Dinner

I had a quiet dinner this evening:) It was nice. Nobody smoked even though I sat outside and in the designated smoking area. That was a bonus. There was only two other tables with folks eating. Only one small crying baby who whimpered and then stayed silent. The service was good. And most of all, I felt rejuvenated after. It must be the open space.

reading material this week( the fun bits anyway)

Sophie Kinsella does not disappoint. Am currently at page 167 ...( spoiler ahead)....the nanny has just left, the house deal has fallen through and Becky is still obsessed with planning a surprise birthday party for Luke. All this in a background of financial disaster. The book to the left on Seoul is for light reading in preparation and the book on the left is my latest purchase. Looks yummie and I can't wait to start. Currently have restrained self to just one book....( the last multi-tasking of three concurrent books ended disastrously) 

Georgetown

Not quite as popular as Paparich ( what a name!) and straddling between kopitiam food and authentic home-cooked cuisine this restaurant was empty when I arrived. I brought good feng shui. About 15 minutes into my meal, two more tables were filled. They were very generous with the sambal belacan ( see picture). The book I'm currently reading is the LATEST in the shoppaholic series. Lovely lovely!

Look what a bought this afternoon

In a bid to draw ( and possibly take a picture and upload to my slides) I went colour pencil shopping and found this to be the cheapest. Pelikan is cheaper than faber castel. Why why why?

Happy Independence day Malaysia

While the immediate reaction is to feel a surge of happiness because today is a day off work, let's not forget that 53 years ago, Malaysia gained her independence. A historic moment and most of our fathers were students during this time. I wonder whether they realised the full impact of going to the stadium and waving flags and shouting "Merdeka". We may not be perfect and we may have our internal problems but I am proud of Malaysia and proud to be Malaysian. Selamat Hari Kemerdekaan ke 35. May you continue to strive to be better and I pray for peace and harmony for you today and always. 

Picture taken during lunch a few weekends back. 

Marmalade

Marmalade is an excellent place to head to for breakfast. It has sunlight streaming in from one side of it and the decoration is made out of bright orange-themed colour scheme. There are fresh flowers placed on a huge round table at the centre. The seating arrangement allows you to eat comfortably.Part of it is partitioned off slightly and raised to give it some illusion of privacy. And that is used cleverly as seats with backs and they plump some striped cushions for you to seat beside. The space is big enough for buggies to be parked comfortably.  As for the food, no complains at all. A word of caution, this review is done only after ONE visit.

YUm

If you stay away from carbohydrates the weight will just melt off. But do you really want to do that? NO rice?

What I know this morning

Asthma isn't as easy as its made out to be. The typical phenotypes broadly divided into just two main groups of allergic vs the non-allergic can be chucked out the window. New data is uncovering the many phenotypes of asthma. So the next time you are faced with a patient with resistant asthma who needs high doses of steroids...be aware that guidelines  don't tell you how to manage these group and tread carefully so you don't lose the trust of your patient. And the inflammatory cascade with its various interactions is a nightmare to understand.

Public holiday hazard

Will I ever learn? The optimistic streak in me made me leave work at half five for home. The drive out to the main road was deceivingly smooth but directly after the roundabout, there loomed the many many cars waiting in line and my car joined in. And we crawled ( and I really do mean crawled) along Jalan Loke Yew and it was dark before I got home. I must be ill. The air condition in the car numbed the nose and hands and feet and I ended up playing " death on the nile" on the macbook in the car. That is proof enough that the cars were practically at a standstill. I wonder whether I would have been happier leaving at 7pm and arriving home within 45 minutes at the most. Note: Public Holidays result in heavy traffic on all routes heading out of the city centre. Dare I hope that tomorrow will see empty roads in KL??

Picture of Lawrence Hargrave Drive Wollongong.( circa Nov 2007 sydney trip)

Midweek wednesday hip hip hooray

It says much for my procrastinating nature that by this time of the day I am no nearer completing my self-inflicted dateline for two main tasks. My dining table ( which currently resembles a table in an officer) is no nearer returning to its state of neatness. So the revised plan is this; that I complete just ONE thing on the to-do-list, ignore the rest and head for bed soon. That way, I shan't be crabby tomorrow from lack of sleep. Always a bad thing to come to work crabby, it makes you very unpleasant to work with I'm sure. Here's to a more productive Thurs/friday. Picture is NOT the mess on the dining table. 

Need to lose weight

AAAArrrgh!! I have difficulty looking less lumpy in my kebaya. So guess those extra inches can't be hidden any more.

Cucur badak

I've not seen cucur badak served like this before. Have you? Thanks to the fasting month, our journey to PJ Hilton was smooth and we arrived far too soon for the meal. The nissan purred contentedly along the federal highway, having recently being serviced.  Of course being terribly organized creatures, we proceeded to survey the good food laid out, walking about making mental notes of what to have as the first course and what to leave out completely. There was a quiet anticipatory buzz as folks mingled with the food and quietly took their food to the table. Having done that, what was left was to wait for the time of breaking of fast. At least 2 tables within sight were taken by Mat sallehs and it was lovely to see them tactfully waiting like the rest of the crowd for the time to eat. I ate too much and got incredibly sleepy directly after the meal.