Christmas Getaway@Penang Island

Compared to last year, I did something different for this year’s Christmas. Instead of drinking and partying, I went for a serious food hunt in one of Malaysia’s food haven, Penang.

The last time I came to this island was one year ago. There was not much eating back then. It was more of getting together and enjoying each other’s company.

As a host, my friend was an expert! He brought us to different places to taste different food and specialties. I do not remember what I had been eating during my stay but I know the food are definitely satisfying.

Besides food hunting, I used the opportunity to meet my friends in Penang. It was great to see them again and also, to finally meet one. Trust me, this ain’t the last time I am ever going to Penang. I will be going back there, wanting more.

Sunday Morning@Zoo Negara

It was a rare Sunday morning when my brother called and told me that he would be bringing our cousins to the zoo. Fortunately, I joined them else, I would have missed the fun.

My cousins came over with their parents during that weekend. Though I did not get to catch up with their parents, it was indeed fun to be with them. Since we all stayed together under the same roof, I watched them growing up and trust me, you would always be surprised as to how fast the children could grow nowadays.

The children chose to go to the zoo due to never saw elephants and giraffes before. I feel them, a lot. I was twenty when I first saw elephants and giraffes right in front of my eyes, here. And that time was the first and also, the last to watch such an epic elephant show, here.

Though we only spent a few hours together on that day, it was great to see them. And of course I would be seeing them back home during Chinese New Year.

The Friday Night

It was crazy,

          It was fun,

Thanks for having me ♥

Company’s Dinner@Crowne Plaza Hotel

I told my friends that my company does not do annual dinner. In fact, they used to do it. Apparently not many turned up each time they organised the dinner and therefore, they are not bothered about having one after.

However, it does not mean that the employees are not bothered to organise one their own. The only problem about such dinner is that you have to pay for it. The same happened this year, we organised our own but, this time our boss was able to join us and therefore, the company paid for the dinner. We had buffet at Crowne Plaza Hotel.

The company has such practice that we exchange gifts. Not conjunction with Christmas which is just around the corner but, just for the heck of it and the gift value must be at least RM20. Interesting, huh? You had to first pick a number for your gift that someone else will get that night. The most embarrassing thing was you had to write your name too, which obviously spoil the fun.

That night, despite undergoing sugar blockage diet, I indulged myself with all the good food I could find at each station. I had seafood most of the time, oysters, and they were yum!

It was a great night as everyone gets to get along with everyone. Most of them brought their family members along, wives and children, for instance. We took a lot of photos with everyone but the best shot is the one above; that is our boss who is uncommonly in such a good mood to agree taking picture with us.

Now here is the toast to the wonderful beginning of us having to work our asses off another year!

Hot Spring@Sungai Klah Hot Springs Park

Two weeks ago, Tuesday was a public holiday in Malaysia. Not that I could remember what it was but it was something related to the Muslims. My brother and the siblings had been planning to go to the hot spring in Perak and I was asked along.

Glad I was there with them. They have a big pool that gets its source of heat from the underground as well as a big pool that gets its source of cool water from the mountain spring. Therefore, remember to bring enough clothes to change.

Remember to bring some eggs to boil them there. Trust me, it tastes differently. Bring some soy sauce to make the eggs tastier. The siblings were very well prepared as we were packed with good food supply.

To have a better pleasure, we booked a private jacuzzi at the park. You will not regret this as you will have so much fun with your friends and family. You could adjust the water temperature. They have a shower and toilet in each private jacuzzi.  Therefore, you could change without having the hassle to go out and use the public toilets in the park.

If you are interested to know more information about this place, click here. You could either go there for a day-trip or stay for a few days since they have a resort nearby.

ATV Adventure

After two months of suggesting, finally I managed to get my ass down to plan this activity seriously. There are few packages to choose from but we decided to take the does-not-look-so-expensive package.

I thought it would be only us but one of us suggested ‘the more the merrier’ and in the end, we had all 21 seats for a time slot just for our group. However, you would not be venturing the woods in a big group. You would be broken into a 4 groups (5-5-5-6) and left separately.

For each package, it has its own trail, and for the package we chose, the entrance is its exit. Therefore, the first group that left would have to wait for the last group to reach the destination. To be honest, it was not as easy as I thought. You have got to be reckless and daring to drive this thing. In short, self-confidence is a must!

We were told that a waterfall will be awaiting us at the end of the trail. Unfortunately for the group that I was in, it was already dark by the time we reached the waterfall. Still, lucky for us, we managed to see some fireflies.

An advice, please leave all your important belongings in your bag even if you are leaving your ATV to head to the waterfall. My friend actually left his car keys at the waterfall. Unlucky for him? Well, not really. He got to experience the real ATV ride since the experienced guide rode him to the waterfall.

Trust me, this is one of the activities you should go for at least once in your lifetime! For more information in regards to ATV adventure, click here.

For those who are up for this activity, you made the right choice. For those who are still contemplating, do not hesitate anymore. And do not take Package A as in my honest opinion, that package is for douchebags.

My friends and I are planning to go for Package E next year!

The Wedding Dinner

It was a wedding of my company’s ex-employee. Well, I was definitely not invited since I do not know the bride, at all but, my superior was not able to make it for the dinner and decided to get me to attend the wedding dinner on his behalf.

With so many amazing dishes, boy, am I glad to have myself there.

Since my superior was supposed to go, it was already arranged that he would be seated on the same table with our boss and his family. My, the wife was sitting just right next to me. I managed to handle the situation well though. It was a great night, to be able to socialise personally with his family members and some other colleagues.

Oh, do you know there is a difference between the Cantonese wedding dinner and the Foochow’s?

You see, when you attend the wedding dinner here, the West Malaysia, I realised that we do bring ‘ang pows’ for the newlywed couple in which you are actually sort of paying for the meal they arranged. However, ladies and gentlemen, we do not do this.

And the next question I received was, ‘What about the poor? They wouldn’t have the money to arrange a wedding dinner.’

Frankly speaking, I do not have a clue but, in my opinion, if you are not financially strong enough to arrange a wedding dinner, how are you able to build and support your own family?

Anyway, if you are really poor and still want to get married, you could probably just arrange a small, private wedding dinner and get people who are really close to you to attend and share the happiness.

And no, I have not thought about getting married at this point.

My Be-very-lated Birthday

I wanted to wait till I get the pictures from my brother and only make a blog post for this. However, no luck of getting and therefore, had to ‘Save image as..’ from the Facebook.

These wonderful people were not able to join my friends and I at Shabu-Shabu Restaurant and therefore, had already made a plan to make it up for me after I came back from my business trip in Indonesia.

The night was amazing due to amazing home cooked food. I love home cooked dishes. They put a lot of effort and sincerity in this and I really love them more. And oh, we all came from the same hometown and we are all Foochow but, not the girl in the pink tank top though.

They knew I love ice-cream and bought and ice-cream cake for me too. To be honest, that was the one and only cake I had for my birthday.

However, I had a difficulty to cut it as it was frozen. We did not manage to defrost it beforehand. Still, that night was really homely and loving – it really does feel like home, referring to the food. Would definitely like to have such gathering more.

Man Rules

We have always heard ‘the rules’ from women. Of course, we should not leave the men out. They have their own rules too and trust me, they are all so, so true. And they are all numbered ‘1’ on purpose!

1. Men are not mind readers which most of the women hope to find in their men but, impossible.

1. Learn to work the toilet seat. You are a big girl. If it is up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You do not hear us complaining about you leaving it down. I guess this is not a big thing in our culture since we have yet to accept a couple staying together before marriage. We still have a generation that is still conservative.

1. Sunday sports: It's like the full moon or the changing of the tides. Let it be. I guess this only happens where there is a football fever going on for example, English Premier League, Champion League or World Cup.

1. Crying is a form of blackmailing.

1. Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one: Subtle hints do not work! Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints lagi do not work! Just say it! And women would think their men do not understand them and are not caring or do not love them enough.

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question. And women would prefer to hear more from their men.

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That is what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for. Women tend to tell their problems to their men but never hoped to accept whatever the men will say to them. They just want their men to listen. Sadly, men do not work this way.

1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 days whereas women tend to bring up the past into an argument each time.

1. If you think you are fat, you probably are. Do not ask us.

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways make you sad or angry, we meant the other one.

1. You can either ask us to do something or tell us how you want it done. Not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

1. Christopher Columbus did not need directions and neither do we.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say ‘nothing,’ we will act like nothing is wrong. We know you are lying but, it is just not worth the hassle. This is one of the problems that most couples are facing.

1. If you asked a question you do not want an answer to, expect an answer you do not want to hear.

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine, really.

1. Do not ask us what we are thinking unless you are prepared to discuss topics as football, video games or motor sports.

1. You have enough clothes.

1. You have too many shoes.

1. I am in shape. Round is a shape!

Ain’t most of them very true? It is really interesting to learn the differences between men and women. As I had mentioned before...

男人是个奇怪的动物，但 女人是个很麻烦的宠物

Healthy Diet

Desire to slim down but keeping three good meals a day? Search no more as here are the tips I received from a slimming centre.

 

DETOXIFICATION PHASE (Cleansing Time): 4am – 12pm

BREAKFAST

Breakfast is to be taken within half an hour from the moment you wake up to stabilise sugar level and reduce you sugar cravings. If it is taken more than 2 hours after waking up, your metabolic rate will drop at least 5%.

What are the suggested meals?

You could either have yoghurt, kiwi and a red apple or two pieces of whole meal bread with peanut butter or eggs and a glass of plain Milo.

 

DISGESTION PHASE (Time to Eat): 12pm – 8pm

LUNCH

Note that the interval between meals must be 5 hours but, not more than 6 hours. If meal interval is more than 6 hours, snack should be taken in between which I will explain below as well. See? We are not asking you to ikat perut.

What are the suggested meals?

You should have a half bowl of rice, a bowl of vegetables, tauhu or eggs and chicken or fish. You could have them steamed, boiled, stir-fried, grilled or baked. Still awesome, right?

 

DINNER

Dinner is best taken in between 5.30pm to 6.30pm where your digestion is still good. No carbohydrate should be taken after 7pm though.

What are the suggested meals?

Here, instead of half bowl of rice, you are advised to have a quarter bowl of rice, a bowl of vegetables, tauhu or eggs and chicken or fish. Similarly to lunch, you could have them steamed, boiled, stir-fried, grilled or baked.

 

SNACKS

Snacks can be taken 3 hours after main meal if the next main meal is more than 6 hours.

What are the suggested meals?

An apple or two digestive biscuits with a glass of plain Milo or yoghurt.

 

ABSORPTION PHASE (Resting Time): 8pm – 4am

No solid food should be taken after 8pm; only liquid food such as Milo, milk, etc. can be taken if you are hungry. And I believe it is common to everyone that no more drinking after 10pm as the body will store the water which resulting in bloating, edema, puffy eyes and face or eye bags the next morning.

 

I, myself, is trying to follow this but we shall see. I love food too much that I could not resist taking them.

Love

Love,

There are many different types of love around us.

Eternal love from our family; no matter what shitty situation you put yourself into, they will never, ever leave you and let you deal the shit all alone. They may not be supporting you upfront. You never knew what they did behind you.

Friendship love from our dear friends; they are the people who probably know us well enough in regards to what we are doing outside from home. They are one of the sources of our own development, the main influence in our daily lives as we spend most of our time with them. They have always got our back. However, be careful with whom you are mixing around with. You should be picky with friends.

Romantic love with your special one; this person probably is someone who knows and understands you emotionally. They will always stand by you and be there for you whenever you are in need of them. This is the person whom you know that’s where you want to be.

With all so many love around us, there is one ultimate love, and that is self-love.

Without it, you will feel unloved no matter how many people around you, telling you they love you, they care about you.

Without it, you are soulless and you are not energy-driven to live.

Without it, you will be colour blind and then, finding your life to be meaningless.

Without it, you will choose death.

Therefore, people, please love yourselves and then, only you will find the love around you. Failure is not the end of your life. At least you got to sit back and think what went wrong and what you should do instead to amend it. However, once you chose death over trials, you will never, ever get the chance to do anything anymore.

Life is a game but do not end the game by taking your own life.

Friday Night@Zouk

The party queen is back?

Hopefully.

Thanks to a friend’s invitation that I hit Zouk for the very first time and due to the company that I had for the night, it was fun; there was an event during the night but seriously, I had no idea what was happening.

That night, we got ourselves a bottle of Black Label and two bottles of Hennessey V.S.O.P.. They were really going all out as they had finally finished all their projects and submissions for the year. Oh, had I mentioned that they are LKW students? They came all the way from Cyberjaya, I kid you not.

As for me? I work every Saturday so, this was no exception. Still, this did not stop me from turning into a drinking mode. I had a slight hangover the next morning at work and to make things worse, I were to meet my grandpa after work instead of catching some sleep.

Still, it was all worth it. The people was fun. The night was fun. And oh, I got to know this cool dude who apparently is a LKW student as well, and we exchanged numbers. Though he texted me twice already, I have never replied him, lol

Service Review: D’Chat

I ain’t sure if most DiGi users are aware of D’Chat. They probably do. In my case, I do but never been bothered to use it before. However, out of curiosity and at the same time, I need their assistance, I tried out D’Chat like finally.

After you login to OCS, on the left panel, when you clicked on D’Chat, an image like above appears on your screen. It is best to use Firefox though. Choose the category of your concern and begin chat. To be fair, I was not expecting anything much from it but, I was wrong.

Honestly, I was impressed. Really.

I thought it is just one of those loudtalkbullshitcrappy features or services some companies provide to their customers. However, this really blew my mind off! There was someone chatting and handling your issue! They replied you fast and would not ignore you. You are the one who get to choose to end the conversation. Probably it was just my luck or maybe, DiGi does have an excellent customer service.

D’Chat probably is an efficient method to send the right information between two parties. Lovin’ DiGi more now.

Business Trip@Jakarta & Surabaya

This trip was a real challenge for me. I literally planned the whole thing: the schedules, the appointments, the flights, the lodging as well as logistic to each client. And I did all these alone! It was quite challenging but this will not be the last trip; there are more to come.

Of course, I was really excited and had been looking forward to this trip a lot because one, I wanted to know how things go and if it will be under my control and two, I planned it all so, of course I wanted to see if things would turn out well.

We left to Jakarta on Sunday afternoon and well, Jakarta is somewhat not what I had imagined lol I imagined it to be clean and organised. Much to my horror, the traffic here is comparable to the one I experienced in Bangkok.

Though the room is not as awesome as the one I had previously, at least there is a bathtub in the bathroom too for me to take a hot bath after a long tiring day. I spent 75% of my time in Jakarta on roads, man! It was really exhausting and drained my energy a lot.

We had to leave to Surabaya on Thursday morning and then headed back to Kuala Lumpur on the same day in the evening. Fortunately, we had a one-day Haji break on Wednesday. Believe it or not, I spent my whole day in the hotel! Now you see how I couldn’t be arsed to leave the hotel and tour around Jakarta.

The worst nightmare was after our only appointment with a client in Surabaya, we had to foolishly waited for 4 hours before we could check-in and proceed to the international departure area where at least you could shop and such.

When I got home, it was around midnight and after the unpacking and cleaning myself up, I had a great Skype chat with Cyy. It’s been ages! It’s really nice to have someone you can talk to when you got home especially when you are living alone outside as it does make you feel like home..

Find My iPhone

Please help return my lost iPhone. If found, call you-gotta-be-kidding-me.

In Malaysia, once you lost your iPhone, that’s it for you.

Money

Money cannot buy happiness.

..it brings pain to the citizens where the country leaders are all corrupted and act selfishly.

..it brings fatality in the community where people are robbed and murdered.

..it brings curse in the family where siblings despise and fought among themselves to gain the wealth left behind by their parents.

..in my case, it brings fear and then, distance between me and my parents.

However, if you think about it, money can buy happiness.

..it brings wealth to the country and its people.

..it brings wealth to individuals who will satisfy themselves to obtain what they want.

..it brings joy in the family where they have shelter, food, clothing and more.

..in my case, it brings peace in my family.

They say ‘Money is a root of all evil’ but, I say ‘Human beings are the devils themselves.’ Money is just a dead object. It never controlled and ordered us to do anything. We are the ones who let ourselves being controlled by our greed and thus, typical human beings put the blame on money.

I have no idea why I started this post but I started to see the terror of what money can bring after talking to that person. I’m scared.

What I Want To Be

When I was a lot younger, I wanted to be an astronomer..

..until I learned that becoming one in Malaysia is useless.

I then wanted to become a biomedical scientist..

..until I learned that becoming one in Malaysia is useless too.

So I thought of becoming a pharmacist instead..

..but it was not in my interest at all.

And therefore, I took into consideration in becoming an accountant..

..however, I do not enjoy working in the office doing paper works and such.

I left Malaysia and went to Shanghai for a year and involved myself in a gaming industry..

..but due to some complications on my legality status to work there, I came back to Malaysia for good.

Now I am a marketing officer who covers the market in South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand..

..but my job scope covers administrative works, business development, customer servicing, marketing, market research and sales.

I guess things do not always go the way you wanted them to, no?

累

走着 走着

拼命的走着

没有什么能阻止我 什么都做得到

没有什么难得了我 什么都做得好

对自己的要求很高 做什么都要最棒

也很在乎别人对我的看法和想法 做什么都希望大家开心 而忽略了自己的感受

觉得自己很坚强 很独立 不管自己有多么的不开心 伤心难过 都会一直保持大家喜爱的微笑

想让他们知道 不管发生什么事 乐观的我是不会消失的

不管是 家人 朋友 或是 同事

我都要保持最好的我 最棒的我

但 我真的好累了

想好好的休息

也许简单的收拾自己行李去流浪会有所帮助吧。。

The Be-early and The Belated

It has been 5 years since I last celebrated my day with my family. Finally, the day has come, when I had the chance to celebrate the day with them. Though it was a be-early celebration, it is far better than none.

I made a trip home for a few days and my, it was so good to be home. Everything felt so comfortable around me. My plan was doing a pot-luck with my friends at mine with my family. Everyone came and the night was fun.

It was a great get-together and the house was lively. It has been such a long time since I had a good laugh. Good to be home.

On the same week, I had my belated with my friends back in Kuala Lumpur. However, all my hometown friends were not able to make it. Quite disappointed though but on the other hand, more than expected number of people came! I was grateful, seriously.

I decided to have my belated at Shabu-Shabu Restaurant, my all-time favourite place for food. This place is definitely worth your money to have nice food and most importantly of all, you will have fun with your friends. That is the main reason I chose the place.

It has been 2 years since I last went there so, it was good to be back.

I ended the night with having my brother to come and pick me up from the Puchong and we had a short yam-cha at this random shop in Kuchai Lama. And had I mentioned that the guy I fancy was with us too? *blush* But so far, there is no progress yet *sobs*

The Birthday

“You are sneaky. You don’t have it posted on your Facebook info but everyone on your profile knew.”

Yeah, I did it on purpose. I removed my birthday from my Facebook, just being curious on who, among my many friends, remember or bothered to check on my birthday.

You know it is more meaningful that people remember and made an effort to give you a call (thank you), you know who you are, or either WhatsApp-ed or texted you. Also those who posted their wishes on your wall. I really do appreciate it. Loving you all more now.

I had a be-early birthday back in Kuching with my family and friends and it was fun! I will be having a belated birthday celebration this coming Saturday though. Hope it is gonna be good.

However, there wasn’t any special celebration or whatsoever on the day itself. But, I did go out, instead of staying at home. I went to this Super Networking event organised by KL Expat. It was fun as I went alone and knew no one there. Then sooner or later, you made a few new friends and then, learning that it was your birthday, to have people that are not very close to you, singing birthday song was really cool!

Of course I hope we will still be in touch again and yeah, we exchanged name cards which was the primary purpose of the event. Oops, no picture at all from the event.

My bad.

Two Months

Few weeks ago marked my two months’ of work in Kuala Lumpur. I would not say it is a job that will take my life ie. being really busy and I had to work my ass off. It is more like either you will get really bored or you will get really busy. There is no proper trend or what you will call, peak period or otherwise. Everything happens and changes really fast eg. stock market and yes, you must adapt to the change. You got to have a dynamic personality else, build that personality within you!

If the income can flow in like the stock market, that’s even better.

When I learnt that it is normally a 3-month probation period, I set a goal to end my probation period within two months and good gracious, I did it. There is an increment, though not much, but it is something. Something to boost my confidence, motivation, bla bla whatever positive shit you can come up with.

I have yet to set another goal.

Probably a pay rise within 6 months counting down from when my probation period ended? Or maybe, closing my very first own deal before year 2010 ended?

Would love to earn EUR instead of MYR. How awesome is that?

I would not say this is the most exciting job ever but this is definitely a great experience to gain. You were able to meet high-profile people, exchanging name cards, sitting down having meetings or doing presentations and probably, dine with them, socialising. I will not say  I am a perfect people person and that I am perfect in socialising.

I suck too, sometimes.

I would say I have them but I am still learning and improving.

AIESEC Alumni Hat Party@Bankers Club

It was about two weeks ago when I attended AIESEC Alumni Hat Party at Bankers Club. To be frank, I do not know most of the people there. Out of hundred, probably, I only know less than 10 people. Very saddening, no?

Still, I had fun that night to be able to meet those I had not seen for years! The venue was great and man, I love the food. Not to forget the alcoholic beverage they provided us too; beers, whisky and vodka. It seems we are not paying RM180 for naught.

Sculling is a very common game in AIESEC. Since we are all grown-ups, we have beers for sculling. However, you can have Coke if you do not drink. Me? Waddaya think? Beer no doubt!

The photographers for the event. They did an awesome job! Lovin’ their pictures. The dude on the left is still studying while the one on the right is waiting for the one on the left to finish his studies so they could come out and establish a partnership to run a studio together! Awesome, no?

The alumnus (plus Kw) from Taylor’s. We met two juniors that night too. In fact, most of the people who came for the dinner were juniors. Alumni? It was more or less like Generation-Y-meeting-Generation-X dinner.

Believe it or not, we have people who are being AIESEC alumnus for more than 20 years! There were number of people who are around 10 years old alumni. The picture above are the us, who are AIESEC alumnus for less than 5 years.

Gonna end this post with the group picture for the night. Not sure if I would be going for the next one. I would, perhaps but, I am more looking forward to this AIESEC Alumni Conference or something. This year’s (or was it last year’s) conference looked fun!

Food Review: Kampua and Bian Nvk Found in Concrete Jungle

Up to date, I had been to two places that sell Sarawak Noodles, more specifically, Sibu’s famous Foochow noodles, known as kampua.

Note: Kampua is very different from kolok mee. Kampua is like one of the must-try dish in Sibu whereas kolok mee is more popular in Kuching.

First was found at Restoran Pertama in Pandan Jaya. It is a hawker stall with the name ‘Sarawak Noodles’ written. You can get to choose either small or big portion. It costs RM3.80 and RM4.50 respectively. For me, small portion is more than enough and note, I could not finish it.

In my opinion, the taste or maybe the sauce, is too strong for me. Probably because I ordered kampua tou you lak which literally means, spicy kampua with soy sauce. Still, the taste is there.

I had brought my brother and some other people from Sibu to this place to try out the kampua here. Good rates were given and believe it or not, my brother goes back to that place like 3 times in less than 2 months.

The owner has been living in Kuala Lumpur for approximately 10 years. However, he just started his business 2 years ago.

Apart from kampua, they sell Sarawak laksa too which was allegedly quite spicy compared to what you get in SMK Methodist’s canteen or Aloha.

Click here if you want to know how to get there.

Just last weekend, I went to Restoran Strawberry located in Bandar Puteri, Puchong. You will see a hawker stall

Not only they serve kampua, they have bian nvk as shown above, my favourite dish too! That is not all, they have cao cai hung ngan or cao cai noodles.

I had tried kampua there and I prefer this compared to the one in Pandan Jaya. The taste is mild. We, Sarawakians, prefer mild-taste food. However, it is not worth the price. It cost you RM4.00 for that portion shown in the picture above.

As for bian nuvk, I had two plates that day. However, it is not as good as the one I can get at the food court located above the wet market which is facing SMK Tung Hua in Sibu. The layer is very thick and there is not much meat. Still, the taste is authentic. The price is RM3.00 with 9 pieces of bian nvk.

Click here if you want to know how to get there.