Merdeka!!!

Picture taken while waiting for the traffic lights to turn green!

I used to love history in lower secondary school. ( only because I got good marks) It was obvious even back then that memorizing dates and names was more appealing than doing maths. And so today, there's a bit of history going on, we're celebrating Independence Day and this year it coincides with the Raya celebrations. Double celebration! I am proud to be Malaysian!!

Selamat Hari Raya 2011

Can you guess the names of all the cookies??

Am tired and I did nothing much else apart from eat and drink and talk and socialize. Which makes me think those people named socialites must have not such a nice job after all. It is draining and yet strangely exciting. So I collected these cookies for my own private consumption tomorrow morning. They look yummy and probably will add a few cm to the waist and everywhere else. These days the layering of fat appears to favour the face. ( Which no amount of dressing can camouflage) Meh!

Chicken pox

Will I look like this soon?

Hands up those of you who haven't gotten the nasty nasty chicken pox yet? It would appear that I am the minority. I have been exposed to chicken pox and am possibly incubating these lovely pox viruses in my body and there is a promise  of these disgustingly itchy pustules  erupting once the incubation period is over...anywhere from 10-21 days I'm told.

Stink Beans again

The petai was just right. Crunchy with the little stinky taste you get when you chew it. Unfortunately that was all that was GOOD. The rice was salty and by the time I got midway through the dinner, I was inwardly making funny faces to self. Apart from the overpowering saltiness of this "petai fried rice" I cannot find anything else to write about it. I won't have this dish any more.

Yet another bag:)

The color is dark green the same shade as army green if there is such a word. The reason for the purchase: none. The motivation behind it: The shop was on sale. The truth: the sale was only for selected items which did not include my purchase. When shall I use it? Tomorrow to ward away the Monday Blues:) Happy Sunday folks I hope your weekend went well. Mine was restful on Saturday and err...not so-restful today. Can't wait for the dreaded Monday to be over.

WOuld you eat it?

Top Pot Classic Glazed Old Fashion Doughnut!

It can boast of a whopping  420 calories 44% of which are FAT:) But this is not what this post is going to be about. Top Pot. Know anything about it? Well I didnt until a few minutes ago....this shop started in Feb 2002 in Seattle.  Here;s the story of the name, years before, a sign was purchased " TOp SPOT" above a chinese takeaway ( would you believe it?). The sign was left for death until which time it was sent for a bit of sprucing up. En route, the "S" of the spot" fell off and the rest is history.  Here's their website: Top Pot

The start of the weekend

 What a pity everyone else had the same craving for Mcdonalds as I did. Bleah! A bit of a jam thankfully nobody ordered cartloads of stuff before me.

 Can you remember when you last had a fillet-o-fish burger??

Class at TEN this morning which made it necessary to practice late last night ( poor neighbours) and early this morning ( poor poor neighbours)

What animal is this?

Please tell me what this is. It's cute and has nice wooden legs positioned in a  very life-like manner. And it has nice floppy ( but not too big) ears.

For HARIS!!!

Mugs mugs mugs

Saw this yesterday and it has a coaster to match. 

Ta DAAAAH

What do you think?

Found at Starbucks! ( last mug on sale)

This coffee mug is dual tone and comes with a lid which sits comfortably the color of which blends and appears to merge with the mug itself. The handle mirrors the dual-tone seen on the actual body of the mug. Seen at a Starbucks outlet some weeks back. Do you have a ritual when you enter a place you frequent often? Mine is to walk towards the mug shelf and stare and hold and caress...and then walk to the counter to order my latte! ( without actually buying the mug) Happy Tuesday everybody.

Tired out and its only Monday

Scene outside breadstory midvalley...one very tired gurl!

It's twenty past ten and the current energy level is around 2.3/10. ( that's a lot of numbers to digest in one sentence. Sorry) Just to show you the extent of tiredness...I've actually left the HELLO magazine in the car to be read tomorrow. I foresee a very short space of time between lying down and getting into REM sleep. ( 2.3 seconds?) Happy Monday everybody! Hope it was good. Mine was busy but NICE.

What I'm reading this week

I did say I would buy less books now that I've found project guternberg with its many many titles( free e books). But old habits die hard and I succumbed to temptation on Saturday.

Dinner at Jaya 33

Peking duck! 

 We had a lovely family dinner. Now it may not seem like a special thing but we're not big on family dinners as a general rule. So you can appreciate that the gathering was unique for at least 2 reasons; the last time we met was for a wedding. And dinner in Petaling Jaya is adventurous by our standards. Aunty J celebrated her birthday together with us. Auntie M baked her a cake. And we all got a lovely meal with exchange on family news this evening. And now for the food review. The peking duck was lovely. Much better than the one at Damas. It came with the crispy skin and some tender meat.

Vegetables.

The vegetable dish was nice and green. I'm not sure what the veg was. It tasted nice and garlicky which is how I like it.

Porky dish

This was gorgeous. It looks like any other slab of meat but it was succulent and tasty right down to the middle.

Noodles

Noodles were good but because it was the last dish I can't rave about it much.

Home made carrot cake

Auntie M's carrot cake was moist and not too sweet. I love the marzipan carrots:)
I would blog more but I have a lecture to prepare....last-minute as usual. I never learn. Boohoo

A funny sign

Imagine if this applied to boutiques. I nearly always drop something on the floor when browsing for clothes:)

Hurried dinner

Pesto something!

I had this for dinner this evening. One of those bad choices made in a fit of hunger. 10/10 for looks. 10/10 for smell. ( aroma was hmmm nice) but possibly 4/10 for taste. Neither creamy nor salty. It tasted creamy-ish without the ummph. The nuts were nice but the overall taste was sadly 2/10. The meal was saved by the trusty breaded scallops ( salivating yum...) and tea-latte which was also good.

Breaktime

It's Thursday already. The week has passed faster than expected. I guess doing something different every day doesn't really slow down time. ( Bleah)

Dinner

What we saw at the entrance

 We braved the late afternoon traffic for dinner at what promised to be a secluded and romantic place. Papago (GPS) went a little wonky very near the end of the journey resulting in us getting lost. We drove through housing areas ranging from huge hill-top bungalows with those awful roman columns I can never understand to small wee houses in planks with the road narrowing to just the mere width of the car. No signboards and no signs of life at some point and near darkness threatening to envelope us. Added to this, the hunger pangs made me forget to take pictures of our adventure.

Empty satay pots

I would have blogged about the food had I been given the opportunity to sample them. We arrived slightly late. Most of the dishes were finished. There was a vague promise of them being replenished, but that never happened. The local singers got into the swing of things after a bit. They were pretty good but the mood was spoiled by the lack of food. So we left in a sorry state of mind.

Longchamp bags!

The "tree of life" longchamp bag had one of its few outings this afternoon. Because its white I'm almost anal about keeping it so. The slightly bigger capacity makes fitting the IPAD that bit easier. The La pliage smaller sized bag needs you to be ORGANIZE and put stuff neatly in order to accomodate an ipad/keys/handphone/sunblock/mini bag/rosary/thumbdrive/purse/G12 into it comfortably and still be able to zip it up.

Horrors! I found a lady with the "tree of life" longchamp bag in pink. Haven't seen that colour here before. So I took a picture ( well three shots actually but I'm only going to post one up here)

A fruitful Sunday afternoon yes?

Vroom Vroom

 We test drove the GOLF GTI and GOLF TSI (meh) this afternoon. Let's talk about the GTI first because it was the first of the two I drove. The electronic seat manouvering was brilliant. I missed it almost immediately when I eased self into the TSI about 30 minutes after.  And buzzing on the road from 0 to eh how much was it I forget now....took less than 5 seconds. The pick-up with 3 other people in the car was amazing. I'll say this again..amazing!! I'm comparing it to the ole ALZA with 5 people in it dragging its feet up the hill along Jalan Bangsar ..now that was scary. The GTI had lovely leather trimmings. The TSI did not. Very smooth ride with no noticeable jerks when changing gears.That was the same in the TSI as well, Price-wise a screaming difference between the two so you can pretty much guess which one I'll be aiming for realistically. 

Watch this space!!!

Penang!

We saw quite a bit of these houses. 

 We decided to detour for a spot of shopping. Now detours only work well if you're savvy with the roads. If you're not ...this is what happens. You see scenary of houses not on the main road. No complains. I betcha these houses are worth a fair bit. Land is scarce in Penang like Hongkong, Singapore and er Kuala Lumpur.

Brings back memories of yesteryears

I love this shot. It's like being transported back to the eh 80s.

I want to own one of these.

 As for these houses, they're reminiscent of the colonial days. I want!

Found the shop after many twists and turns

 We loaded ourselves with a few boxes and off we went to the airport

Bought a mandatory Penang T-shirt

Found an Owen Rebecca T-shirt at the airport. I liked it so much I bought two!

Displayed at Penang International Airport

 These rather eekie coasters were on sale and you'll be hard pressed to find somebody willing to part with some money to actually buy one of them/ Buck ugly!

Up for refurishment. Can't wait

 The airport had sections which were closed. I can't wait for the new and improved airport to be up and running. What's taking so long???

Goodies to eat

Some local goodies to bring home perhaps? Nah by which time I was just aching to head home back to my own apartment. It has been a tiring 2 days. I'm no jet-setter.

Kulim and Penang and Kepala Batas in 2.3 days!

Travelling from Kulim to Kepala Batas

The folks up north are way friendlier than us KL-ites. Yes I have to lump self in this group seeing as I hardly talk to my neighbour nor do I have any inclination to start any conversation even now. Help! Everyone was friendly and it made the trip a pleasant one. 

Pasar Ramadhan in Kepala Batas

 I didn't fancy eating in the hotel so after a lightning quick visit to the hotel room and dumping the one travelling bag I had, I braved the world of Kepala Batas and found this pasar ramadhan 3 minutes from the hotel. It was near the time for buka puasa so the crowd was sparse. As seen in picture above. At which time I was near famished and bought more than I could eat.

Reasonably priced essentials

Saw this displayed in the hotel lobby.  

The reason for this trip

 We travelled to Hospital Kulim ( second visit in 4 months ) and did the job. Once again, the friendly and helpful nurses and ward sister jenny and other support staff were absolutely brilliant. 

Penang bridge ...a different view

And so we return to Penang to fly back home to KL. Penang deserves a separate post. Which will follow

a spot of travelling

28 minutes from the city to the airport minus the potential traffic jam. But what can one do en route to while away the time? If you're travelling alone, do not talk to self. Most folks in the train sit as far apart as possible. Except if you're family but seeing as it would be cheaper to travel by taxi in a big group you tend to see single travellers here. Talking to strangers isn't done. My ipad was a great companion. It didn't talk back and when I got bored with one topic it allowed a seamless fuss-free switch to a topic of my choice. Meh to those of you without ipads. Go get yourself one now. 

How fit are we?

Stairs

Remember the disintegrating nike air soles? I haven't gotten around to buying a new pair. Which is another way of saying there has been no attempt at exercise since. I've been fairly complacent until I faced them stairs one evening. Even the sight of them made me cringe in anticipation of the huffing and puffing ahead. I took the escalator instead. It really was too warm an evening to strain the heart. And so...things to do this weekend...buy a pair of nike air. ( or just plain ole nike seeing as you pay easily RM80 for the air)

Snail mail

Letter box in a small village in Pahang

There's a wee branch of POS MALAYSIA in the building I work in. So no excuse not to write more often. But to whom? Almost everyone these days is linked on gmail, hotmail, some mail. Even the parents have an account each. Although I should add they check it infrequently to the point of forgetting their passwords.

Guess where this is...

It's been a while since we dined at such an interesting place. Now can anybody guess where this is?

Monday evening

Picture taken in Singapore. Quite obvious it is NOT my balcony

I survived yet another Monday. And now it's time for the obligatory last-minute-intense-violin practice session before class tomorrow. Will I never learn?