Shopping Online

When Grace announced she was coming back to Malaysia for a holiday this year, she asked me to start buying all the stuff I wanted online which can't be shipped to me. At that time, my shopping list on Amazon was empty and I thought I had nothing to get.


I began searching for a replacement of my AllBlacks Coca-Cola backpack which I got for free when I was studying in NZ more than 10 years ago. This backpack has travelled the world with me including my U2 concerts as I could stash my camera, water bottle and jumper. Heck, I could have put in a watermelon or coconut in there if I had a need to. But after 10 years of hard use, it's finally showing wear and tear much to my great sadness.


Nevertheless, I started searching for THE backpack and came across this one:

eBags Mother Lode Weekender Convertible

This video instantly converted me into a fan.

Good grief! I could pack coconuts and watermelons in this and more! But then I started considering my needs again and while this would be a fantastic bag to take along for a 5 day trip, I'd still be left without a handbag to carry my essentials when I leave my clothes in the hotel to sight-see.


Plus, it just wasn't very stylish walking around with a (most of the time) half-empty backpack.


Then, I came across this and fell in love:

eBags Piazza Day Bag

It's just a sling bag and a (typical me) practical one. All comments highly praised this bag and while it doesn't look er, fashionable, I'm just going with the practical side of me and loving it.





What I like about this bag:

• That I am able to keep my camera in a separate compartment rather than having it roll around with my other things that scratches it. 
• The water bottle compartment is outside the bag (last Christmas my water bottle leaked and soaked my camera to my horror). 
• The neat media pocket as I prefer to hide my iPhone in the bag while listening to my music.
• The magnetic flap compared to Velcro, makes a silent opening, doesn't catch on your clothes and doesn't wear out after repeated use.
• That it's not susceptible to light scratches like a leather bag

I doubt if I can fit a jumper into this thing plus some comments mentioned about the rough strap. And I won't be able to fit my shopping when I go souvenir hunting.

Never mind. For that price, and the willingness of Grace carrying it back for me, I'm just gonna get it. 

Childhood "Chocolates"

Thanks for reminding me of this, Kelvin.

One day a long time ago when Jan started to learn how to crawl, we were all in my parents room in Alor Setar chatting while the evening sun was setting. I then noticed that Jan was missing from our sight so I got up to look for her. She was sitting quietly, tucked in a shadowed corner hidden beside my dad's table. I went up to her and was saying to her, "Why you sit so quietly in one corner by yourself?" when I noticed she was eating something.

Upon closer inspection, she was delightfully chewing on some chocolates (you know, those chocolate coated almond ovals you'd find from most chocolate brands). I exclaimed, "Wah! Where did you find chocolates and why didn't you share with us?" as I sat beside her and picked up one to pop into my mouth.

When it hit me. Wait a minute. How did chocolates get up here in the room. And why were they strewn on the floor. I carefully examined the piece I was about to bite into in the feeble lighting and realised what it was. Yes, they had fallen out of her nappies. I screamed and dropped it while she gave me a chocolately grin.

This one I managed to witness. Ron apparently took contents out of his training potty and did a face mask while Grace preferred the more exotic tastes of the body of a moth.

As I always maintain, I'm the normal one in my family.

Wedding in Langkawi

The weekend after watching Wicked in Singapore, KS and I flew up to Langkawi to attend my high school friend's wedding. It was a great, fun and relaxing trip for me as it always is with good friends and I only wished we all could have stayed a little longer to catch up.

A few of us stayed in Citin Hotel, which is a serviceable hotel in Kuah as the wedding was held in Westin,  just a short drive away. Not much changes to note about Langkawi except I realised we were conned into paying a lot more for car rental from the airport. It's definitely much cheaper (almost half the price) if you rent from outside the airport and particularly useful if you have a contact. I managed to get a name card from someone in Kuah so I'll be trying him out next time.

Anyway, back to the wedding, Shie Lee and Jin held a cosy and intimate wedding ceremony by the beach (my first beach wedding!) with thoughtful details such as providing woven fans in case the guests felt hot. I loved their choice of personalized favours (tea from TWG and M&Ms for the kids), the unique array of food, the photo booklet of all their past photos, their tree of fingerprints (which was a very much better execution that what KS and I had!) and their choice of their walk out song by U2 Beautiful Day (just like KS and I too! :P).

The anxious groom

The bride arrives

After the ceremony

 

The fingerprinted tree

Dinner ended fairly early since it was a buffet, leaving us a chance to gather at their villa to continue chatting with close friends. It was really great to catch up with Tsiang, Fuen and Josie (missing Khor Ling who's in Sydney) and look forward to more.

We also discovered the most fantastic nasi briyani in Kuah. My mouth is still salivating from the mere thought of it. It's at Langkawi Fair beside McDonalds called Fair Cafe.

Us after a fantastic meal before we went home.

Congrats again, Shie Lee and Jin!

Wicked, Singapore

We finally made it to Singapore to watch Wicked, our second show which we didn’t know the plot, storyline or characters (the first was We Will Rock You). All we knew it was something to do with a green witch and the Wizard of Oz.

I travelled to Singapore with a friend early Saturday morning as KS was already there due to work. I booked us a pretty boutique hotel in China Town called The Inn at Temple Street due to budget purposes and food location. I find that with my recent trips to Singapore, I’m finding out new pockets of Singapore I’ve never set foot into. A discovery of Singapore all over again despite going there for years!

The hotel was very nice, clean and most importantly, near food and the Chinatown MRT station! It’s still a little bit pricy and there’s no free wifi otherwise this would be THE place I’d stay the next time I go.

Anyway, back to the show, it was supposed to start at 7:30pm. I wanted to eat at this place called Astons in Little India (cheap and good food!) but had factored in only 15 minutes for travelling time. And I forgot that almost everywhere in Singapore, you’d have to queue. Still, I thought at 6pm, there wouldn’t be much of a queue but I was wrong. We waited 15 minutes (which isn’t long in Singapore standards I guess) before we were seated at 6:15pm. Ate quickly and went off at 6:45pm. It looked like we had plenty of time to reach Marina Bay Sands Theatre didn’t we?

Nope. By 7:15pm, after running all over the Doby Ghaut MRT station looking for the correct line to take, we were still on our way. My friend who had reached there earlier called to say she couldn’t collect the tickets because they needed to see the credit card that had made the purchase of the tickets. And if we don’t collect the tickets by 7:30pm, they will shut the counter and we would have to miss the show.

By 7:20pm plus, we arrived at the new MRT station (Bayfront) that opened into MBS (thank God!). I looked at KS and said, “See you at the theatre” and I ran for my life, calling out to anyone who looked like they worked there “WHERE IS THE THEATRE?!” to guide my sprint. Felt like I was in some Amazing Race but I didn't care anymore at that point.

All ended well as I managed to get the tickets in mere minutes before the counter closed. It took me almost the first half of the show to recover from my run.

As for the show, I truly enjoyed it. Sure, the costumes weren’t as fantastic as Lion King but I liked the story. Few things that stood out for me was the conversation between the Wizard of Oz and Elphaba, about changing the historical documents so that eventually the lies will be believed as truth and the sadness of Galinda on the things she had to do due to her chosen life of being a public figure. And the song, Defying Gravity. :)

Strange House Call

A couple of weeks ago, I was boiling some eggs for my sandwich when I heard a fairly loud crack from the stove. It sounded like one of the eggs had cracked really loudly but usually if they did, they didn't make such a loud sound.

Ignoring it, I continued to boil away and had taken the pot off the stove to start peeling the eggs when a louder explosion came from the burner that I just used. Fragments of a white shell-like substance made me even more curious and the only thing that is white on my burner is a little ceramic bit that formed the starter. So I thought it had exploded from the heat and was worried that it had something to do with the gas.

Mentioning this to my dad the next day, he immediately asked me not to switch it on again until he managed to get a technician to look at it, just in case there were further explosions.

So today, the technician finally came and my dad was all worried about him starting the stove. Instead, the guy looked at the burner carefully and didn't find anything unusual about the ceramic portion.

The small burner in the centre was the cause of concern

Small cup-like inside of the burner  

My dad lifted up the parts of the burner and noticed this strange white round balls at the bottom of the burner.  First thought he had was Lebensstil put them there for some aesthetic function until he compared the other burners which didn't have it.

Upon closer inspection, they both then realized they were lizard eggs. Yes, there were about 20 of them nestled inside my burner and when I had used it, the heat cooked the eggs and one exploded from the pressure.

The cooked lizard eggs in my dustbin

Dad concluded with slight embarrassment, "My daughter hardly uses her stove" to which the technician agreed immediately. I really wonder what his report is going to say when he gets back to the office.

Anyway, my dad was very impressed with the after sales service for Lebensstil as they offered to come on weekends or even after hours when my dad couldn't reach the technician.

7th Wedding Anniversary

Today there was a course for the youth in church which I decided to attend. Before we broke for lunch, Siu Fai, one of the youth leaders came up to make an announcement and started to appreciate KS for his involvement in the Youth Ministry. He invited both of us to stand in front of everyone while he continued his speech.

Puzzled as to why the sudden public appreciation, Siu Fai then announced we would be celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary tomorrow. Light-bulb exploded *ting* Oooooh...

Then came the balloons, flowers and cake. Balloons were Angry Birds as KS likes playing Angry Birds. Flowers were gerbera, the same flowers my hand bouquet was 7 years ago which Jan in Singapore asked me a few days before to which I unsuspectingly told her. And fresh chocolate cake with cream cheese from A Slice of Heaven... yum! I don't know where they hid these but we didn't see a trace of them and were completely taken by surprise.

Although we did try to come up with somewhere to go, we decided to skip a trip as we'll be travelling heavily in March and April. So our anniversary was going to pass uncelebrated hence it was sort of out of mind.

Large Angry Bird helium balloons with Ang Ku posing as a comparison.

Seven gerberas to mark each year

Us, right after receiving our surprise gifts.

We have such fantastic friends who somehow always remember our birthdays and anniversary. I purposely engraved my wedding date inside my ring so lest I forget and yet these friends annually wish us on a yearly basis. Very touched, humbled and blessed to be surrounded by thoughtful friends. Thanks to those who organized this.

And yes, KS, I'm glad you're in my life too ;)

Sales Convention & Johor Premium Outlet

For the first time in my banking career, I was invited to join the sales convention which was held in Johor this year. I've heard of how well these events are organized, how memorable moments are created especially when you travel with your colleagues so I was more curious than excited about going for the convention.

I hitched a ride from my colleague in a packed car. As a typical topic of conversation, we shared about ghost stories along the way to keep us entertained. And I also threw in a handful of Eric's Misadventures to lighten the mood.

The convention was held in this place called Pulai Spring Resort in Johor. The place was HUGE, easily accommodating over 900 of us. The resort style really was quite impressive however there was one big flaw. It was nowhere near a beach nor a lake so it felt a bit strange to look out over the pool to see... houses.

Can't really see the houses beyond coz I didn't want to spoil the photo.

As one can expect, there was a lot of ra-ra going on and everyone was so energetic! There were shows! There were contests! Dances! Performances! Parties! And I was... drained! from just watching all the action. =) Yes, still the party pooper...

Banners lining the path

Girls dressed as Greek goddesses

The packed marquee

The noisemakers

My very sporting boss who boogied with the hired performers

My car-mates =)

I did enjoy myself somewhat despite not joining in the nocturnal activities. And despite not being able to sleep both nights (a rare occurrence since I usually am able to sleep anywhere). So on the last morning, I gave up trying to fall back to sleep at 6:30 am and sat by the pool, lulled by the splashes until screaming kids came along.

On the way home, we also stopped by the much talked-about Johor Premium Outlet. I was determined to get a new pair of sports shoes since my old faithful came apart after years. People ask if the stuff is really cheap. I don't know how to answer that because I'd be the last person to know what a Burberry bag costs or er, some other brands. But Levi's was cheap, only if you had the waist size of 23 inches or apparently some branded shoes if you're a size 4 and below or 9 and above.

The place is gorgeous , very un-local like structures and layout. It's just off the highway so it's convenient to hop onto the highway after that (I won't know how to get there from the highway though). There's nothing surrounding the place at the moment, flat land waiting for further developments.

Would I recommend anyone to go? Well, yes if you have some hours to spare and if you don't mind past seasons. I guess this warehouse concept is pretty common overseas but this could be one of the first few in Malaysia hence the hype.

Celebrating Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! It's a bit late but it's still within the 15 days of celebrating the CNY. :)

How has this CNY been? Same old, same old. The reunion dinners, the gathering of the clans, the feasts that followed, the exchanging of mandarins and ang pows...

But what's different this year was the fact that I realized how so many people out there who do not get to celebrate CNY like how I've come to take for granted with family and friends.

How it started was that I spoke to my colleague who's father is Chinese and her mum Thai-Indon. Her parents are divorced and she lives with her mum. One CNY, her mum went to church, leaving her all alone during the eve or CNY night itself. She had to cook her own instant noodles and cried to herself while eating it, with a determination that took root that she needed to marry a Chinese man in order to celebrate CNY properly.

Then KS and I went to visit my uncle Lay Kim at the old folks home in Melaka. He's my mum's half brother and he used to bring me and my cousins a boxful of firecrackers every single CNY. I noticed he was still in his room upstairs despite it being a lovely day outside. When I asked him why he wasn't walking in the garden, he replied, "They don't let me walk out of my room at all. I feel like a prisoner here". :(

So here's a thought to those out there who do not have families with to celebrate CNY with, this is the best I've done: I've eaten on your behalf and put on weight for you.

Making Pineapple Tarts

Yes, the never ending quest for the perfect pineapple tarts has brought me to this. I've blogged about my Melaka aunt's pineapple tarts several times and knowing she has stopped selling them altogether, I asked her to teach me last year. I targeted to learn it sometime in the middle of the year but it never materialized. I was to understand later why it never happened in the middle of the year.

You see, the tarts are usually made and consumed during the Chinese New Year season. And I doubt if she wanted to make a whole batch in the middle of the year. And when I say a whole batch, I'm talking a minimum of 30 pineapples and even this wouldn't have been worth the while of all the labour involved.

Last weekend, one of the cousins asked this aunty to make a small batch. Just for about 5 families. So she gathered some of the relatives over the weekend to do this batch. Consisting of 120 pineapples, a huge coconut shredder that easily shredded the prepared pineapples, a huge industrial mixer, endless numbers of cookie trays, giant pans to reduce the pineapples into jam, manpower of about 12 - 15 people over two days. Yup, this was a small batch. Now I know why it's important to have large families when one does business.

My arms and back are aching from standing, sitting, stirring, reducing the pineapples (which took 4 - 4.5 hours per 30 pineapples), rolling and glazing the cookie. I'm proud to say I was part of the cookie making process. And would I know how to make them all over again? Alone? I've gotta be kidding myself. I'll probably attempt this once before next year when we're slated to do a larger batch. Yup, we have already booked the Aunty for a larger batch next year :)

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Pineapples! 

Mashed pineapples from the coconut shredder

Reducing the pineapples

Until they become a sticky golden jam

Industrial mixer for the dough

Many hands make light work. Factory line style.

Eggwashed tarts

Trays waiting their turn for the oven

Tarts being baked

Putting the pineapple tarts into jars

Ta-daaah!

My personal batch is strictly mine... My presssssciousssss!! Each family will get just enough for personal consumption this time around. (I personally can finish 2-3 tubs of this on my own).

Exciting Year Ahead

For the past couple of years, I have not really had any New Year’s Resolutions except for the vague “Let’s target to go [insert country name] this year” together with the mandatory “Start exercising and lose weight” and “Eat healthy”.

In the last quarter of last year, I came to a point whereby I had to make a few decisions on what I really wanted to do. And took action to it.

So far, I’m attending a basic internet marketing course to learn about SEO (which is still insufficient and I’m now considering attending the advanced class – the fee’s a bit high though) and I am also going to finally learn up how to do my aunt’s famous pineapple tarts.

I received a personalised Moleskine planner (my first!) for 2012 and it’s been a long while since I used a physical planner. Rather than leaving it to rot like most of my yearly gift diaries, I decided to simply use it and pen down (yes, I usually prefer to use pencil as I feel like I can rub it off if things change) my daily plans. My weekly calendar looks great, filled with so many activities, as though I need proof that I’m LIVING. Hahaha!

So, being a bit more sociable is so far in the works. Yay for the get-out-of-cybergames-damnit part of me! :)

It’s just thrilling to have a plan again and act on it, even though the outcome may not be as per what I expected. And having an activity penned down in my planner now spurs me to make it a compulsory on that planned day rather than procrastinating.

Instead of doing a whole year plan, I think I’ll reevaluate my goals every quarter to steer myself better. Plus, a 90-day challenge is much better than a 365-day challenge. The “exercise 2-3 times a week” part still needs work though…