Yikes... I'm invited for another session with the EVP this Friday (different group of ppl from the last)... There goes the rest of my week...
Arrrggghhh!!!!!!! I've not even recovered mentally & emotionally to face another session & here I am invited for another. I've not even started to gain skill sets to "polish apples".... How!? How!? How?!
Sigh.... maybe gotta start doing my homework now... Pre-plan some questions. Pre-plan some discussion topics... & yes.... Stay away from topics I dunno like horses & expat life! Groan... I'm dreading this....
Tuesday 29 September 2009
Thursday 17 September 2009
Planned Holiday to Krabi - Oct'09
Hubby's friends invited us to join them for an outing in Krabi (4D3N). Of course, hubby being the diver was excited by the place. He has been pestering me to get the leave to join him since the idea was brought up! I finally relented.
However, I don't want to be stuck just reading novels around the hotel compound / seaside while hubby & the men goes diving (which I don't mind to be honest, it's my form of relaxation - but it would be a waste considering it Krabi). If anyone has been there, do suggest if there are any particularly good places to visit in Krabi.
I'll also do some research on-line.
However, I don't want to be stuck just reading novels around the hotel compound / seaside while hubby & the men goes diving (which I don't mind to be honest, it's my form of relaxation - but it would be a waste considering it Krabi). If anyone has been there, do suggest if there are any particularly good places to visit in Krabi.
I'll also do some research on-line.
Wednesday 9 September 2009
09-09-09...... Radio Day?
It's 09-09-09 today..... I have a feeling I'll be seeing 10-10-10 very very soon.... Time really flies....
Oh & also just found out from the radio tht 09-09 is also declared as Radio Day. I was just telling my colleagues, I'm not surprise if there's Sushi Day, PS (Playstation) Day, Handbag Day etc... Soon we'll run out of the 365 dates / year to allocate the days after something... or maybe it's already fully taken up with some double / triple overlap too.
Should I declare 10-10 as Fern's Day! On tht day, everyone should be wearing nothing else but Ferns! haha.... Ok obviously my work is making me a bit crazy right now. I'll stop before I write any more silly stuff... :-p
Oh & also just found out from the radio tht 09-09 is also declared as Radio Day. I was just telling my colleagues, I'm not surprise if there's Sushi Day, PS (Playstation) Day, Handbag Day etc... Soon we'll run out of the 365 dates / year to allocate the days after something... or maybe it's already fully taken up with some double / triple overlap too.
Should I declare 10-10 as Fern's Day! On tht day, everyone should be wearing nothing else but Ferns! haha.... Ok obviously my work is making me a bit crazy right now. I'll stop before I write any more silly stuff... :-p
Movie Review: On His Majesty's Secret Service (Canto)
The Cantonese version of this movie's title sounds like 009 (like Bond's Agent 007). It sounds like 9, but the Chinese character is actually "Dog" (similar sounding). It's about an emperor who has his Royal elite bodyguards - 12 in fact. Each of the royal guards is named after the animals on the lunar calendar (i.e. Rat, Snake, Dragon etc). Agent "Dog" is slightly unique. While the other bodyguards are highly skilled in martial arts; he's the brainy one who rid the enemies with his gadgets.
The movie is certainly very funny with Louis Ku's poker face & Sandra Ng's hilarious facial expressions. However got to admit, as in most comedies, it's not really worth going to the movies for. Probably a VCD / DVD (original pls.... cummon lar... only RM19.90 for the whole family wor... still cheaper than going to the cinemas right) would suffice.
Not as belly aching funny as Kungfu Hustle, but still a good watch. More suitable for those who are well versed in Cantonese / Chinese, cos' some of the jokes can only be understood if you know the language.
The movie is certainly very funny with Louis Ku's poker face & Sandra Ng's hilarious facial expressions. However got to admit, as in most comedies, it's not really worth going to the movies for. Probably a VCD / DVD (original pls.... cummon lar... only RM19.90 for the whole family wor... still cheaper than going to the cinemas right) would suffice.
Not as belly aching funny as Kungfu Hustle, but still a good watch. More suitable for those who are well versed in Cantonese / Chinese, cos' some of the jokes can only be understood if you know the language.
Holiday in Penang - travel home
Although we had good breakfast of Curry Mee, an equally fantastic Chicken curry lunch (home cooked) & we rested before starting our journey home, but the incident on the way home snatched the highlight of the day.
We crossed the Penang bridge without much special incident, but just as we cross the slight slope near AutoCity Juru, the cars in front suddenly braked. Hubby braked & swerved to the left to avoid head on collision, but we still rammed on the left rear of a black Honda City. The sound was deafening but surprisingly hubby & I were not badly "flung" forward by the impact. The seat belts must be very good. Fortunately the airbag did not get blown up as well (I was told tht airbags could cause slight scrapes / superficial injury especially since both of us wear spectacles). I can't describe how I felt at tht time, but I was more shocked from the sound of the collision rather than the collision itself.
The sound was so scary tht I dare not even get down from the car to take a look at the damage. Immediately there's a whole group of ppl with walkie talkies on motorbikes swarmed our car offering towing & repair services. Goodness, I've not even recovered from the accident & all these strangers keep bombarding us with "advise", questions etc; tht I'm amazed hubby still had the presence of mind to calm me down first, said sorry & leave the car to talk. I was still zoning out, when hubby asked me to take the details of the car we bumped into.
Anyway, after much discussion with my brother-in-law over the phone, hubby finally decided to just clear the metal pieces tht got partially torn out from the front right corner of the car to avoid it scraping the tyres & continue driving back to KL. Of course the buzz around us intensified scaring us with "advice" tht we will cause more damage & we should wait for a tow truck. We left anyway, but we stopped by at Bukit Mertajam police station to lodge a police report (apparently because the accident is in Juru, we must report in the same area & not in KL). It was at the police station tht I caught the first glimpse of the damaged area. Wahliao! Like someone took a can opener & open the whole side cover above the right front wheel. Even the headlamp & cornerlight was crushed out of shape. Surprisingly, the headlamp is still functional; which is a blessing cos' by the time we left Bukit Mertajam & head back to the North South highway, it's already 6+pm.
Just when we start to settle in to our journey, with the torn metal flap protruding to the side (from the force of the wind as our car move forward) & ppl from other cars pointing at us. Smack! Crack! Suddenly a medium sized solar system appeared on our windscreen! A %$@$#@$% lorry drove over a piece of stone & it sling shot against our windscreen... Really really like the Malay saying "Sudah Jatuh Ditimpa Tangga"... Real Soey.... I think if we're more traditional thinking, we might have said "Aiya... we didn't check the lunar calendar to see whether it's safe to leave the house or not... That's why lar..." :-p
Anyway, we finally reached home without much incident. Phew... whattaday.... Fortunately we took an additional 1 day leave to run some errants. Now we have 1 additional errant... repair car!
We crossed the Penang bridge without much special incident, but just as we cross the slight slope near AutoCity Juru, the cars in front suddenly braked. Hubby braked & swerved to the left to avoid head on collision, but we still rammed on the left rear of a black Honda City. The sound was deafening but surprisingly hubby & I were not badly "flung" forward by the impact. The seat belts must be very good. Fortunately the airbag did not get blown up as well (I was told tht airbags could cause slight scrapes / superficial injury especially since both of us wear spectacles). I can't describe how I felt at tht time, but I was more shocked from the sound of the collision rather than the collision itself.
The sound was so scary tht I dare not even get down from the car to take a look at the damage. Immediately there's a whole group of ppl with walkie talkies on motorbikes swarmed our car offering towing & repair services. Goodness, I've not even recovered from the accident & all these strangers keep bombarding us with "advise", questions etc; tht I'm amazed hubby still had the presence of mind to calm me down first, said sorry & leave the car to talk. I was still zoning out, when hubby asked me to take the details of the car we bumped into.
Anyway, after much discussion with my brother-in-law over the phone, hubby finally decided to just clear the metal pieces tht got partially torn out from the front right corner of the car to avoid it scraping the tyres & continue driving back to KL. Of course the buzz around us intensified scaring us with "advice" tht we will cause more damage & we should wait for a tow truck. We left anyway, but we stopped by at Bukit Mertajam police station to lodge a police report (apparently because the accident is in Juru, we must report in the same area & not in KL). It was at the police station tht I caught the first glimpse of the damaged area. Wahliao! Like someone took a can opener & open the whole side cover above the right front wheel. Even the headlamp & cornerlight was crushed out of shape. Surprisingly, the headlamp is still functional; which is a blessing cos' by the time we left Bukit Mertajam & head back to the North South highway, it's already 6+pm.
Just when we start to settle in to our journey, with the torn metal flap protruding to the side (from the force of the wind as our car move forward) & ppl from other cars pointing at us. Smack! Crack! Suddenly a medium sized solar system appeared on our windscreen! A %$@$#@$% lorry drove over a piece of stone & it sling shot against our windscreen... Really really like the Malay saying "Sudah Jatuh Ditimpa Tangga"... Real Soey.... I think if we're more traditional thinking, we might have said "Aiya... we didn't check the lunar calendar to see whether it's safe to leave the house or not... That's why lar..." :-p
Anyway, we finally reached home without much incident. Phew... whattaday.... Fortunately we took an additional 1 day leave to run some errants. Now we have 1 additional errant... repair car!
Monday 7 September 2009
Holiday in Penang - Day 3
Ming's back in Penang in the early morning! hehe.... mummy's "kai toi" (i.e. naughty boy in our dialect). We went to Ayer Itam for dim sum breakfast, then to Batu Lanchang to buy Nasi Kunyit & angku for prayers. We the crossed the bridge to Sungai Petani to pray at Datuk's worshiping place. Not tht we're very holy lar... go to 2 worshiping place in 1 holiday to Penang, but just thought of praying for my father-in-law's health, mummy & daddy continued good health & hopefully hubby & I can have a child for them to play with soon.
After prayers, we adjourned to a local banana leave rice stall for lunch. We had chicken vareval (dunno if it's spelled so, but it does sound so...), mango lassi & lime with mint! I must say, the best part of the lunch was the lime with mint.... It's so yummy & you don't feel so jelak after the heavy lunch. Most importantly, thanks to the mint, we had fresh breath as well (or so we thought)! :-)
We came back to Penang Island by around 3-4pm cos' we wanted to catch a Cantonese movie at the Cinema - "On His Majesty's Secret Service". I'll provide the review to this movie separately. Anyway, so we went to Queensbay again to have dinner (Japanese food) & then adjourned for movie at 9.30pm. Before dinner, we managed to go shopping for Ming's stuff at Padini's. He actually only wanted a long sleeved shirt for presentation, but we found a really nice & cheap coat on 70% off! Can't resist it, so insisted tht I buy it for him.... See... this che che so nice.... :-p but then... like tht easy to take advantage also.... ;-)
Before leaving for home, we again found a live stage performance for you-know-who/what near Sunshine Square (Bayan Baru). hehe... we stayed there till they finish at 12midnight, had supper at a nearby mamak place & back home to zzzzzzzzzzzzz.............
Sadly, the next day is time to leave.... so fast! I thought 3.5days is long enough.... sigh.... Oh but wait.... the story did not end with just a simple drive home.... wait for my next post to find out....
After prayers, we adjourned to a local banana leave rice stall for lunch. We had chicken vareval (dunno if it's spelled so, but it does sound so...), mango lassi & lime with mint! I must say, the best part of the lunch was the lime with mint.... It's so yummy & you don't feel so jelak after the heavy lunch. Most importantly, thanks to the mint, we had fresh breath as well (or so we thought)! :-)
We came back to Penang Island by around 3-4pm cos' we wanted to catch a Cantonese movie at the Cinema - "On His Majesty's Secret Service". I'll provide the review to this movie separately. Anyway, so we went to Queensbay again to have dinner (Japanese food) & then adjourned for movie at 9.30pm. Before dinner, we managed to go shopping for Ming's stuff at Padini's. He actually only wanted a long sleeved shirt for presentation, but we found a really nice & cheap coat on 70% off! Can't resist it, so insisted tht I buy it for him.... See... this che che so nice.... :-p but then... like tht easy to take advantage also.... ;-)
Before leaving for home, we again found a live stage performance for you-know-who/what near Sunshine Square (Bayan Baru). hehe... we stayed there till they finish at 12midnight, had supper at a nearby mamak place & back home to zzzzzzzzzzzzz.............
Sadly, the next day is time to leave.... so fast! I thought 3.5days is long enough.... sigh.... Oh but wait.... the story did not end with just a simple drive home.... wait for my next post to find out....
Friday 4 September 2009
Holiday in Penang - Day 2
It's Saturday, day 2 of our trip. It was 1 of those days in Penang where we do nothing but eat! We started our feasting with Hockien Mee (Penang term... KL-ites will call it Prawn Mee aka Har Meen). Then we went to pray at the oldest Kun Yam temple in Penang. Felt an itty-bitty guilty cos' we had beef last night & Kun Yam preaches against taking beef. Oh well, the deed is done... I'm sure being the forgiving goddess she is, she'll be merciful on the slight errr... :-)
Oh... By the way, this is where I got my ears pierced... cried buckets then, but not because of pain... more because of the fear of it... hehe. Can you imagine the scare I got when I saw some stalls using fish-hook-like needles 'stabbed' into pieces of ginger & these hooks are then used to pierce some poor kids' ears?! Horrors! Although my parent finally brought me to the stall using more modern equipments - a 'gun' loaded with earring studs - & due to the accumulated fear from walking the "Green Mile", seeing the gruesome sights along the way... I was so scared tht the fella suggested to have 2 guns piercing my ears at once (I guess he's afraid tht I'll balk for the 2nd piercing & left with only 1 ear pierced). So imagine a small kid of 9 or so (tht's me), having 2 'guns' pointing to her ear lobes & BANG! Waterworks lar... :-p (my mum always said, how to have baby lar like tht... pain threshold so low...)
As usual I digress & now back to present. We then went around the Indian streets, where most of the spices, silks, saris, bangles, food, sweets - everything of Indian culture is there. It's just walking distance from the temple. The spices there's so cheap! 1 big bag of cinnamon sticks is just RM5! Naturally we bought tht. Then, there's my favourite Indian sweets - bought some of tht too... We had a good time exploring the streets with mum & dad - if only the continuous drizzle & occasional downpour would just cease! sigh...
We then drove to Chowrasta on Penang road to check on the favourite 'Tau Sar Peah' shop (Ping Kuan), but it was closed. So we adjourned to our favourite old establishment - Cintra Street Bachang! We've been going there since my childhood & grandpa's still around. Unfortunately the Chu Chap Chok stall is not open (another old establishment known only by locals).
My parent by always obliging their precious beloved daughter's every request ( :-p yeah... am quite spoiled I know...), we went to Penang Ayer Itam dam. I love this place. It's always cooling, breezy & I always loved walking around the dam (not running... just strolling... ahhh....). It's the best place to bring a book & just read (which I did! while the rest of the family napped in a small 'hut' / pegola) beside the dam.
As usual, my dad gets restless after a short period of inactivity (speed up by the flies & mosquitoes - Note to Self: remember to bring insect repellent in future). We then adjourned to Ayer Itam market area (at the foot of the hill Penang dam is located) to see if there are good Tau Sa Pea shop around. Unfortunately because it's so near Kek Lok Si, it's at touristy price. So we ended up....? Eating again! This time Char Kway Teow, Curry Mee & good thick Hainanese coffee. Wah... really no rest in food leh....
After resting for a bit, we went out for dinner at Relau. Funny thing was, we didn't plan to stay back late, but a nearby temple is hosting a live performance (singing) stage show & the music was blaring really-really loud, so we went & take a look. The performance is actually staged for the spirits, but I think there are just as many people as there are spirits watching tht show. The singers are surprisingly good. We ended up staying there till about 11pm! hehe... zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Oh... By the way, this is where I got my ears pierced... cried buckets then, but not because of pain... more because of the fear of it... hehe. Can you imagine the scare I got when I saw some stalls using fish-hook-like needles 'stabbed' into pieces of ginger & these hooks are then used to pierce some poor kids' ears?! Horrors! Although my parent finally brought me to the stall using more modern equipments - a 'gun' loaded with earring studs - & due to the accumulated fear from walking the "Green Mile", seeing the gruesome sights along the way... I was so scared tht the fella suggested to have 2 guns piercing my ears at once (I guess he's afraid tht I'll balk for the 2nd piercing & left with only 1 ear pierced). So imagine a small kid of 9 or so (tht's me), having 2 'guns' pointing to her ear lobes & BANG! Waterworks lar... :-p (my mum always said, how to have baby lar like tht... pain threshold so low...)
As usual I digress & now back to present. We then went around the Indian streets, where most of the spices, silks, saris, bangles, food, sweets - everything of Indian culture is there. It's just walking distance from the temple. The spices there's so cheap! 1 big bag of cinnamon sticks is just RM5! Naturally we bought tht. Then, there's my favourite Indian sweets - bought some of tht too... We had a good time exploring the streets with mum & dad - if only the continuous drizzle & occasional downpour would just cease! sigh...
We then drove to Chowrasta on Penang road to check on the favourite 'Tau Sar Peah' shop (Ping Kuan), but it was closed. So we adjourned to our favourite old establishment - Cintra Street Bachang! We've been going there since my childhood & grandpa's still around. Unfortunately the Chu Chap Chok stall is not open (another old establishment known only by locals).
My parent by always obliging their precious beloved daughter's every request ( :-p yeah... am quite spoiled I know...), we went to Penang Ayer Itam dam. I love this place. It's always cooling, breezy & I always loved walking around the dam (not running... just strolling... ahhh....). It's the best place to bring a book & just read (which I did! while the rest of the family napped in a small 'hut' / pegola) beside the dam.
As usual, my dad gets restless after a short period of inactivity (speed up by the flies & mosquitoes - Note to Self: remember to bring insect repellent in future). We then adjourned to Ayer Itam market area (at the foot of the hill Penang dam is located) to see if there are good Tau Sa Pea shop around. Unfortunately because it's so near Kek Lok Si, it's at touristy price. So we ended up....? Eating again! This time Char Kway Teow, Curry Mee & good thick Hainanese coffee. Wah... really no rest in food leh....
After resting for a bit, we went out for dinner at Relau. Funny thing was, we didn't plan to stay back late, but a nearby temple is hosting a live performance (singing) stage show & the music was blaring really-really loud, so we went & take a look. The performance is actually staged for the spirits, but I think there are just as many people as there are spirits watching tht show. The singers are surprisingly good. We ended up staying there till about 11pm! hehe... zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Wednesday 2 September 2009
Holiday in Penang - Day 1
Took Friday off to go back to Penang during the Merdeka w/end (was there from Friday till Monday). As usual, a trip to Penang means eat-eat-eat & eat.... We practically didn't have the chance to have an empty stomach for even a short hour in a day! :-p
Wah, very long oledi... I think I better break my updates on my trip into several 'bite-size' portions... Otherwise would be too long. Day 2 coming up...
Day 1: Didn't do much on Friday.... We started around 7+am in the morning. Stopped at Simpang Pulai (I think....) to refill petrol - we tried Ron95 on Camry for the first time!... (che..... a bit of advertising... Camry oso can use Shell Ron95 wooo.... no problemo....). Oh... forgot to mention... It rained the whole time we travelled from South to North tht we were amazed the Peninsular did not "drown" from the amount of rainfall it's getting! Choi!....
Stopped at another rest area right before Ipoh cos' hubby is getting sleepy & finally entered into Ipoh town for dim sum b/fast. Whenever we cross Ipoh early in the morning, hubby will definitely make it a point to visit Foo Shan (an apparently famous & long time establishment) to have dim sum... Took us a while to find though, cos' they've moved to a new building. When we found it (thanks to the help of a local uncle & auntie), wahliao! The crowd! It was drizzling on a weekday & yet it was so packed, we can't find a seat in the 2 storey, 3-4 shoplot space area! You know me... I'm always the type who just hates it when I have to stand/walk around hunting for place to seat & the waiters / waitress are just too busy (or too good business to bother... you-don't-wait-it's-your-loss-I-have-100-lining-up-outside-attitude) to assist. I mean, I'm paying good money & yet need to go through the stress of "fighting" stares with other ppl who are equally trying to get seats? No way... So despite hubby's fixation of having Foo Shan & the mentality tht the neighbouring dim sum shops (long tht street alone, I think there are 3-4 other dim sum shops) will never beat Foo Shan, we left. I can't remember the name of the restaurant we went to, but the dim sum is delish! The "wu-kok" (fried yam pastry filled with savoury "chasiew" pork) is the size of our fist! eh wait... to be more accurate, hubby's fist... mine is small in comparison! :-p
Wow... Can't belief I used 1 whole paragraph writing up just on my 1st day b/fast! Oh well... The rest of the journey was uneventful & we reached Penang around 1pm & had lunch with mum & dad at a local economy rice stall. The day is then spent on doing banking work & renew our Touch & Go card (we just found out tht the card has 10-yrs expiry & ours will be expiring in Oct'09 - better change now) since it's a working day.
After dinner of Beef Kway Teow, we went to Queensbay Mall just to walk off the dinner... :-) Did more window shopping than serious buying. Oh! found Judith McNaught book at a bargain in Borders, so I bought it for my collection. Also bought a pair of knee-length shorts cos' I didn't pack extra shorts for travelling on hot days - just in case...Wah, very long oledi... I think I better break my updates on my trip into several 'bite-size' portions... Otherwise would be too long. Day 2 coming up...
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