Lonely Nights

Feeling lonely tonight. Must be the rain.

Rain always make me sad and gloomy.

Did not go to work today. Took a day off to rest at home. A bit regretted not going to work. Wasted.

Nights make me lonely too.

Sigh....why the blues today?

Must be the rain.

Am making some peach tea. And will read a book. (Will finish Marley and Me very soon).

Tea and book make a good companion for a cold night like this.

Peach tea smells so good.

Books On My Shelf

Am I having too many hobby? I know I'm always buying books and not reading them. Since when did my love of reading turns into love of buying books?

I always love reading and I still am. But now I'm more into reading online articles, blogs, forum, reviews, magazines, and sometimes newspapers. In this cyber era, many of us had lost touch with paperbacks. I do not want to let go of this, so I keep buying book, knowing/hoping that I will eventually find time to read.

During our last visit to MPH bookstores, while paying for another book for me, Kin Fai asked, how many books did I really finish reading in the pass 2 years. Erm.....one and that's during my bored-to-death 3 hospitalized days. What a satisfaction when I finished a good book and I did not had such feeling since.....I don't know when.....I think since my schooling days when I have no dates and plenty of time in the noon digging in Dean Koontz and Judith McNaught. It's a weird combination of reading preference but I need some historical romance when I had too much thrillers.

I had two Ikea shelves full of paperbacks and hardcover books. I excluded those recipe cookbooks, travel guides, dog behavior guidebooks, arts and crafts books, and some work related reference books, I came up with a To Read List.


To Read What's On My Shelf List:

• Marley & Me by John Grogan : I'm half way through this, I'm confident that I can finish this.
• The Harmony Silk Factory by Tash Aw : I'm proud of the Malaysian who got his name by writing this book. But unfortunately I'm giving up on this. Too many narration. Will be giving this to Kin Fai.
  
• Bridget Jone's Diary by Helen Fielding : I searched high and low for this book and finally got it at Kinokuniya, KLCC but 3 years later, I'm still at chapter 5. Why? This is a good read! Witty British writing.
• The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown : I bought the book way before the movie was filmed but...I still at chapter 3. Sigh
• Angels and Demon by Dan Brown : Already gave the book to Kin Fai which he made into his loyal toilet companion. I don't think I'll get back the book. >_<
• Harry Potter and The Order of Phoenix by J.K. Rowling : Stopped at Chapter 6. Why can't I even finish a children's book.
  
• Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling : Seems like I'm collecting the Potter series, not reading them.
• If Tomorrow Comes by Sidney Sheldon
• Are You Afraid Of The Dark? by Sidney Sheldon
• Train Man by Nakano Hitori
• Memoirs Of A Geisha by Arthur Golden : A gift from an ex who doesn't know the type of books that I like to read.
• The Memory Keeper's Daugther by Kim Edwards
• PS. I Love You by Cecelia Adhern : Will definately finish this before the movie comes out.
• A Place Called Here by Cecelia Adhern
  
• A Spot of Brother by Mark Haddon
• Once Removed by Andrew Leci : Kin Fai's book and I will make this my loyal toilet companion. haha
  
• The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
• The Complete Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilheim Grimm
• The Holiday Present by Johanna Lindsey
• Home For Holidays by Johanna Lindsey

Ok, I'm not buying anymore books until I crossed out at least half of the list.

A Short Trip to Melaka

My trip to KL landed me on another short trip to Melaka, the historical landmark of Malaysia. It was a jalan-jalan cari makan trip with Kin Fai's friends (a bunch of 9 hungry ghosts). I was among the excited hungry ghost because I never been to Melaka before and I just can't wait to see the place with famous historical landmarks such as the A Famosa, churches, delicious baba and nyonya food, eager to see what the small town has to offer.

Journey was short but not as breezy as we thought, because of the festive season, cars were moving bumper to bumper even in highway. It took us 2 hours to arrive (usually it's just 1.5 hours) and by the time we arrive, we were literally transformed into hungry ghost because it was already 1pm. Melaka was already crowded with so many people. I was surprised to see that Melaka is actually quite a small town and the famous landmark were actually very near to each others, the Stadhuy Building, Melaka museum (much to Kin Fai's dismay, it was closed), Fort A Famosa, St. Paul Church, Jonker Street and even the shopping mall (Mahkota Parade and the brand new Pahlawan Squares) all within walking distance.

We don't care much bout sight seeing first because we had to fill up our growling stomachs. We head straight up to the oh-so-very famous Chicken Ball Rice.

Chicken Ball Rice at Kedai Kopi Chung Wah.

You won't miss the location of this shop because you will see a line of crowd waiting for table and seats outside the shop. That's not something you'll get to see everyday, not even at the famous chicken bean sprout (nga choi kai) shop in Ipoh. Is the food worth the 30 minutes-under-the -sun wait? Yes and no, I would say.

How adorable but only 5 balls per plate.

Actually the chicken rice is just Hainanese chicken rice that we can get at Kedai Kopi Rasa Sayang at Ipoh. But the ball-ball rice is some special, out-of-the-box, twisted way to eat our daily grain. I liked the rice more than the chicken itself, which I didn't even bother to take any picture of, due to the chef's unprofessional way of cutting the chicken, which he just simply smashed the meat and bones into pieces. We ordered 30 more ball-balls and just eat the ball-balls on its own.

But still, onigiri is cuter.

Very colourful trishaws were all around the town, some with very hip contemporary music being played.


Stadhuy's Building.

At St.Paul's Church. Or was it St.Peter? I'm sorry, thousand apologies to you holy saints.

Nothing much to look at in the historical building but historical monuments.

Fort A Famosa is smaller than I thought.

After spending 1 hour at Pahlawan Squares, we went out to hunt for food again, this time is satay celup. The place were, as expected, crowded and we had to wait awhile before there's table and seats for us. Steamboat style but all the food were to dip and cook in the satay gravy. I still prefer the conventional lok-lok especially the one located at Ipoh Garden South, although the food on skewer is only cooked in hot boiling water but the satay gravy they served is super great delicious. And the century egg is OMG OMG OMG delicious @_@ Well I guess satay celup is just not my style.

And of course, we did not miss any Baba and Nyonya food. We tried itik tim, otak otak (different from our usual one), ayam poh teng, and assam prawn. Delicious but not magical enough to charm this Ipoh-born tongue.

Satay celup.

Jonker Street.

Jonker Street was even more crowded than Chiang Mai's night bazaar. But things were a tad too expensive, equivalent to shopping mall standards (RM9.90 for a cute character key-chain). Too bad that we already had too much of food, if not, I would really want to try those street hawker food along the Jonker Street. I still crave for the fried lobak kueh that I did not try. >_< style="text-align: center;">Melaka is also famous for its pineapple tart. It's the best food so far. Runner up will be the ball-ball rice (can't say Chicken Ball Rice because the chicken is not that good).

I regretted that I only bought one box of tarts. >_<>

Festive season in KL. KL roads suddenly seems wider than usual.

Meal at Manhattan Fish Market.

My KL trip is always more towards food trip rather than visiting trip. I gained a few kilos every time I come back from KL. >_<

Packing Again

A quick post before I go packing again. Actually, I don't have to pack much, some travel essentials are still sitting inside my FILA travel bag. I bet tomorrow will be a long journey. Ipoh is already very sardine pack with cars and humans. The usually smooth road was so slow moving today, as if the town turned into KL and in return, KL will transform into a lonely town.

Being the last day at work (tomorrow on holiday yayyy), gave me a perky mood. I did not even have to go into the chaotic production line, just glued my bum on the cushion chair and did paperwork and don't give a damn about the production line.

I won't change my blog's URL. I can't help it if my blog got famous. Wahahahaha...ahem ahem, ok...I cut it out. But honestly, I'm cool with other ppl reading my blog, even my boss. If I have an interesting life, I won't mind it to be an open book story. Look at how our very own Malaysian meaty but shit witty blogger Kenny Sia and the infamous bitchy but witty Singapore blogger Xia Xue portrayed their life all over the world wide web. They have thousands of strangers reading about their life but who cares, they are making money out of their keyboards. If not because I can't make the stupid Ad-Sense thing work, I will be making money too. Bah.
Who said I can not rant about my colleagues here? I just don't reveal the name. HAH! I will still bitch about them here, although I seldom do, I'm more interested in showing off my vain pictures. Wahahahaha.....ahem, ok, I did it again. Sorry....But hey, all famous bloggers are vain and cam-whores. I'm walking the right pathlah.

My perky day was even perkier when I found a huge parcel awaiting for me to unwrap. I have been looking forward for this special package from Malta. I'm thrilled!!!! I'm super thrilled!!!!! Guess what's in the package?

Thousands and thousands of Malta postage stamps. So many that I can bury myself in the bulk. Woohoo~~~

Collecting stamps has been my(and everyone's) childhood hobby. I'm sure everyone used to own a small collection of stamps and nicely arranged in an album. But how many of you can remember where your mother has stacked that poor album that contained some of your childhood memory and joy? Perhaps underneath some other old junks. But my collection did not turn into any junk. But I won't call myself a philatelist because I did not study or spend a lot on unattractive old postage stamps. I'm just a collector that find those colourful inches art still fascinate me like how it did when I was 6 years old.
And now I'll have enough stamps for my Rumah Hope project. I'm not rich enough to make any impactive financial donation but I wanted to donate some of my joy.

Shoebox of inches art. This will be a Christmas present for Rumah Hope children.


And to those that miss my Nici, see what a fat beauty she grew into. I always must have some chewy toys in hand so that she don't bite my Prada bag and other biteable object. She'd pick up some easy commands like sit, up and go inside. She's quite a fast learner.....erm but don't understand the simplest command of all command : 'NO'.


Me and Thave, my favourite colleague. She's young but very hardworking.

And a piece of rock oyster I had on Monday. Awww (looking into the picture dreamily).

Tomorrow I have to go the local stamps dealer that sells stamps in bulk. Need to send something back to Malta.

Although this entry is titled 'Packing Again', I don't feel like packing now.

Exposed

Recently a lot of people have been asking about my blog, even my boss asked me too.

Boss : I heard that you have a blog.
Me : *blush*
Boss : Why do you blog? Is that common among youngster now?
Me : *gawk*
Boss : Tell me, I want to know more about you young people.
Me : Yeah, it's the 'in' thing among youngster, but only for cyber person. We can put in pictures and write bout interesting stuff for our friends to keep track of our life. Some people blog for their full time profession.
Boss : Oh...really. Then, if I want to see your picture I can go to your blog? What's your blog address?
Me : *blush* *gawk* *blush* *gawk*


And some of my distant colleagues(from other department) knew too. My blog is totally exposed!! Naked!! And this mean I can not blog about my feeling in my Feel Station anymore and I have to say 'nice' things about my nice colleagues and my bosses. No more kutuking......how cannnnnn this be possible???????????????

I don't feel like writing anymore....@_@

I Love Oyster

I had my first oyster at Jogoya (KL), it's slimy and smell bad. I hardly could swallow the first bite. I thought I will never eat oyster again. But I was very wrong. I love sashimi, I love sushi, I love rare beef, how can I not love fresh oyster?

My colleague, Ee recommended me to try the oyster at Moven Peak. I was skeptical at first because of the bad experience at Jogoya. She insisted I give it a second try because the one I had was not fresh enough, hence the weird taste. And so I did, and I had 3!!! Simply delicious piece of meat.

And after the second successful attempt eating the oysters, I can't stop thinking and craving for more. The recent gathering with my best girlfriends Deb and Yokie, I suggested Moven Peak. It was on Debbie's treat. But it's a pity they both don't appreciate the seafood at all. And was very disgusted looking at me savouring the oyster.
Aahh....oyster.....I can never be a vegetarian. I'm a lover of food and keep discovering new meat.

The oysters, covered with ice to keep the freshness.

This is one huge piece of saliva trigger.

Cam-whoring with the shell.

I just can't wait.....>_<

How to eat an oyster:
1. Squeeze lemon juice on the oyster, usually lemon slices will be provided.
2. Put the garlic, sesame and 'something else' sauce.
3. If you like, you can put two or three drops of Tabasco sauce.
5. Use a small fork to separate the oyster from the shell.
4. You can either eat the oyster in one mouthful, or like me, bit by bit.
5. Close your eyes. Feel the fireworks in your mouth.

Me and Yokie. Me happy and full with oysters. Yum yummmmmm....

Anymore places that serve delicious oyster? Let me know.