Bittersweet

So I might or might not have mentioned this before. I forgot. Memory of a duck. Sorry. But anyway, I'm moving. House I mean. Cs and I sold our house. The current one. Long story. So we are busy packing every night after work, trying to sort out our stuff. Which to keep, which to toss, which to pack, which to sell, and which to move to storage.

Which means I am exhausted most of the time. Physically and mentally. Winnie comes over to help sometimes and to force me to pack more stuff.

We are also trying to finish all the food that we have currently at home. Winnie is a big help here too. Hahah. Ocassionally she tries to eat my lunch too. My lunch for the next day at work, I mean. I try and stop her best I can. :)

The downside is, I am starting to forget things. I forgot where I packed those clothes, I forgot that we don't have biscuits at home. I forgot that I don't have my baking pans anymore. The other day, I was happily defrosting meat, chopping carrots (all the works for my casserole), when I realized I packed most of my kitchen stuff off already. Jeez woman.

Another downside is I'm guzzling way too much coffee to keep myself awake during working hours. I need sleep. I also need to workout. I also need to pack. Grr. We also need to eat dinner. Damn.

But yeah this is mainly what I have been doing these days. Yawn. Literally.

Actually its not that bad. I skipped packing tonight. Worked out for 1.5 hours - feel so proud of myself. Every time after exercising, I feel so good and ask myself why dont I do this everyday.  But next day i'll end up doing something else instead. Ah well. 

Change of topic.

In other news, I love my new phone. There are so many things to play with. It is so different to my iphone but I'm slowly getting the hang of it.

That day after work when Cs brought me to buy my phone, I felt elated and also slightly sad/mournful. Bitter sweet cos the woman informed me immediately: ok you cannot use ur iphone now. 

So fast!! Ya, I know its good la. Its what I wanted. Just that I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to my phone.  No last words.

And I'm aware of how this sounds. Its an object. Its bimbotic. Its not alive. Out with the old, in with the new. 

Just realised this applies to my house too. I'm feeling bittersweet too. Mostly bitter. Hahaha. Can't blame me. There are so many memories everywhere. Oh well.

What else?

Cs dragged me to watch Pacific Rim (again) but this time in 3D. Feel sorry for me y'all. I had to watch Iron Man 3 three (3) times!! Three! Tiga! San! Before and after watching Iron Man 3, I also had to watch Iron Man 1 and 2. As much as I love Robert Downey Jr, that is a bit too much.

I guess this is his payback for my Sex and the City and Grey's Anatomy marathon. Hahah. Oh well.  

Ok bye. I am going to zzz..

My new phone

Hello. So after lusting/drooling over Cs' S4 for so long (or so it feels), he got me one too. Hehe. Actually my iphone contract ends on my birthday, which is in a couple of weeks. So I got my early birthday present. One of. Ahem. So nice to be loved. Thank u baby.

But you can expect lots of photos.  Finally!! I no longer have to depend on other people for nice photos. :)

2 years ago on my bday, he got me my iphone and so fast..bam! 2 years has gone by.

I has a new phone!! Ok bye!

Hunger pains

So it's 530 pm and we're (winnie and I) stuck in the jam on the way to my house.

Me: I'm hungryyyyy!

Looks at curry puff longingly and takes a bite out of it.

Winnie turnes around to glare at me: No eating in my car!

Me: (continues eating) you threw up in my car!

Winnie: oh yeah. Oh ok then.

Hahahah I finished my curry puff.

We are still in the jam. It's 533 pm now.

FYI: Curry puff was ok. Its from Tun Jugah. Better than Sarawak Plaza one, Nanci. :) 3 for RM 1.

Star Cruise -Day 2 (Phuket)

This is a continuation from Day 1 on Star Cruise Libra. Today, we woke up bright and early to go to Phuket. Btw, Thailand is one hour behind Malaysia, so those using smartphones have to rememeber not to use automatic lest it changes your phone time.

The crew kept emphasizing to us that the cruise ship follows "ship time", which is "Malaysia time". People like Benz and Vero overslept cos they followed Phuket time. Heheh. We agreed to meet at 9 am (I think), but they thought it was only 8 am when we banged on their door. So we had breakfast separately.

We went to the Ocean Palace (Chinese restaurant) for breakfast. When seated, I asked the waiter: err..how do I order food?

He smiled and told me to sit tight and wait just a minute. They will go fetch you a complete set of breakfast. This was our dim sum breakfast for two. Free! The porridge was realllly good. Benz had 3 bowls btw. That was how good it was. Hahah.

Bleary haven't woken up eyes and face.

Anyway, we are supposed to go down to port at about 12 pm (me thinks. Don't really remember now). But lunch starts at 11:30 or was it 11 am, so we all went to have free lunch again (too much food!), while waiting to go down.

We had a seat by the window so I saw clearly that they laid out carpets and the crew had gone down already, so I hustled everyone to quick quick go down to Phuket too!

Turned out we were the early ones. While other people were queuing up and organizing, we were rushing down the stairs. Hahah there are pros and cons to this.

The bad thing was, the taxi drivers charge you high prices cos you are one of the early ones. Allow me to explain. When mum and Win them went a week earlier, they said they booked a taxi for the whole day for 2,000 baht. (RM 200). Earlier on on the ship, the crew mentioned that they will start the price at 3,000 baht and they will go down to about 1,800 baht. Just negotiate with them nicely.

Unfortunately, we were the early birds so they refuse to reduce the price. We got 2,200 baht in the end. Pfft. Oh well. Not bad considering cos we divide by four. Some more, it was convenient to have a driver wait for us the whole day and night. No need to worry.

In the taxi, they give you a list of the places you can go to. Just pick and they drive you there. Do your research before hand and see which places you're interested in.

Btw, the cruise provides tours but they are more pricey and they go to places like some nut factory (why would I want to go there), and probably snorkeling (just guessing but so hot, no thanks). Ahem. Moving on.

Vero wanted to go to the snake show. So off we went. Entrance fees are separate of course. I don't remember how much this was.

Look at how red-faced Cs is. Hahaha its not the flash. The guy on the left was damn quick, and the guy on the right lost his second finger on his right hand. Its not an encouraging sight. =.=

This was how close we were sitting and no barrier at all ya know! When the snakes came close to my side, it was eww..but the guy was quick to pull the snakes back to his side, so all is well. I'm alive as you can see.

Didn't help that the commentor was saying stuff such as: this snake's poison can kill you within 15 minutes. Wtf please.

This snake was so huge! It looks bloated from having just eaten. I guess that's why they let us touch it.

After that we went elephant trekking. This was my idea. I wanted to go horse riding (on the beach) too cos it sounds romantic and err fun but after the elephant ride, I changed my mind. It was so hot that we all wanted to go the mall after that.

Vero and Benz.

Waiting for our ride..

That's our ride!!

The guide heard me say in mandarin to Cs: where's our umbrella??

He immediately reached for an umbrella and passed to me. They speak mandarin! And I look so scared. Haha that was in the beginning and when the elephant was walking down a slope. Very wobbly and had to hold on to my umbrella, my bag, and to Cs.

We took the 30 minute trek only and it costs about RM 90. Quite pricey but oh well it was an experience. :)

The thing with sitting on the elephant is you're at its mercy. No lah not that bad. Sounds so dramatic. Just that the elephant stops to eat along the way. Vero and Benz's elephant must have been bloody starving. It stopped so many times along the way to eat. Haha.

Ours pooped mid walk. Trivia of the day: did you know fresh elephant poop is green? Cos it eats so much vegetation I guess. Hahah we turned around to take photos of Vero's elephant when we noticed our elephant pooping while walking. Multitasking.

After that we went to Jungceylon (shopping center) to escape the heat. There are more places you could go to: shooting range, the beach, massages etc, but we chose the mall. Air con please!!

First stop was le siam for some thai food. Its located right at the entrance of Jungceylon. Slighlty pricier than other restaurants but its soo good.

Pineapple fried rice is yum.

 Cs and I have been to Phuket before so it was easier to get around this time. I wrote about my last trip here.

Hot, slurpy Tom Yam Goong. Just look at it. A lot of seafood inside some more.

This guy was perfoming outside. He was dancing quite fast so it was quite hard to make out at first whether it was one or three people.

We shopped around a bit, went to Starbucks to use the free wifi (none btw). Thailand don't provide free wifi in Starbucks apparently. This was the case in Bangkok too. We asked. Shopped some more, went for a one hour body massage (all of us). Ahhh nice. One hour full body massage costs 300 baht (RM 30). So cheap. Why not?

Cs and Benz wanted Burger King to tapau back to the ship. Men. I scored a free fries and drink btw cos the guy mistook my two ala carte burgers for meals. Oh well. :) I'm sure I probably gave out some free food too when I was working at Mcd. Accidentally of course. Ahem.

Later on, we went to Patong beach. Stayed a while to watch some people parasailing, and took some photos. Cs and I got our feet wet while Benz and Vero didn't.

After sunset, we walked over to Bangla Road. Its basically this stretch of road filled with bars and dancing girls on poles with very little clothing, and people trying to pull you to watch ping pong shows (with their pussy) and other tourist products. Bought magnets here (super pricey). Don't buy here. Buy in Krabi.

I blogged about Bangla Road before. Click that link above. The last time I was here, it was during the weekends, so it was very happening. This time, I was here on a Monday night. It was mehh. Dancing started at 9 pm, which was 10 pm (ship's time), so we had to leave soon. Didn't get to see much this time around. Boo. We had to arrive back to the ship by 12 am midnight.

We chose this huge bar to go in for drinks. They had free wifi (oh so important).

Group shot!

Cs took this photo btw. Not me. But look at their attention to detail.

The bar was huge. Too bad it was kinda empty.

From Bangla road back to the port, it was about 30 mins. Not too far away.

Anyway, we were afraid the ship would sail without us so we went back to the ship on time, before midnight. Some people were cutting it really close though. Cs and I went to the top deck to hang out some more, and saw people running to the ship at midnight. Siao one.

Benz and Vero went back to rest after that. Cs and I, being the couple that don't know how to rest, we put our stuff back in our room, had the Burger King, and went out to the pool deck to chill some more.

There were still quite a lot of people about sitting in groups, drinking and taking pictures. Oh and waiting for the buffet (supper). Supper starts at 11:30 pm (I think), so of course Cs dragged me there again.

They have quite a lot of choices, including vegetarian options too for Indians it seems.

Anyway that concludes our second day out. Very long day it seems.

Next day: Krabi!

Cooking Spree!

Hello. These days, Winnie and I have been on a cooking spree. One fine night, we decided to make lasagna.

As you can see, the layers are not that obvious. It tastes SO GOOD though. But oh my Gods! It is so rich, so creamy, and so sinful. I adapted the recipe from Karen Cheng. I am a sucker for Italian. Or cheese. But so does almost everybody else. Try to make this! Its a bit time consuming but so worth it.

The initial plan was to make some sort of pie or tart cos I am obsessed with making some sort of pie or tart. Haha I bought a new book but it is useless. Kinda. The recipes are so vague. So why did you buy it mi? Cos the photos look so tempting. Damn. 

I used one of the recipe to make fruit pies. From scratch. This was our first time only so it took us so long to make this. Damn regret making this. Some more the recipe was so vague that we had to second guess and resort to Google for help. I'll take a photo of the book next time. Don't buy it. 

We made these small tarts first but it took so long that we were tired (lazy), so we changed to these medium tarts. 

We put in wayy too much fruitss on these tarts. Anyway, this is the first and last time we are making this. It tastes good and all, but Win and I both said that we got more satisfaction out of making lasagna. Think we'll stick with making real food and not desserts.

We have quite a few of these left over. 

Moving on. There is a story behind these wedges.

 I am not so fond of KFC's cheezy wedges. I always ask for plain wedges. But that day, the woman behind the counter gave me this after I asked for plain. She said: cannot. Its on the picture (points at wedges photo) so you can't have plain.

Cs and I stared at her like she was speaking a foreign language.

Bitch please, lazy to give me a new one say la! Like I never go to KFC in my life, or have never asked for plain wedges in my life. Think I live under the well like you? Got me so mad! Incompetent bitch trying to lie to me. (Positive thoughts all went out the window from here on.)

I didn't kick up a fuss and just ordered nuggets instead. But it got me thinking: sometimes is it better to kick up a fuss and call the manager over and demand for my plain wedges? Since I paid for it, I want to damn well eat it. But then this is Kuching, Malaysia. The manager would (most probably) take her side, and they would mutter and very reluctantly give me my plain wedges while cursing at me, and giving me the death stare. Cos this is Kuching. Cos we settle for this behaviour. Cos we have no choice.

This just makes me so mad. Why is our culture like this? Should I fucking bitch at her on the spot next time?

In London, customers are totally entitled to request things. Jeez. While I worked in Mcd, about 1 in every 5 customers request something special on their burger every single day!! "No pickles" is the ever popular request. They (customers) just request that so they get their freshly made cheeseburgers on the spot. But in Kuching, try and request no pickles, they probably think you're an alien.

Fucking hell. I can't even get plain wedges. Its not like I asked for EXTRA sauce. I asked for NONE. Chee-bye. OK I'm in a bad mood now so I'm extra pissed cos of this.

I have to write a post on the funny things customers order sometimes, like cheeseburgers with no cheese. Or hamburger with no bun. Hahah. 

Moving on.

You know that day at Spring food court, I was queuing up behind a girl to buy drinks. Another guy and girl came up and queued by the side. When the girl in front finished her order and left, both me and the other girl stepped up. We looked at each other. 

She was about to order when I said: I was here first. 

The girl said: the queue is here.

Me: but I was here first.

She just shrugged and let me go first while she bitched at me to her guy friend.

I fucking regret not turning around to ask what?!! What bitch?! Speak louder please! 

The mood I am in now (as in right now), I feel like I want to pick a fight with every idiot who pissed me off. Sorry. 

Seriously though. I was there first! She insisted the queue was at the other side! So bitch?! I was behind the woman!!! You came AFTER ME BITCH!! 

(I think I should not be blogging tonight. I'm just spreading bad qi (energy)).

These are the result of Camera 360's new filter. Kinda in love with it.

Go download and try it out. Kinda fun to play with. :)

Incidentally, I posted this on FB and a friend said I look better in the photo than in real life (not those words but along those lines). So in case anyone is as dim as he is, obviously the app made me look better than I actually do. Hahah sorry Norman. I can be an asshole too ya know.

Don't let the pretty face (ha!) fool you.

Told ya I was in a bad mood.

Ok that's all for tonight.

No wait. I went to watch Pacific Rim earlier tonight. It was kinda awesome.

Winnie watched it first and told me to tell Cs (movie buff) that he MUST watch it, and that it is better than Transformers. 

Well, its not the same as Transformers but I couldn't tear my eyes away from the movie. Time flew by and I was so caught up in it. Yea, its a must watch. Yes, its another movie about aliens but I don't care about that. I just care if the movie is good or not. It is. Go watch!

Ok bye for real.

My weekend

Friday night: The hubs loves watching movies while I am quite meh about them. But we compromised: watched despicable me 2. It was ok. The minions were not as hilarious as I expected. Back track a bit. We were at the Spring. Met mum and Winnie there for dinner (coincident) sushi king. Nice.

Saturday night: We went to Hijau for supper at about 9pm. Had good burger and chicken wings. Btw I am typing on my iPad now. Damn slow. Hijau was the place where we decided to go Japan before. Heheh. Random trivia. 

Sunday night: We just came back from Escobar. Cs had cravings for or chien (oyster pancake). 

Kuching's version of or chien. Tonight's version is very mehh (lousy). Not as crispy or as tasty. Cs wasn't satisfied. 

Anyway, we actually wanted to go last night. There was a "muay Thai" boxing event but we were afraid  it would be packed and we didn't know if we needed tickets. So cancelled. But tonight we went instead. It was all right. Not as packed. The two singers were as good as before but too bad they ended at 9 pm. Kinda early. 

Taken from Escobar just now. Can't seem to stop myself taking photos of sunsets. No filter from Cs' S4. Jeles. I want his phone. 

This one with filter from my Instagram. 

This is Cherrie. Cheeky face. 

This is super layan face. 

This is her asking for food. When she wants something, she lifts up her paw (hand) even before we ask her to give hand. Always the same right paw. Damn cute. 

Ok bye. Nights. 

Star Cruise Libra - Day 1

Ever since mum and dad went on the cruise (Star Cruise Virgo) from Singapore with their friends, we wanted to go too. My parents came back from the cruise full of stories, weight gain (haha), and just very happy and \relaxed. Dad kept telling us: you must go! You should go! There's nothing better than waking up in the morning and then go eat and walk straight into the casino. Wtf! Hahah.

We don't share the same sentiment. But anyway, they did influence us to go. They kept telling us their happy travel stories tempting us. We chose Star Cruise Libra instead cos it was slightly cheaper and also cos it sailed from Penang-Phuket-Krabi.

From Singapore, you go to Penang and Phuket. Btw, if you join the cruise from Penang, you pay RM on the ship. If you join from Singapore, you pay SGD. I don't think they jack up the prices though. According to dad, the alcohol prices were reasonable. That's all you spend on anyway. Everything else is free. Food and accommodation, and most of the shows.

You only need to pay for drinks (juices, or alcoholic drinks), adult show (not compulsory so can skip if you want), and casinos (of course).

Start from the beginning:

I always take photo in the plane. Used to it. :) We went with Vero and Benz. 2 couples so 2 rooms and can share a taxi perfectly. They were really good travel companions actually. Easy to get along.

Arrived in Penang and got a taxi. The driver didn't tell us it was a van! We had some time to spare so we asked him to bring us for lunch first.

He brought us to the famous Penang Road chendol place. Tried assam laksa too. 

There was a chang on the table so I took a photo too.

Afterwards we went to Swettenham Pier to check in! So excited!

Once you arrive there, you get the happy vibes already. The staff there are really polite and cheerful, and there are people video recording us already. You can buy the DVD at the end of the cruise. They go around recording everything for the whole 3 nights. So remember to smile and wave if someone points the camera at you.

If you act crazy happy, you get a special appearance on the video. Hahah really! There was this auntie who was waving (crazily) and jumping up and down so she got a lot of scenes. If you just smile, you most likely won't get much scenes. Like us. :)

Serenading us upon arrival.

Happy face!

This is our room. Deluxe oceanview on deck 6. Our room was mid class. There are cheaper alternatives for 4 people, and better suites. But Vero found a really good deal online for us. So we got this instead. :) Happy. Winnie said our beds were wider than their ones, and our room slightly bigger. They were on deck 4 btw. 

The reception (check in area) is on deck 4. So are two restaurants (one western and one chinese). Both free. Deck 5 contains the casino and the stardust lounge (where you watch all the shows and gather for tours and etc). Deck 9 is the pool deck and the buffet restaurant (also free). I still remember hahaha.

Toilet was really small. But its okay! I'm still happy. They have towels, and hair dryer, and the necessary shampoo, conditioners etc.

After settling down in our room, we went to explore the ship. Wound up outside the western restaurant and noticed that they have hi-tea. Wahey. Cool. We just arrived and have free food already. Why the hell not? Hahah even though we were not hungry. 

We got a barrel of Heineken to go with our hi-tea too. :)

This barrel costs RM 199 (divided between 4 of us) and took us 3 days to finish. It has a total of 20 glasses. Quite a lot. The good thing is, you can drink this anytime, anywhere, whenever you want. Just take out your card and pass to the server. Btw, no cash is exchanged on board. Everything is paid using your room card. Only before leaving the ship, you settle your outstanding bill.

Anyway, if you don't want to finish the beer, just ask the server to keep it. You can drink it on the pool deck, during the shows, or anywhere you want. They will take it out for you. Awesome eh? Their service was awesome.

Here we are in the stardust lounge waiting for our turn to book our reservations for the gala dinner (last night). Book in advance to reserve your spot (which restaurant) and seating. There are 2 seatings: 6 pm and 9 pm. 

At 5 pm, we went to the pool deck for the welcome party. The ship sails at 5 pm, hence the party!! It was just so happening and so happy. Most people arrived early and have already grabbed good seats by the pool.

The live band was playing, and there are dancers who pull the crowd to dance along.

We took out our barrel again at the pool deck. They serve us food again!! BBQ buffet with lots and lots of food. You will never go hungry. 

To show how big that thing is. :)

Dessert.

They prepared some games as well. This poor girl kept getting soaked. Whoever threw the ball on target, then the girl will get hit by the water balloon on top. 

There are not enough seats that's why there are people standing everywhere. We got lucky. The other people stood up to go watch the performance and we quickly got these seats! :D

It was the 20th anniversary btw. We didn't get any of that cake pun. 

Wanted to get a sunset photo but no pretty sunset that day. 

We moved on to the top deck after that to chill some more.

Sorry in advance. We have a lot of photos like these throughout the trip. :)

Titanic fail. Hahah.

At about 8 something, we went exploring the ship again and found ourselves outside the Ocean Palace (chinese restaurant) and decided to go in for supper. OMG wayy too much food please. The biggest eater of the trip is Cs. He is the only one (among the four of us) who could eat again and again.

I had to accompany him to eat supper at 11:30 pm every night. Siao one.

Benz and Vero went to rest up after that but Cs and I went exploring some more. Ended up here again cos its just too beautiful. We were out at sea by now, so you just see the sea, the stars and the moon. It was dark all around us. 

Saw this promo. Corona for only RM 8? Why the hell not?

There was a basketball court too.

That's our room number. Oh look I'm still holding my Corona. Hahaha.

So that concludes our first day on the cruise. :)

Next day: Phuket!