Ais Kacang

S-l-u-r-p! Malaysia is very humid. But occasionally it storms. We had thunderstorm yesterday afternoon. The roads were wet and driving through the rain made me strain my eyes to avoid driving through red-lights or hitting inanimate objects at the side of the road. I hate driving in the rain. ( But I love sleeping when it rains..) When I reached home I napped shamelessly and woke up after 6pm feeling ( like a baby ) grouchy and a tad disorientated.

The sky looks gloomy once again this afternoon so it doesn't have to take a claivoryant to predict a huge thunderstorm any time now. Dun leave home without an umbrella. 

Go figure

 

It's arrived

If you've ever waited for something eagerly...you'll be able understand how happy I was/am when I got a call this Wednesday ...."your book has arrived".

Chicken soup

What would you call this meal? Back to basics. None of your fancy swanzy stuff. Oh no, what we have before us is good old plain chicken soup, with a smattering of pepper ....and you get to dunk your bread ( nice and chewy ) into it. 

Jelly courtesy of M2 nurses.
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Grandfather's teeth,
are stuck in the Jello.






 

Chicken Little....

Today being Monday, you can expect low mood and crabby faces. But, in addition to this, we had a busy day. Loads of leg work and that's when I found my shoes squeak quite a bit. A friend pointed this out to me ....when the squeak became too regular to ignore on a quiet corridoor. I tied the hair up vigorously in a feeble attempt to look neater...only to have this backfire with a nagging one-sided tension headache after lunch. And so, I walked about the remaining part of the afternoon looking like I'd just woken up from sleep.

The stuff of dreams!

Hello, in this life, it is well known you should try everything ( almost! ) once.Last weekend I tried lobster in tepid soupy buttery sauce. ( refer self to picture ) The verdict...a resounding "yes please may I have seconds"

What is this?

A return to elegance....

Figure 1. A view from the front.
Figure2. Sarkies corner.
Figure 3. Natural sunlight is so appealing.
Figure4. Nice old banisters
Figure 5. The main foyer .
I have only ever been to Penang twice. Once at the age of 5...where as the story goes, I vomited quite a bit and quite spoilt the trip for everybody else present. The second visit was less eventful, a school trip ....only memory of which is " Right here waiting for you" by Richard Marx playing in the background at the road side stall in the night.

This trip ( over the weekend ) was definitely better. No vomiting..and no Richard Marx music. It was hot. Scorching hot in fact. The whole do was held at Eastern and Oriental Hotel Penang, ( E&O for short ) Built in 1885 its one of the remaining colonial buildings in Penang. Its actually a combination of two hotels Eastern and Oriental. The eastern hotel was founded by the Armenian Sarkies brothers. ( Noe the picture of Sarkies corner...where you get your meals ) The hotel has changed hands many times and has had some famous guests ie...Rudyard Kipling and Somerset Maugham. Interesting yes?

The frightening thing was, on the first night in Penang, it stormed and the winds blew madly. The waves hit the wall and went up as high as the coconut tree and the E&O pool was flooded with sea water as was the ground floor. All hushed hushed now. Was it a mini Tsunami?

What a week:)

It's Sunday, and habit dictates I update my blog. The week has been eventful. Here are some of the things I've learnt.

1.Statistics as a subject isn't for the fainhearted. And if anyone can tell me what an "odds ratio " is, I would wash their car for a whole week.

2.Feeling tired and groggy plus hitting the snooze button every morning is a sign of being sleep-deprived. ( read this today whilst having the hair washed ) Sure beats labelling self as getting older.

3.Sleeping in on Sundays and going for the 10:30am instead of the 8:00am mass makes me less crabby. ( Being less sleep-deprived I presume )

4. I like eating Kentucky friend chicken. ( who would have thought?)

5. I am willing to risk being teased to death over owning a gadget called "dopod".

6.That cute little dog in Frasier died on the 22nd of June:(

7. Grey's anatomy is fun to watch.

8. I can't decide which I like better "House" or "G Anatomy".

9. If you pre-make your cheese sandwich the night before work, you cut a good 10 minutes off the total "getting ready for work " time.

10. Friends have the ability to cheer you up no end. Gossping is healthy and shucks to anyone out there who disagrees. 

Avillion Port Dickson

I like this shot. The "kelambu" makes it cosy with a hint of romance. What do you think? The reluctant model in the picture is an old friend with a sporting sense of fun.

Good hello

Good feng shui. Do you believe in it? Lilian Too has made a whole career out of telling people how to arrange their furniture at home. And she gets paid for it. Some of which ( the ones I agree with ) are common sense whilst others are bordering on the extreme. Someone once told me, Lilian and husband can't eat from the same rice pot;neither can they enter their house via the same main entrance. ( They have a door each )

Businessmen rely on feng shui masters telling them where to put their desks and where the secretary should be stashed blah blah blah.Avillion has good feng shui.

Avillion Port Dickson

Sometimes I wish for a weekend to unwind. Have you ever looked forward to a trip, and then start doubting its ability to make you unwind...then regret you ever agreed to it...and then finally HAVE A LOVELY TIME. This is what I had this weekend.Post Dickson is a mere 1.5 hours away by car...bar traffic and if you hit the road at the average speed of 100km/hr. The roads of straight. Too straight it almost bores you to sleep. Avillion is apparently the best that they have in Negeri Sembilan. ( And it totally deserves this accolade ) ,

Because the beach is right under your nose, a walk on it is mandatory. Thankfully, I had the foresight to buy slippers ( psssst from BATA )and these saved me from haveing my poor feet attacked by them miniscule ( but eerily evil ) crabs. A swish-swoosh of the waves made me sleep like a baby. More pictures to follow. ( They were here earlier..but a slight slip of the fingers and they got deleted. Damm)

Chocolate mocha...

I like this chocolate mocha cake very much. And please believe me when I say,it taste even better than it looks. If you fancy a taste...take a walk to Concorde Hotel, Jalan Sultan Ismail. And when you've taken that first bite...drop me a line. Thanks. Good things must be shared.