I am back!

I am Back! Back to reality! Back to Kuching. My KL trip was relaxing, laid back, and better than anticipated. Actually no. I am feeling pretty exhausted now. I don't know why. I woke up this morning (in the hotel room), with my lower back, arms and legs aching. Why? Aren't I on holiday? Shouldn't I feel relaxed?

Why do I feel...exhausted?

Haha I think cs and I tend to overdo things.

We are so stupid. Actually, I think it was me!

I suggested to him to wake up at 730am to go for a morning swim! Shivering as I entered the pool, I forced myself to swim up and down to get my muscles burning.



Then, we went back to shower before going down for breakfast! Breakfast by 930am. Quite impressive for me. I usually sleep till noon on holidays. I wake up for work at 8am ok. Earliest 745am. Latest 815am.

By then, we were congratulating ourselves. We are so healthy! Wake up so early to swim. So refreshing. So nice. Let's do it again tomorrow.

So we pigged out during breakfast. A morning swim makes you super hungry.



The crazy fella had nasi goreng, nasi lemak, mee hoon, yoghurt, donut, mixed fruits, bacon, sausages, and ham for breakfast! Siao.



Aftermath. Healthy my ass baby. Haha.

By 3pm, both of us were regretting the early morning swim. Why wake up so early during holidays? Siao. In bed by 10pm.

The highlight of the trip was supposed to be IKEA. We bought some stuff for his new house..

But, in my opinion, best buy ever is this:



I love it! It was love at first sight! I insisted that we buy it! No matter what, we will find a way to bring it back to kuching! Where there is a will, there is a way.

I wanted to buy two! But...even I know that would be quite hard to bring back on Air Asia. Hehe.

It is so fluffy and so soft. I love furry stuff! I keep hugging it to myself. No idea where I am going to put it yet.



Cs tried to pose. But alas men are awful at taking photos:



He turned out looking like Ariel. Little Mermaid. Haha..



There. Better.

Update more next time.

Meme

I am on a meme writing spree. Or a blog updating spree!

Here we go:

How many schools did I go to?

I started Kindy till primary 6 in Lodge, then Form 1-3 at SMK Tabuan Jaya, then SMK Stampin for F4-F5. IBMS College for 2 years? Then STM and LSC in London.

Was I the studious nerd, or the last minute hero?

Neither. I was never particularly good or bad in anything. I think I was invisible. Yea. The type like Anne Hathaway in Princess Diaries. The one where people sat on by accident simply cos you're so unnoticeable. That's me.

Was I the class ‘taiko’ or the teacher’s pet?

Neither too. Invisible people don't get noticed much. I don't make jokes, I am not loud, smart or pretty. I am just quiet and shy. Story of my life. Boring.

Three subjects I enjoyed.

English - cos it was easy. In Malaysia, English is easy. I think. Or maybe I have my early education in Lodge to thank for. Seriously though, when I went to SMK Tabuan Jaya, I was shocked to see the learning material for Form 1. Cos the literature and essay writing etc..was easy. Compared to Lodge lar.

Maths - cos I thought it was easy too. I think I have my maths tuition teacher to thank. Not school teacher. My tuition teacher was very good. She tutored me from F1-F5. And she always taught in advance of what my high school teacher was teaching.

Nothing else. I am not a good student in anything else. Hahahaa..I don't study much. Do I regret not studying more in SPM? Of course! It was so bloody easy compared to college and uni. Back then, I would think why why why?? Why didn't I study? Ahhh..but its over now. School life is over. My masters degree is rotting in my folder.

Three teachers that inspired me.

None. Seriously? Ahh ok..Let's see. Seriously la. None! Inspired me in what way?

I had two pregnant teachers - They taught me not to become a teacher if you're pregnant! Students learn nothing. One was constantly off and sick and not at work so I learnt nothing the whole year. The other one spat into a basin constantly throughout the lesson while teaching in class. It was so memorable. (And I am so evil).

And I'm tagging…

None of my close friends own a blog. Grr..

How about you? If you own a blog and if you are reading this now, do it now! Please?

Personality Quiz

This is mine:

Your view on yourself:

You are down-to-earth and people like you because you are so straightforward. You are an efficient problem solver because you will listen to both sides of an argument before making a decision that usually appeals to both parties.

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:

You like serious, smart and determined people. You don't judge a book by its cover, so good-looking people aren't necessarily your style. This makes you an attractive person in many people's eyes.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:

You prefer to get to know a person very well before deciding whether you will commit to the relationship.

The seriousness of your love:

You are very serious about relationships and aren't interested in wasting time with people you don't really like. If you meet the right person, you will fall deeply and beautifully in love.

Your views on education

Education is less important than the real world out there, away from the classroom. Deep inside you want to start working, earning money and living on your own.

The right job for you:

You have plenty of dream jobs but have little chance of doing any of them if you don't focus on something in particular. You need to choose something and go for it to be happy and achieve success.

How do you view success:

You are afraid of failure and scared to have a go at the career you would like to have in case you don't succeed. Don't give up when you haven't yet even started! Be courageous.

What are you most afraid of:

You are concerned about your image and the way others see you. This means that you try very hard to be accepted by other people. It's time for you to believe in who you are, not what you wear.

Who is your true self:

You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve.

I think it is scarily accurate.

Try your own HERE.

Winnie's sushi and others

I've been so busy these few days. No time to blog. Actually I don't even know why I busy. I've been doing nothing much. The same stuff everyday.

Went out to dinner on Saturday night with the family, then Kenyalang, and McGregor's. We actually wanted to go to Spring.

Big mistake! Never go to Spring on a Saturday night at around 830pm again! Traffic jam like hell. And all the parking lots were full. The staff were actually standing in front of the "Parking Full" sign to prevent people (who ignore the sign) from going in. Waste of time..

On Sunday, cs and I went in search of a new beautician cos my regular one quit!!! Horror upon horrors! Come back Kui Chin! Ahh..I hope this new place I'm going to is good. Does anyone have any recommendations for me? A good and not too pricey beautician please?! I would be a loyal and regular customer..

On Monday night, I went swimming with cs at his house again. A couple of frogs decided to hop into the pool with us. Nooo...I scared la. So I hopped out after 1 hour in there. Imagine if I was swimming halfway, and opening my mouth to breathe halfway and the frog swam in my mouth or in my face or something like that. Hahah..eww..gross. So. I left the pool. Doesn't matter. I was beat anyway.

On Tuesday night, I created this:


In case you need more evidence that T707 sucks at taking photos. OK lar. To be fair, its a 3MP phone which I bought knowing full well that it has no flash. Doesn't mean I don't get to complain. I bought it cos I was desperate for a phone since my previous one broke.

Not much difference actually. Its a different shade of blue. More turquoise than my previous blue. But I like it. Looks funky!

To make up for my absence these few days, I shall post up lots and lots of photos. Mainly food this time..

Winnie is so lihai! She made sushi!!

Actually I'm lihai too ok. I made them before.. They're really easy to make. If you want to make sushi ala winnie, you will need:



Roasted Seaweed. Sold everywhere and cheap too.



You are seeing a plate of fried eggs, and cooked crabsticks. You will need to slice them both into strips like what Winnie is doing.



This is cucumber and yellow pickles. I don't actually know the correct name for that. Tried googling Japanese pickles, pickles, yellow pickles but I see no photos that resemble this. Soo...

But these are served with quite a lot of Japanese dishes, right? At Sushi King, and many other Japanese restaurants. So I assume these are Japanese pickles for now. Feel free to drop a comment if you think otherwise.


Ebiko is pricey but delicious..

We also added some hot dogs to the sushi actually but I didn't take a photo. Slice it up like the other ingredients.

Mum's recipe for the sushi rice was: just add vinegar and salt. So that's what we did and it tasted all right.

Its not as easy as it looks, spreading the rice onto the seaweed. Cos the rice will stick onto the seaweed making it hard for you to spread it evenly covering every inch.



Once you managed that, put whatever ingredients you want in the middle. In the beginning, Winnie didn't put much of those ingredients. Being kwai, cos if you put too much in one roll, you're gonna have trouble closing it, making it stick to the end. So when you end up cutting the sushi, it won't stick together. Am I making sense? I suck at explaining.

I shall let the photos do the talking.



Roll em up and squeeze to get them to hold their shape.



Voila. Winnie is lihai.



Cut them up and you get this:



This is what happens when you try to cram too much inside one roll. After you cut them up, it just comes apart:



We didn't put ebiko inside. Instead, we spread ebiko on top of all of the sushi. I'm sorry I didn't get a photo. Busy eating. You understand.

On Saturday night, we went to have this: Pork! This was at the old Hai Pa Wang restaurant. What is the name? After three? Something like that. Its opposite the school, which I forgot the name too. hahaha...I'm terrible. Cs must have told me a thousand times already but I cant remember that chinese school's name.



Upon seeing our set"menu" for the night, I thought wow that is so cheap. Including a whole suckling pig. But only the pork is quite big in size. The rest were very small portions. More like appetizer size, instead of main menu sizes.

Maybe for a small table of four. But the table set was for 7 pax.



I am not a big fan of pork or oil and fat. So err..I didn't try this. Actually I hardly ever have this suckling pig even though my dad lives for this thing. He insists on having this for almost every occasion: his birthday, father's day, family get together etc.



The second biggest plate after the pork, was our fried midin with belacan. And that was ordered separately cos we felt the food wasn't enough.

But after we asked the waitress, it turns out that they had some kind of promotion that night. Each of the other five dishes costs RM 10 only. That includes the hot n spicy prawn, chicken in wine, braised duck, sliced abalone, and another portion of deep fried pork.

After dinner, it seems that between all of us, we could only come up with: the food is sooo oily and salty. There is nothing outstanding either. Blah.

Bad experience. I went there once with cs and another friends, and I thought it was ok. Thought the food tasted pretty good. But that was last year or maybe 2008.

There was a Tiger promo. Buy 5 bottles of Tiger beer (or a bucket), and get a free Tiger fridge magnet!



So, Winnie, dad, and I had the beer. And mum got her magnet.



Flipped through my camera album to find more food photo that I have yet to post up and found these. Haha we ordered a bit too much food in the pub. McGregor's spoils us by letting us eat in there.

This time, we ordered from Pumpkin Cafe. It is located somewhere at Brighton Square. As usual, we placed the order from McGregor's and the waitress brought our food to the pub, where we were. Like tua taukes.



I was quite embarrassed when the waitress brought this onto our table in the pub ( We were seating at the bar counter) Cos we didn't expect this much. It was only cs and I.

I swear every eye was on us to check out what have we ordered to eat this time..



From left to right: Boxing Chicken, Pumpkin wedges, and french fries.

I like wedges and whenever possible, I order them over fries. At VA, I always want to order wedges and Winnie want the fries. Most of the time, she lets me have my way. I wonder why is she so generous? Is it cos she already ate dinner, and most of the time I haven't?

Ever tried pumpkin wedges? If you like pumpkin, you will like this. If you don't like pumpkin, you wont like this. Simple as that.

I don't. Neither does cs. So we tapaued.

I always wondered, in all Harry Potter books, JK Rowling mentioned that they all had pumpkin juice. Before I went to UK, I wondered, do all British/English people drink pumpkin juice regularly too? Or is it just JK Rowling's preference?

Or is it just in the Wizarding world that they have pumpin juice all the time! During breakfast at Hogwarts, on the Hogwarts express, at Sirius's house where Lupin brought pumpkin juice with him, when Hermione tapaued the pumpkin juice from Shell Cottage after the Gringotts break in.

Its like plain water to them! Or orange juice to them.

Turns out it was the Wizarding world. I've never actually seen or tried pumpkin juice before. I don't imagine it would taste good. Should be quite thick. Puree. Has anyone ever tried pumpkin juice before? Please tell me! Nice?

I am re-reading the Harry Potter series for the thousanth time (I think), and finally I have had to skip through pages cos I know it all by heart already. Every single thing that is about to happen. I think its time to hide all my books away and wait till the next movie is coming out. Then, its time to bring Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows out again. I'm such a geek!

Rita's Birthday at Victoria Arms

I haven't been online in ages (almost one whole day and night) shocking! Streamyx went crazy on me, no internet connection for so long. I restarted the modem again and again, and also tried to diagnose and repair but still nada.

I'm quite ashamed to say that earlier this morning, it was mum who worked her magic and got the internet working. Mum! Not me. My not-internet savvy mum! I should take it back now though since she did it. She deserves the glory haha.

OK enough nonsense.

It was public holiday on Friday (Good Friday). We, East Malaysians get public holiday! Gloat gloat gloat.

Actually not much to gloat about, we are religious people. I spent Friday morning, armed with a bucket, wash cloth, water bottles, used toothbrush, flowers, and lots of candles, visiting my late grandpa and late uncle. Visiting sounds weird, like I died too and went up to Heaven haha. So err..paying respects.

It was a very hot morning and our little Iban family were scrubbing and washing away. Yes, we are filial like that. Haha no lar. I noticed that alot of families were paying respects, cos it was also Ching Ming festival. Or tomb sweeping festival. (Duno how to explain. There, I linked Wikipedia for you.) So alot of families were out in full force paying respects.

No photos obviously. It would seem a tad thoughtless if I was snapping photos of my grandpa's grave, or great grandma's tomb. But there are plenty of photos on google images for those of you who are interested heh heh.

*******

It was also Rita's birthday on Friday. So we wrecked havoc at VA. Literally. A bunch of already loud women with free flow whisky and a birthday celebration is not a good combination. We were soo noisy..occasionally louder than Chris, I think. And he has a mic.



Angela (the one on the right) baked the cake herself. Lihai.



It was green tea sponge cake with fresh cream. Less sugar. Perfect for us girls. Diet conscious. Actually not really diet conscious cos we ordered a shitload of food too. More details below..

Nobody wanted to stand near or take photo with the birthday girl. This is why:


Hahahhaa...This photo is hilarious. Winnie snapped it just in time.

She kept trying to stuff cake in our faces!! I managed to run away from this attack.

Mum got some of it though. So did Janet. Hehe



Hahaha...lucky no one really got a whole face full of the cake. Just bits on their cheek and hair. But it was enough hassle to try and wipe/wash the cream off.

Just in case anyone is getting ideas on my birthday! I would throw a hissy fit! Don't try it!



I saw a photo of a friend once with her face and mouth full of cake, and she was laughing delightedly in the photo. It was her birthday and she was all made up. Hair and makeup check. Pretty dress check.

But looking at the photo, I just felt sorry for her. Imagine blowing the candles off your cake then getting stuffed face first into the cake (shudder). Eww..

We always order food! The usual: Pizza Margherita from Restaurant Beccari. It costs RM 21 for a regular. RM 29 for large.



This was half of a large pizza taken ages ago. I forgot to take photos of the food that night. The price varies for whatever toppings you order. Margherita was one of the cheapest cos it only consists of cheese and tomato. Still tastes good though.



We normally have fries and/or wedges. Quite generous helping for about RM8. They also have spring rolls, chicken wings, chicken chop, and fish and chips on the VA menu..Tried all of them already. All very nice and quite generous portions for the price we are paying. I think (if I'm not mistaken cos at VA, I have already consumed quite a lot of alcohol) the more pricey ones come to RM12.50 - RM18.50 only. Cheap for Merdeka Palace, right?



Winnie with Rita and Emily.

I don't get why people care so much that there are a lot of old women at VA. So what? If you go to say, Soho, or Bar Zing, yea you have young people there. So? Do people go out to enjoy themselves aka drink or dance, or to watch other people drink and dance. Who cares what the majority of the crowd are made up of?

As long as there is good music, food, and alcohol. I dunno. Maybe I'm old too that's why I think like this. Haha

Should I try to think like a regular 19 year old guy? OK. Say I'm 19 year old: pubescent, horny and eager to scope out cute and pretty girls. I cannot drink much but still wanna act cool and hold a bottle of Heineken just cos its cool and I must pretend I can drink too. What else? When other guys ask me to drink, I drink too then secretly puke my guts out at the parking lot. Hahahhahahhaaa....

I sound sooo bitchy/evil...



Tried making silly faces for a change. In case you're sick of the pretty faces (coughcough).



Winnie take #1

Haha I put this as my profile photo on Facebook. Didn't realize that electric blue is so striking. Might continue on with this colour for a couple more weeks.



Amy take #1

Winnie's version. Somehow she manages to make it look grumpy.



Winnie take #2

Cs came to check on me join us later in the night. Ehh just realized something. Try to compare the quality of the above photos and this one below:


Cs' camera phone.

All photos, with the exception of the above, are taken with Winnie's phone. Her Nokia 6600:



Cs wanted to buy that Nokia 6600, but I persuaded him to go with his other choice. This one, which he ended up buying. Nokia N79. This is cs' phone:



Both Nokia 6600 and N79 comes with a 5.0 mega pixel camera. But Winnie's camera quality looks much better, or perhaps cs did not adjust his camera settings. I duno..I'm a camera and camera phone noob.



This is taken with Winnie's Nokia 6600. Photo quality not that bad, I think.