting for Bonnie to send me the pictures).

Since there isn't much Jaime wanted to do, we decided to go Subang Parade so I can consult her about the Lewre shoe that I saw and planned to wear it for her Wedding dinner. As usual, I need to consult and I think a lot before purchasing it because the price is RM179. Jaime thinks the one I like is casual so, she recommended me to get the one next to it. She said it's more appropriate for a dinner event. And it's RM159... and when I tried it on... she said it makes my legs looked so much longer. Well, I had not buy an expensive shoe for many years... so, this somehow make it very memorable... it's Jaime's wedding mar! It's worth it.


Jaime accidentally smudged her french-nail polish and we went back to her house to get it fixed. But unfortunately, it didn't look good and I sent her back to the shop to get it re-do. While waiting for her in the car, I had a good chat with Bonnie.

The evening ended with a buffet dinner at Jaime's... I really wished I could eat more but then, I had to remind myself that, I had to get into a dress tomorrow night. Hehehe...

Are We Happy?

One Tree Hill (5th Season) came on-air last night on 8TV without me knowing it because there wasn't any "Coming Soon" advertisement on it like my all time favourite Gilmore Girls. The first episode took my mind away on how true we at times will ponder what we want from life and whether are we "really" happy?

Quote

Peyton: Hi, it's Peyton. Yeah, I'm sorry. I know it's late there, I just... what happened to us? You know? I don't know who I am anymore. Or how I got here. I miss who I used to be. I wanna have a home again, ya know? And real friends. You know, the kind of friendships we used to believe in. I miss that. And I miss you. I guess I just miss all of it. Does any of that make any sense?

Brooke: Yeah, it makes all the sense in the world, Peyton. Four years ago, it all seemed so clear, didn't it? Conquer the world, save the world, live happily ever after.

Peyton: Are you happy, Brooke?

Brooke: Sometimes. Not always. Are you?

Peyton: No.

Brooke: Okay, then let me ask you something. What is gonna make you happy, Peyton? Is it how you look? Or the car you drive or the people you know? Is it money or celebrity or power or accomplishments? Because I have all those things and I don't think it's enough.

Peyton: Well then, what is?

Brooke: Love, I think. And that love can be for a boy or a girl or a place or a way of life or even for a family. But where you find it is up to you. So where are you gonna find that love, Peyton?

Peyton: I think I need to go home.

Brooke: Yeah. I was hoping you'd say that.

Unquote

I remembered once when I was at me deepest sorrows overseas and my Dad dropped me an email and said, "Leave everything and come home." So, there is a saying, "Home Sweet Home". True enough, every time I think of migration... I always remember what my Dad said... and I think the family-ties and the never-ending love from my family will always stop me from making my decision to move-out or away since I don't have a family of my own.

New Eye-Glasses

Accidentally dropped my glasses on Sunday and each corner of the lenses chip-off. Was getting ready for the church-conference dinner and carelessly knock-down my glasses from my dressing-corner. Showed Dad the result of it and he said, "You can change the lenses or it's a sign that it's time you get a new pair of glasses" with a chuckled.

Been scouting around few months for a new-pair that I could "love at first sight" but so far no such luck, almost decided to get a new-pair with Scott the last time we visited his regular optician but due to the pricing; he decided that he is not up to it. Thus, I also took the chance as an excuse to look for the "ONE" when I think I really need it.

Just collected my new-pair specially picked by my Dad last night. Over hundreds for him to select; he can end-up picking the high-end range... Burned my wallet but since I was not as enthusiastic as I should, I just go with whatever choice my Dad thinks looks good on me. Looking at it now thru the mirror reflection, I simply think it's just a pair of eye-glass and I'll probably take a while to get use to the new one since my power actually decrease a bit 1 eye.

Being not a fashion-lover or anyone close to that, I can only depend on others to give me opinions. Probably I had grew up to always seek opinions from my Dad and it's been in-born and habitual for me. Hehehe... Think if one day, if I ever get rich, I wanna have my own personal fashion-adviser!

Oh yeah... What took me most surprised last night was when I was checking my eye-sight and the man who served me said, "This lenses has no power for long-sighted, only astigmatism" and me being astound, "Really? That's strange." A few months ago when I visited my regular optician when I had the headaches, I don't recall him saying such a thing. And I'm not sure I should be jumping for joy so soon knowing this new fact... Before last night, I had no chance to wear contact-lenses due to the long-sighted but now, with special-ordered contact-lenses for astigmatism, I can actually wear them!! Wwweeeee...that will be my next plan when I have more money to spend. :D

De Mask Gala

I had never attended an official event that I had arrived 1 hour before it starts and still completely in my casual-wear and without even any make-up or hair-do... Halloween just over last night and still the horrifying-spirits still haunting us?

Jasmine and I supposed to meet up our 4 other colleagues for our last rehearsal on our Gothic choreography at at 4.30pm @ One World Hotel. Because I missed one turning that I had to take towards IKEA; somehow I had to make several turns and with the late-noon traffic not too pleasant, we arrived at IKEA to get our candles & it's candle-holder shortly by 4pm. And the queue for the payment took us ages. And by 5pm, we struggled to look for our colleagues and last option, we head to the restroom to get dressed and get our make-up done. SO, you can imagine how awful and ugly it is... maybe, it suited our theme well...

The event started off with us taking our self-portrait. Mom actually saw a hard-copy printout of this picture when I got home and she goes, "Is this you? I can't recognise you... very different..." and I replied, "Ugly, right?" and chuckled my way into my room while my mom continue to grin and mumble some words. Heard her saying from downstairs, "I'm going to leave it wide-open on top of the piano for your dad to see tomorrow."

The most memoriable among all will be Jasmine and I had to work on our black-nail polish in my small-macho Kembara. Forgetting our femininity, we had to struggle in the car to get our nails ready for our choreography... WE almost forgotten about it...

~*~*~ Fertilizer Div. Group Picture ~*~*~

~*~ With Managing Director (with joker-hat) ~*~With Asst. GM (juz pretend he's drunk) & act cute

Once Dato' Lee arrived, we were allowed to enter the ballroom. Seating arrangement is actually flexible but I ended up sitting with the fertilizer-group because of our choreography. First dish was beautiful and delicious; four-season is always nice no doubt in any restaurant. Following that... everything is normal and being in a expensive hotel, I honestly don't recommend to take the food here again...

Possing for our Gothic-choreography group picture minutes before our turn (the men with lighted candles & the women with a bible & a stem of rose); it's not easy to look serious and horrifying!! Especially Vincent; he is always grinning-charmingly. Hahahaha... even in this picture, he couldn't help himself from smiling to the camera.

Phew... what a relief when the choreography ended and I can wipe off my dark-purplish lipstick. The whole ballroom was stunned with our horrfying look and how fierce we are that they kept silent the whole time we entered the ballroom on the red-carpet. I wasn't even looking at anyone's face expression in case I grinned our chuckled... I just kept a stern-lip and walked thru the crowds who were figuring out what we are doing next.

After our meals & booze; we head out to the photo-corner and feeling on-top-of the world with Ng winning the grand-luckydraw prize (a trip to Bali for two), he wanna us to fool around in front of the hired-camera-men. Meanwhile, Joshua & Chong haven't had their self-portrait taken earlier so they decided they want all of us to be in their "portray" to bring home as memoir. And after the printout came out; I was so in love with the "shots"!! I love the big-group shot.

Elisa "am" her porridge

"Aammm"...

"I luvf my porichg..."

"Oh...Yum-mie-Yum-mie"

"Mind my baby-slang yea..."

"Auntie-Faith is filming me?? Mmmm..."

"Come, Come, Come..." says Mummie.

*slurp*... licking wif my tougue

Eh...eh... *shake my head*

Coco : The Poodle

Invitation from my Company's Managing Director to have dinner at his home. The main-course was "roasted pork" and this happened to be the second time I tasted the same chef-supplier who prepared it. And being in MD's home for the second time, I did not follow the rest to tour around his house. Instead, I was so eager to play with his poodle-pup that I took it out from it's cage and carry it around and play with it.

Jenny even remarked, "Looks like our Faith here won't be leaving the house early as planned since she is having a good time with the pup" with a chuckled. Oh yes! I lost track of the time when I had Coco (the poodle's name) in my embraced and occassionally, lazing itself at my lap.

Oohhh... now, I still can imagine it's smell even after my shower. I told Mr Leong that if his family going for a vacation, he can always get me to babysit the puppy for him. Hehehe...

Cameron Highlands

~*~ 31st August 2008 ~*~

Last Thursday, got an invitation from Yoong Han to join her family and herself to Cameron Highlands, Pahang for 2 days 1 night trip. OOoohhh… that’s interesting!! I agreed and was excited about it since then. I can’t recall anything much from my last trip there which is probably over 20 years.

We departed Klang at about 9am with Yoong Han’s 2-weeks old new Honda City and by 11am, we reached Simpang Pulai; supposed to be a new way up to Cameron and less winding. It’s about 90km till we reach Brinchang & Tanah Rata. While we driving upwards and passing thru some small towns, it was not as I remembered during my kiddo visit many years ago. Now, everything is very commercialized and they plant all the vegetables and flowers in nursery where you just see their roof-top-covers in white-plastic from the road. Not a beautiful sight though…

Almost reaching Brinchang, I had to request to stop to take some fresh air. I was feeling very uneasy and nausea. *phew* - the fresh air makes a lot of different. Weather upwards was simply normal. Doesn’t even feel the coolness and the sun was shining brightly. As we were heading to Tanah Rata, suddenly we came across the apartment that Yoong Han’s sister booked. Thus, we turned into the Parkland apartment, checked-in and leave our luggage & things.

As it’s almost 2pm, we are all hungry and I was warned by YH that today, they will be vegetarian due to the 1st month of the new Chinese calendar. I’m pretty fine with it but unfortunately, we looked everywhere for the vegetarian restaurant but couldn’t find any even after we had stopped to ask someone in the shop. Last option, we settled ourselves in a mamak-shop and I ordered chicken rice & milo-ice for lunch. Since, I’m so hungry, the large size serving of the rice, I managed to finish it.

Then, we head back downwards to check out the Ye Olde Smokehouse. There is a same branch in Fraser’s Hill that I did not get to savour their scones back then, thus I wanna try it here. Upon entering this place; they have beautiful gardens and unfortunately, I discovered that my camera failed me again. I no longer able to take outdoor-picture with it, I’m so sad *sobs*sobs* So, I had to depend on YH’s camera the whole trip.

After lingering around the old-cottage and the gardens, we settled in the garden chairs to order something to eat. But it started to drizzle so we decided to look for a cosy place to sit inside the cottage. For a start, YH’s sister ordered a set of their pot of tea+2 scones+1 fruit cake which cost RM33!! After trying it, it doesn’t taste good so, I decided to order a scoop of vanilla ice cream that cost RM5.50. They have their Smokehouse Ice Cream that cost RM11++ which according to the waitress, it’s sweeter than the normal which I had to shake my head to it. Why pay additional RM6 for something sweeter?!?! So not healthy…

Relaxing at a cottage is good and soothing but being in it too long makes me sleepy and I almost fall asleep. Our next destination is to check out the tea plantation. So, we head towards Ringlet. Somehow, YH’s sister got a little worried about it and decided to u-turn back and head back to Tanah Rata. Actually, my expectation of Tanah Rata are brown-huts selling vegetables, fruits, flowers and some crafts but to my much surprised, it’s a modern little bricks-town with fast-food and even Starbucks!!

We head back to the apartment to rest at about 5pm because there isn’t much can be seen and most of the markets and farms are closed for the day. Wanted to take a nap but instead decided to have my shower before we go out for dinner.

About 6.30pm, we found the Organic Steamboat restaurant which also served vegetarian-steamboat just opposite Casa dela Rosa hotel. Its’ a big crowd and we had to wait about 20 minutes for our table. I’m very amazed with the charcoal and high-chimney steamboat wok. This is really traditional way of eating steamboat. *chuckled* Also, my very first time to have vegetarian-steamboat my whole life!! Shall leave the tasty comments for individual taste buds…

Next, we head to the Brinchang night market. I did not get anything from here as there is nothing much that fascinated me. There is one stall selling a kind of kueh that I had never seen but the queue was so long that I did not know where the line starts. At the end, when I had the courage to ask the ‘pak cik’ who is making & selling the kueh, he informed me that his ‘batter’ is almost finish and he cannot promise me if it’s enough to sell to me. Thus, I had to dismiss my intention to try this kueh.

Headed home at about 9.30pm and continue on some of the vegetarian-steamboat that we “tapau” back because we cannot finish earlier. There is nothing much to do but to watch TV for the night and there is only 2 channels that are able to be received; TV1 and TV2. Had no other choice but to watch a boring & meaningless Chinese movie.

~*~ 1st September 2008 ~*~

Dreamland by 12am and it was very cold then because it started raining. And it rained thru the whole morning till 7am non-stopped. But when the sun decided to show it’s face, the temperature increased to warmer. After having a cup of coffee and a hard-boiled egg, we checked-out and drove downwards and visited a strawberry & cactus farm. We spend quite a long time here because YH’s mom and sis planning to get some potted plants back.

At the strawberry farm, they also served scones and other products made from strawberry. What caught my attention is the strawberry pop-corns!! And I was told it’s actually cooked with strawberry jam instead of adding honey/sugar as coating. I bought the scones here for RM4 and it tasted so much more yummie as compare to the Smokehouse. Highly recommended to eat here for the scones in future-visit.

As we heading downwards, we stopped a few places to check out the markets. Weather is pretty unexpected as it rains and stopped frequently. Along the way down, there are clouds just covering the roads. And the breeze is cool and I enjoyed the ride downwards. We even stopped by the tea plantation but we were told it’s closed on Monday thus we only took half of the journey from the main road. The road into the plantation is narrow and lots of honking and you will be happy not to meet some really kiasu-drivers who refused to give way whatsoever.

At about 12pm, I told them I had to get lunch before we reach the bottom because I don’t think I could take another winding road down with a hungry stomach like yesterday. So, we stopped at Kg. Raja for lunch. And we continue our journey back to Klang with a few stops at rest-area. Ahhh… what a trip… it’s really quite a disappointment with the farms and things are not cheap anymore. The place is not clean either and since it’s tea plantation, you can expect the Indian population to be the largest here and of course, the farmers are majority Chinese.