DREAMS AND MEMORIES

Presenting my classmates and girlfriends from high school.

Jo Lin (rightmost), who was my room mate for one semester in University. Miss those times when we used to gossip late into the night back in old V5. And of course, our trademark nicknames for each other.

There’s also Sze Yuin (leftmost), one of my best shopping and makan partner. The crazy adventures to the hilariously funny encounters and experience is sufficient to write a novel.

Miss you guys terribly now that I’m back in Uni.

As I mentioned before in the previous post, we went to some place special to celebrate Mommy’s birthday. The restaurant is called El Cerdo which is located just a door away from my old house. Never expected the place to boom into such a fabulous place for dining back then. I’ve heard of this place from colleagues at work a couple of times before. However, I’ve never actually gotten a chance to try this place out. [and sadly, when I finally get the chance, I left my camera at home and had to make do with my phone camera]

The main specialty of this place is that most dishes, if not all dishes served here is originates from the cutie pie animal known as the PIG. So yeah, technically everything here is ‘non-halal’.

The ambience and decoration of the place was very well done giving customers a very cozy and warm feeling. Regretfully I didn’t even attempt to take any pictures of the surroundings with my measly phone camera as it will not give credit to the place at all. Rather, the opposite instead.

We didn’t order much for fear of not being able to finish it all. Apart from that, I was also advising my family not to overdo it. Else they might be really overwhelmed at the end of the evening. There was also the very tempting prospect of trying out the special desserts available. (^_^) And definitely not forgetting the birthday cake as well.

First up was the complementary pea soup. Don’t be fooled by it’s greenish vegetable coloring. Some might not be so keen because of the color so for the record, the soup does not consist of green peas on it’s own. Instead, there is actually sliced / minced ham within to provide a better taste ad fragrance to the soup.

Next came the plate of mixed home made sausages. There were at least 4 kind of sausages here. One which was rolled with bacon. A German Sausage and two more I’m not too sure what kind of sausages they are exactly. Bottom line is they all taste wonderful. But my personal favorite would be the one wrapped in bacon. Has an extra crunchiness and fragrance to it.

Then there was the ribs. Forget about being petite and keeping your fingers clean when eating this dish. There is no possible way to eat it properly without getting your fingers dirty. Be assured that it is well worth the effort though. And they do provide the lime water for washing your fingers so you won’t be having greasy fingers for the remainder of the evening.

The following dish, the suckling pig was the most interesting one of all. This is both in terms of presentation and also what was required to be done. Basically, someone from the table is required to assist with the chopping of the suckling pig after making a wish. The chopping ‘ceremony’ is done using only a ceramic plate [no knife used for this purpose mind you]. This is actually done to show the crunchiness and tenderness which is served. One chop at each allocated point does the job. that’s how crispy and tender the meat really is.

So the picture of the whole suckling pig does not really do it much credit. Here’s a picture of my plate with a combination of suckling pig along with some pasta, tomatoes and wedges.

Next is dessert along with the birthday cake. The staff improvised the birthday song. Will be spoiling the fun if i share the details here. But for those of you who would like to give your friends or relatives a birthday treat and want something different, this is the place I would suggest you to go. I don’t know what exactly the dessert is called, but it consist of strawberries / raspberries. Mixture of slightly sour and sweet taste topped with cream. Sinfully irresistible.

Owh, and they’ve even got cute a cute little takeaway bag.

Finally!!! Managed to get the ants, lizards, and other pests which were temporary illegal residents in my room under control. Thanks to my bottle or Ridsect. Definitely handy and effective. Quite effective inkeeping the lizards and cockroaches at bay too. :-)

 

The Ants pitched against the Ridsect. I guess you know who is going to win this battle.

I only officially began unpacking my room today. Whilst bringing out the boxes which were packed in the topmost cupboard, I came across a majorly gigantic ant hill in the making. All members of this particular ant family were stuck to the furthest end of the cupboard. [which of course I couldn’t reach to wipe or shoo away effectively while they are still up and scurrying around.]

Therefore, out comes my trusty Shieldtox to create a ‘smokehouse’ for the ANTS… muahahaha… Back to cleaning up their carcasses now. Should be well knocked out after the 15 minute smoking. Hoping that’s the last of the lot.

I am once again back in UTP. This would be the final semester of my degree program. Looking back, although there were plenty of datelines, complaining, peer pressure, and even some cat fights along the way, it’s been a great four and a half years. Met lots of people, and said and almost equivalent amount of goodbyes for one reason or another. And it’s definitely the time where I’ve done the most travelling.

One more semester filled with Final Year ‘Problem’ (FYP), tests and assignments to plough through. Then, it will be, FREEDOM! I might actually miss UTP after all is done. But that’s a worry for another day I suppose.

PS: Will try to update the posts on KL outings ASAP. Keeping my fingers crossed for acceptable internet connection in the hostel.

It’s been a super super busy day. Had fun, ate a lot, laughed till verging on the borderline cackling of a lot. Was annoyed with the traffic and the car park system. Last but not least, got super frustrated over my forgetfulness.

Will further elaborate about the first few parts in the following posts, but for now just really want to ramble about my forgetfulness. Always been rather forgetful in every sense of the word. But today of all days I actually forgot to bring my camera out for dinner. [Since it’s my mom’s birthday we were going somewhere nice for dinner]

Although I’ve only had my camera for a little more than half a year, I’ve grown very attached to it. It has served me well thus far all the way from Malaysia to Hong Kong and many other places locally as well. It’s a great camera aside from being handy and easy to manage. I rarely need to do any modification to the pictures taken aside from some occasional cropping if i require a close up view [normally only the case for profile pictures]

If you’ve scanned through my blog before, I’m sure most of you would notice that I LOVE blogging about food. Love everything from tasting, savoring, trying new things and taking pictures to blog about the experience. Especially the taking pictures part.

Since I FORGOT the camera tonight, had to resort to using my phone – the good old Sony Ericsson W810i 2.0MP phone to take pictures of all the ‘goodies’ we tried tonight. *Sigh*

Sad but true. The pictures are fairly okay considering it’s from a phone camera. But it’s still better than nothing. Sincerely regretful about the situation but hope you’ll bear with the picture quality.

I came across this book with a rather interesting front cover at the bookstore when shopping with my sister a few days back. So now, take a good look at the picture of the guy and girl on the front cover.

So, being a fanatic over korean drama series some time back, I remember watching this series called ‘Love Story in Harvard’.

‘Love Story in Harvard’ was a rather big hit at some time and so technically when one Googles up picture for that particular series, there will definitely be plenty of search results. I remember seeing a picture of the two main cast of the series which was somewhat similar to that of the front cover of the book above.

Below is a comparison of the two pictures. In my humble and personal opinion, they both look pretty much the same to me. Neglecting the colour pencil effect and the rose which drawn just above the authors name that is.

I didn’t actually purchase the book so I’m not sure if it is an actual translation of the series into a Malay Language book [which would explain the similarity of the pictures]. Perhaps I should have purchased the book to appease my curiosity after all.

Fruits and sago mixed with blended ice, makes everything nice. ^_^

A fresh mixture of mango juice, mango and glutinous rice balls with black sesame filling. There’s also sago at the bottom of the bowl, so be sure to dive down under while enjoying the mango and mango juice.

Honeydew and sago. I guess the name already tells all there is to know about this dessert. This is my favourite out of the two. Probably because of my preference for honeydew in general.

I decided to treat my parents to a movie last night since my mom’s birthday is just around the corner. As she’s not really into all the action packed kind of movies, and Ice Age 3 being a family movie would definitely be more suitable for her.

They’ve not actually tried the 3D version of movies before, thus guess it was worth treating them to one for experience sake. (^_^) So off we went to Pavilion for the movie.

The movie was super duper funny. There were so many things to laugh about in almost every scene be it because of the individual characters personality [such as Sid the sloth] or because of what is happening in the scene itself. This would be like the never ending chase of the acorn by the squirrel. Only this time, add in a competitive flying fox into the picture.

A movie well worth watching especially if you’re in for a laugh. Or even if you just want to spend time with your family and friends.

I finally got about to watching Transformers 2 : The Revenge of the Fallen yesterday and it was AWESOME!!

Was at the edge of my seat wondering what was in store in the next scene. The effects were cool and amazing. On the whole a totally satisfying movie with a good combination of humour, action, and a good solid story plot. Been waiting to watch this movie with group of friends since it first went on screen but had to keep putting it off for one reason or another.

Anyway, am glad I watched it before trudging back to my ‘hot jungle’ university to roast for the coming semester. Thank goodness its the final semester. One more stretch to go and then I’ll be done. Yippiee!!!

While passing time before the movie, had dinner with my friend at Dragon-i. I got into my photo taking frenzy again and took some pictures of our yummy dishes. ^_^

Every time my car batteries are disconnected, there are several settings in the car which have to be reset once the batteries are reconnected.

First and foremost would most definitely be the dashboard clock and this is followed by the radio display clock. Well, I just realised a few weeks back there is one other thing that I needed to reset once the batteries are back online which the sound system settings of the car. [not sure if that is the correct term for it, so please correct me if I’m wrong here]

For those of you who are fanatics about getting the sounds emitted from the speakers just the way you like it, I suppose you definitely know what I’m talking about it. See I didn’t really bother much about these things until one fine day Ivan got in my car and started fidgeting about with the settings. That’s the turning point of when I finally ‘heard’ the difference.

So in line with the car trouble I’ve been having lately, of course the settings were lost and I just couldn’t get used to listening to the muffled base sounds and voices when listening to songs. Finally took out the manual and started fidgeting around on my own. Am now proud to say that I know how to tune the settings for the Base, Treble, Balance and Fading effects. YEAAAAYYYYY!!!

Even managed to adjust the settings for my mom’s car because she got addicted to ‘hearing’ the difference in my car as well. So guess that’s one of the achievements I have to add to the list for this semester break. ^_^

Chicken Rice Tuesday started sometime during internship with my colleagues at Shell IT International. We would drive all the way from Cyberjaya to Jalan Indah, Taman Universiti [slightly further down from Equine Park] without fail every Tuesday. Fixed permanent appointment to meet at this particular shop for lunch.

Suggested to bring my mom there to try the chicken rice today since our initial destination for breakfast was not opened. Took longer than usual to reach the place because I somehow took the wrong turning. Was really starving by the time we reached the shop..

But, it was really worth it. The roasted Chicken + Roast Pork rice was just as wonderful as I remembered it to be. Didn’t manage to take any pictures because I only brought myself and my drivers license. Didn’t even bring my phone to take any backup pictures.

So as an alternative, for those of you who are fans of chicken rice or just happen to be in the area and don’t know what to try. You can always try this shop called 'Choon Sheng'. [Enter your start destination after you click on the link]

Uaaahhh, this brings back lots of internship memories.

I’m not exactly a fan of cookies and cake. Just like I’m not a big fan of chocolate. Yeah, totally weird for a girl coz normally girls are the ones that go overly crazy over all these sweet stuff. The only thing that gets really tempting for me in the cake category would be CHEESECAKES!!

I know, cheesecakes are probably just as sinful as chocolate cakes. The only difference being that it’s got a mixture of sweet, salty and probably a little bit of whatever flavouring that they throw in when making the cake. I think that’s the main reason why I enjoy cheesecakes actually – because of the slightly salty taste and the texture of it.

I got a bite of the cookie from my Sze Yuin. A cookie worth trying. Especially if you’re a fan of the chewy chewy kind of cookies. Can’t remember what’s the name of it but should be available at any Coffee Bean outlets .

Hoping to try the apple pie next time around. Looks mighty tempting as well.

The very same day after completing the marathon, my car battery decided to give up on me. I was very fortunate that I still managed to make it back home before it really gave up on me for good.

So since the car battery decided to officially KO on a Sunday, had no choice but to wait till my Monday whereby my dad would pick up a new battery for my car.

Obviously, there wouldn’t be a mechanic around to help replace the battery. Therefore, time to get our hands dirty with the car. So I worked side by side my dad who taught me how to change the batteries and in less than half hour, all was done. got my engine up and roaring again. Yeay!!! Rejoice!!!

Moral of the story is

1. Be alert of the car battery condition especially if it’s been more than a year since the last battery change – normally there are certain warning signs which hint that it’s ‘almost time to go ’. It’s the second time this has happened to me and I STILL didn’t notice the signs.

2. Learn how to jumpstart a car and keep a pair of jumpstart cables in the car. [definitely cannot jumpstart a car without the cables]

3. Learn to change the car batteries coz it just might boil down to getting your hands dirty..

So sorry for the delay in putting up this post. This marathon was in actual fact one week ago. Unfortunately I fell sick the next day after the marathon and had to be kept on bed rest. My fever wouldn’t subside to the point that the doctor suspected I was down with dengue fever. Thank goodness the fever finally subsided and so conclusion is I don’t have dengue. ^_^

So anyway, this is the first ever marathon that I’ve participated in. Took no small amount of coaxing and persuading from both Dean and Ivan for me to join them. Well, not exactly join them in the same event, as they were going for the 21 km marathon. For me, I was opting to go for the 10km marathon.

To be REAAAAALLLLLYYYY honest, 10 km seemed to be a really long distance for me. What’s more join them in the 21 km marathon. Might just faint halfway and apart from getting left behind by majority of the crowd and the smallest possibility of not finishing the marathon.

Thank goodness I managed to finish 10km in the end and within a time frame of 1 hour 35 minutes and 34 seconds to boot. Guess all the training of morning runs I’ve been doing at KLCC park did pay off after all.

At the end of it, 10 km did not seem all too far after all. Actually managed to run continuously for 6 kilometres and alternate between running and fast walking for the remainder of the distance. Thanks to my trustworthy Ipod for keeping me company the whole time.

It’s been a super uber tiring day. Yes there was definitely lots of exciting, wonderful, happy and memorable moments with close friends and ex-colleagues and ex-bosses at the wedding lunch. Not forgetting also, the rush madness to get ready for the wedding lunch and of course my MC-ing duties today. All in all, a very tiring day, but definitely looking forward to tomorrow. A new day always brings new adventures and new challenges.

Hope to update on lots and lots of things as soon as possible. Hopefully tomorrow will be soon enough. *Keeping my fingers crossed* So watch out for updates.

Now it’s off to Slumberland for me.