Let sleeping dogs lie..

Sometimes just the simplest things in life are enough to make me happy.

A good book and a snoring dog by my feet.

I am re-reading "the girl who played with fire now". Its the second book in the trilogy. Good stuff. If you know me, you would know that I am always reading some book almost everyday.

I read when I eat lunch everyday. Some people prefer movies. Me, I'm definitely a book person. I have a few books lying around in the house now..all half-read. I have "the lake house" in my bedroom now. I was reading Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire during lunch.

Cherrie is sleeping by my feet. Cutest thing ever. She snorts and sighs in her sleep. Once in a while, she shifts and looks at me to make sure I'm still here. 

Last time with ah boi, he would drag his blanket with him when I move from the living room to my laptop. As soon as I turn off the tv, he knows! He wakes up and drags his little blanket between his teeth and plop down on my feet to slewp again.

Gawd I love dogs. They are so loyal and so cute.

Mum's birthday and hot pockets!

Mum's birthday fell on Sept. 4. We all had a quiet simple dinner at home this year. No celebrating in the pub this year. We finally grew up out of it. Heheh.

Mum loves pizza too so we tapau-ed pizza hut for dinner. Mum or eli made mushroom soup (love their version), and some vege dish. Kev tapau-ed some KFC cos he can't live without meat. Meh. Men. 

****

Winnie and I continued our cooking spree. Looked up some interesting recipes online and decided to test it out. Good thing that there are two of us. Oh plus Eli too. So between the three of us, its not as tiring as if there's just one of us. You get what I mean?

We wanted to make pizza hot pockets. It basically looks like curry puff only bigger. Like cornish pasty size. I love cornish pasties btw so I tried to search for the recipe too. 

It requires beef actually, which I don't want to use cos dad doesn't take beef, and we wanted everyone to taste it.

In the end, we came up with this:

Not bad if I may say so. :)

Ahh screw modesty. It tastes freaking yum ok. Hahaa. 

I adapted the recipe from here. Go experiment yourself too. 

Sensoji Temple at Asakusa and some minor updates

So continuing with my Japan updates. 

Our hotel was about a 5 minute (more or less) walk from Tokyo Sky Tree. We were out exploring the area around our hotel and also looking for Sensoji temple at Asakusa. 

We didn't walk to Tokyo Sky Tree cos I was feeling tired and cold. And I am the type who must stick to the itinerary. Not must la. But if we decide to go to one place, we should go there. Not go somewhere else. Stick to the plan!

So off we went to Sensoji temple. 

Tadah!

Lucky we went at night too cos there are not so many tourists around taking photos. We went quite late. I don't remember what time now..but it was also really cloudy so we were hurrying along trying to beat the rain. No umbrella and we didn't want to spend money on buying an umbrella that we couldn't bring back (to Kuching).

Btw, we did buy one (in Hakone I think) and left it somewhere (forgot to take when the rain stopped), so we refused to buy another umbrella. Surprise surprise. Costs Y500 I think. RM 16 in case you were wondering.

Huge red lantern. 

This part of town Ueno/Asakusa area is more traditional than Shibuya/Shinjuku. The hotels are cheaper in this area than in Shinjuku/Shibuya area. Initially, I chose to stay here cos its cheaper and also cos I wanted to visit Ueno park, go to Sky Tree, Asakusa etc. 

We changed our hotel to Shinjuku after that. It was a good choice I think. To experience both sides of Tokyo. Also we chose a cheap hotel (RM180) and a more pricey (about RM 600) one. So we got to try both. Btw the Hakone hotel was most pricey at about RM 700. But its also the best one. So no complaints really. 

Moving on. This is the lane leading up to the temple. In the day time, its full of shops selling mostly food and souvenir items. We went back in the day time and all these shops were open. That night, we didn't manage to buy much. Its quite pricey though. Think they hike up the price cos most tourists go there. But its nice to buy souvenirs if you want to pay for it.

They have all those usual Japanese souvenirs like cute bags, magnets, key chains, slippers, and lots of food to sample. 

Some of the food for sale. They pack it nicely in those bags and they tell you that it can last for a week or so etc. Guess they are used to tourists asking whether they can bring it back to their home country. 

Wanted to buy a cute hat for Nathan (nephew) then realized ohhhh its for pets. So I went to ask about dog costumes but Cherrie too fat. No bigger sizes. Poor fatty. She's about 8.2 kg now. Haha very round and very cute.

Just to show how huge the lantern is.

After that we walked around the neighborhood and found ourselves in Freshness Burger again. Just because its THAT good!

They have beer too..so might as well. :D

Lousy photo but take my word for it will ya? Try it if you happen to pass by. In case you're craving for some burger after all that Japanese food.

Found a better photo. Does it not look gooood? Ok I know it doesn't but it is!

***

OK end. 

Btw its my mum's birthday today. 

It was also my wedding anniversary (2 years) yesterday.

P/S: Right now, we (dad, Cs, Win and I) are watching Yi Dai Chong Shi (the chinese name). Its about Ip Man. It sucksss big time. We are all complaining about it and I'm blogging now. Cs is playing with his ipad. Dad fell asleep. But then he always falls asleep (not always but sometimes he does when watching movies. Winnie is complaining out loud but still watching. Heh. Yawn.

I will write a separate post on mum and Cs. Soon I hope. :)

Cannot blame me. I'm a busy girl ok.

Today:

Just came back from work and family members all waiting at the dinner table (except dad). Pressure so we go take our seats and eat immediately. Mum's birthday so they tapau-ed pizza, and kfc. 

After dinner, bring Cherrie for her walk with mum, bro, sis and Cs. 

Go change out of work clothes, brush teeth and wash face.

Go to gym and start exercising for an hour. Let my sweat dry (5 mins cos no time) and shower and wash hair. Do those girly chores (dry hair, moisturizer, lotion etc).

Hurry back and dad is waiting for me to watch tv already. He likes spending time together. Bonding time. Said tv that is playing now. Boring but for now, all three of them are watching. Haha I'm the only one not concentrating.

Later, decide on tomorrow's lunch. And its already 10:07 pm. 

So good night all.

Last weekend..

Helloo..So we finally went out drinking last Saturday night. We went to Loso cafe with a bunch of friends. Its been a while. To say the least. Heh. We are now a bunch of old retirees. 

We went for dinner together at Colugos (Tun Jugah ground floor) first. Weird lah. The last time I went there was lunch with my colleagues. It was fine. No major complains. This time, almost everyone's food (except mine) was lukewarm. Not hot. Not freshly cooked.

Insert vain photo first.

Vero ordered a mee hoon soup thing (some Indon dish that I don't know the name of) and it was lukewarm. Mehh. A soup dish that isn't piping hot is not nice. 

My chicken dish was the best. Can tell immediately that its the only thing that's freshly cooked. The fries were left cold. Cs had some butter chicken dish and the sauce was cold. Eww please. 

Anyway. Colugos serves western and some Indonesian dishes. Quite interesting menu actually. Maybe it was just that night. We didn't completely write Colugos off yet. Thinking of giving it another try still. Its still a new restaurant right? Maybe they still need to work out some kinks. Remember, my chicken dish was good. No complaints ok.

That said. Go try lah. You never know. Your experience might be better than mine. :)

After dinner, we went to Loso (the pub). Weird name, I know. Its so hard to tell my other friends the pub name. I sound so cina (which I am, I know). But sounds so weird. We went there at 8 pm. So early. So kiasu. We had nowhere else to go lah.

As per usual, we talked and played card games to while the time away.

We played the drinking game at first. You know, the type where you get everyone to drink more first (to get the buzz going). After that when everyone is a bit full (from dinner and drinks combo), we slow down and play more complicated games.

Winnie taught us this circle of death game which I like. It has quite a few rules so we always have to write it down on a piece of paper. For example:

 1,3,5 = drink yourself. 

2,4,6,8 = others drink.

 7 = toilet pass (without which you cannot go to toilet) Quite fun but no use cos everyone goes to toilet BEFORE we start the game.

10 = category (such as, name the types of beer. The person who runs out first loses). Loser =  drink. 

Examples of category of the night are: name the NBA basketball players. Crystal immediately blurted out RONALDO!! To which all of us laughed like shit. Hahah thank God she saved me.. So I don't have to crack my head thinking of NBA players. I suggested U.S. state names. Hahah what what? I sure win ok. Hahha. When it was Vero's turn, she said: name perfume brands and bra brands. Cs asked for badminton player names. Typical. When it was her turn, Cyrstal answered: Lim Siew Ling!! Which made everyone laugh like shit again. Her name is Lim Siew Ling lah. Crazy girl. When she said Lim....we all thought she was gonna say Lin Dan. Turned out she forgot his name. So she jokingly said out her own name. What else? Ling (another guy) asked for motorbike brands. Sheet me. But luckily we all came out with Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, Toshiba. Hahah. Fun right? 

 J = rule of thumb, where the person who gets the Jack has to put his/her thumb on their forehead and everyone has to follow. Slowest person drinks. This is fun cos the person who gets the Jack can do the thumb thing anytime, and as many times as they want until the next Jack comes out. So of course we all make full use of it.

Q = make a rule (such as, I make a rule that says no touching phones starting now. This is quite fun cos everyone must follow that ruleuntil the next Queen comes out. I love making everyone not touching their phones, or not speaking mandarin. I requested everyone speak Malay. Heheh. Some other laws suggest no touching their hair (only applicable to ladies), or no sitting down. 

K = whoever has the last K has to one go the whole glass. And then the game ends when all four Kings come out.

That's it. You can make your own rule. That's the beauty of this game. There are others but I figured these are enough rules for the bunch of us. Play play. Try to play next time ok.

Vero, Crystal and me.

Remember I told you Cs is super lucky? Guess what? He won a lucky draw again!! Jeez. In the beginning of the night, he already pointed out at the prizes and went: oh look! Luck draw. I want that bottle of vodka. That's mine. I'm taking it home. 

Fook me! He won!! He freaking won! Second prize lah but its still that bottle of vodka. Lucky guy. Siew Ling didn't get anything. Heheh.

We didn't stay late that night. After the circle of death above, we played some other games. This time, its the more action punya game la. 

For example, draw cards. Smallest card, that person has to do a dare. I know we sound damn childish. When you're drinking, you're stupid. Whatever.

Anyway. Vero dared me to go up to the front of that red shirt guy in the photo and toss my hair/head seductively. I did it. But when I came back, the whole table (my friends I mean) burst out laughing wtf. Thanks guys. The guy must have thought I was trying to seduce him. Stupid bimbo. Hahah.

Other dares were asking Cs to catwalk in front of everyone or what else I don't remember now.. Just normal stuff.

Anyway. That was our Saturday night. Pretty tame. But all in all, a fun night out.

Bye.

Memes

Hello. I finally have time to blog a bit.

So, my blog's comments is a bit screwed up. I noticed two comments on my email. One is lost, and another one is still there.

One person commented asking me to blog about my new place. Thanks for the reminder and suggestion. Good thought. 

The other comment: I forgot what she/he said and I can't find it. Not in my emails or anywhere. I just remember it being Star Cruise related. Sorry. But um, if you want to ask again, email me: anaksim0n@yahoo.com. I'll reply. Promise. :)

But um I'm not going to blog about the new place yet. Not today. I haven't got around to taking pics. Reason being, its super messy. Heheh and its not technically my new place. I explain next time.

In the meantime, you're stuck with usual updates on life now. :)

What I wore to work yesterday with tights. It was a rainy day. Rained the whole night, on and off. Year end coming soon. Summer's ending (says Shirley, not me). But yeah, monsoon season coming soon.

My hair is getting lighter. I'm getting quite bored of it actually. Thinking of cutting or at least trimming a bit. We shall see. This Saturday is Hari Kebangsaan. Yes!! Independence day for non-Malaysians.

So it means we're not working on Saturday. Hoo haa!! That was a cheer btw.

Cs' badminton buddies are going to Sematan (beach), but too bad we're not joining. Too late notice, so we already have plans to go out drinking at night with a bunch of friends. I miss the beach..so long since I over night at any beachy place. Beachy is a word in my dictionary. :D So is peachy.

That was my weird combination of lunch yesterday. In addition to two kiwi's.

Today's weird lunch combination is a kiwi, a pear, and some grapes. Had some biscuits for breakfast.

I'm so unmotivated to make my own lunch, or buy bread from Wilson bakery, or Bakerei, or walk to Mcd, or to eat anything else. 

Change topic. I know what Winnie (and everyone else) is thinking now: Be sad yourself. Don't need to tell us. Pfft.

****

Stole some meme's from Sunday Stealing again.

IF I WON 100 MILLION DOLLARS.... 

What kind of car would you buy? 

Some kind of sports car cos it looks cool. 

Where in the country would you move to? 

 Hmm..some place with four seasons. Maybe Australia. I've never been there but there has to be a reason why so many Malaysians refuse to come back from there, and end up settling down or retiring there. 

What kind of house would you buy? 

The kind that has a swimming pool, badminton courts (for Cs), movie theatre, walk in closets, and tv's in the bathroom. Oh and close to the beach. 

Would you give your family any money? 

Of course lah. Then my Dad can retire immediately. And buy my parents air tickets to Las Vegas on a private jet. Cos Las Vegas has always been dad's dream. Sigh. I wish. 

What charity would you donate to?

I don't know but I would research probably to make sure its legitimate and for a good cause.

Would you give your friends any money?

No. But I would buy everyone dinner and happy drinks on me.

Where would you go on vacation? 

Oh man..Venice, Santorini, Iceland (to see the Northern Lights), Canada (for Niagara falls), U.S. (simply cos never been: California, New York, Miami), Spain, Australia, Japan, and so on and so forth.

What luxury item would you buy first? 

Err..probably Channel bags or some other ridiculously priced bag for mum first. 

Would it change your life? 

Yes!!! 

Would you save any of it? 

Yes!! And invest so I never have to work ever again!!

Would it change your current relationship?

 No. Cs can be my toy boy now. Hahaha.

Would you quit your job?

 Well, duh.

Would you ever work again?

 No. Maybe a professional traveler. How's that?

What one task would you never do again? 

 CSD and Text. 

What dream of yours would you be able to do? 

 Provide for my parents. And I mean everything. Not just basic everyday things, but let them live in luxury. 

Would you change the way you dress?

 I don't think so.. I'll be able to afford pricier stuff but I've never been crazy for brands. 

Would you change anything about your body? 

 I would get invisalign and correct my eyesight. That's about it.

Would you miss anything about not being rich? 

 No.

Who would be the first person you tell?

 Cs.

Would it bring you happiness?

Yes. To an extent. There are some things that money cannot help but to an extent, it would change everything.

Question: am I materialistic then?

****

Meme from here.

1: Do you notice a persons eye color?

Well, we don't have much choice her in Kuching, so no. Everyone is either dark brown or black. Boring. 

2: White, milk, or dark chocolate mocha?

 Milk.

3: If you could get a  tattoo free, would you do it? what would it be?

 Of course. Been wanting one for years. Recently, Winnie and I were thinking of getting a sister tattoo, but we cannot agree on the same one each or even the same location. Haha. But yeah, of course I want one (to start with).

4: Did you grow up in a small or big town? Did you like it?

 Small. Its ok. Sometimes wish it were bigger, but never smaller. :) 

5: Your favorite adult as a child? (and not your parents, if they were your favorite)

 How about none. 

6: What kind of smoothie sounds really good right now?

 Peach strawberry. Just sounds like a good combination. Never had that before.

7: Most embarrassing moment from your elementary school years?

 Well, I once walked out of the toilet with the back of my dress tucked into my panties. Funnily enough, I didn't mind so much when the guys laughed at me. Thick skinned. Or just really stupid.

8: Most embarrassing moment from your middle school years?

Don't remember.

9: Most embarrassing moment from your high school years?

 Don't remember too lah.

10: Have you ever fired anyone?

 Nope. But I think I scared off  one of my colleagues after her first day. Haha. This was at Mcd. My boss asked me to train her. I was hurrying to leave, so I gave her so much instructions and pressured her to do faster, better etc so I could leave. And err I never saw her again.

11: Have you ever climbed a tree more than twenty feet off the ground?

 Nope. Wanted to though.

12: Did you like swinging as a child? Do you still get excited when you see a swing set?

 No.

13: If you could have any pet in the world, illegal or not, what would you get?

 A dog. Hahaa.

14: What's your favorite place to relax?

 Beach (with a beer).

15: What's your most favorite part of your personality?

 I forgive and forget easily. Doesn't mean you should take advantage though!!

16: Madonna or Lady Gaga? Neither? Both? Who cares?

 Neither.

17: Have you ever watched the Superbowl all the way through?

 Nope.

18: Have you ever watched any major sporting event live?

 Badminton counted?

19: What's the most delicious food you've ever eaten in your life?

 Toooo many to mention or remember please.

20: Margarine or butter? Which did you grow up with?

Neither. Hate both. Always request for none!

OK. Bye. Rushing to go eat dinner now. Bye.