Dear Ju Dee,

This post is especially for you. However, there will not be any pictures as I am too lazy to upload them. Anyway, you have seen the pictures in facebook so it is unnecessary for me to put them here.

Our trip to Setiawan was a simple one so there is nothing much to write about. Let me just sum up what we did.

Well, of course, we went there to eat seafood and since you are allergic to crabs, you would have missed out all the fun even if you went with us. So, you actually did not miss anything.

We started our journey at 12 something in the afternoon on Thursday and I could not remember how long it took to reach our destination. It's pretty near I should say. We went to this small eatery named Makanan Laut Villa (if I didn't remember wrongly) and ordered various dishes made from saltwater creatures like oysters and crabs and of course FISH!. There's one dish which did not come from the sea. It was the bitter gourd dish (you dislike bitter gourd, don't you?). The only thing saltwater-ish in that dish was the salted eggs cooked with it. I tell you, the dish might appear and sound strange, but it was indeed a delicious dish.

Okay, the laziness is seeping in so I am stopping right here. I told you the post will be short because we did nothing much.

Why are you still reading? There is nothing else.

Oh yeah, induction's tomorrow and I need to get a good night sleep. I have been having these black rings 'tattooed' to my eyes for so many days because of late nights. It's time to have early nights now. Good night and I wish you have a speedy recovery. I will definitely pray for you as I do not want you to spread the pox to me! =D

Your friend who doesn't think you are a princess,

Me

A night at Breeze Cafe

Went to Breeze Cafe last night and this was what I ordered.


A warm honey lemon drink


The tiny stage

That was how front we were to the stage. The best seat in the house!

So why did I go there?

I was accompanying my sister there to see her favourite singer, Nick Chung (you can get more details from her latest post) actually. =)

He sang quite a number of songs and later during the autograph session, my sister thrusted so many items for him to sign that I think he would be having sore arms by the time he left Ipoh.

I SHALL NOT post any pictures or videos of the night as I do not wish to steal the 'limelight' from my sister. I'll just let her do the posting of the pictures and videos. See, I am so kind and thoughtful. *ahem* *ahem*

Typed on a cold night with my cold fingers.

I just noticed my last entry was written on Independence Day. Well, it didn't feel that way for me when I was in Penang. That is why I didn't even realized it was Independence Day when I looked at the date. The celebration is getting duller each year, I suppose. 51th anniversary wasn't special as it was not a golden or a diamond year. Let's see whether the 75th Independence Day will be as grand as the 50th.

My fingers are so cold right now. It has been like this for these few days probably due to the cool weather. They are not only cold, I can feel some dampness on the tips as well. I love this kind of weather although it is kind of inconvenient for me to go out. Rainy days are so cool.

Today, I went to the MATTA FAIR at the stadium with some of my college friends. It was not a huge fair but there are still some interesting things to see. For the first time, I saw a lady acting as a clown and some other girls wearing the traditional Korean outfit. I find the clothes beautiful. I am always fascinated with beautiful clothes but never interested to buy them. The same goes for shoes. I might just enter a shoe shop and try on pairs and pairs of them and I ended up exiting the shop empty-handed.

We were at one of the booths looking at the banners of interesting places in the Peningsular and there's one guy approached us and asked us, "So where are you planning to go?"

To which I replied, "We are planning to go somewhere within Perak."

He made a face to show dissatisfaction in response to my answer and told me to opt for better places. Somewhere definitely out of Perak.

"I haven't even finished touring around Perak. Why want to go other places?"

(I know he felt like smacking me at this point.)

I was having the best time of my life giving quirky answers and in the end it made him speechless. He even 'offered' to give us a free trip to Pangkor Island.

Hahaha!! Very funny. You think we will believe you that easily?

Speaking of Pangkor, the trip is cancelled. Another trip is planned though. Instead of going to Pangkor, we will be going for a day trip to Setiawan next Thursday. I hope it will be fun.

A new semester begins on the 15th which means the beginning of assigments and exam once more for me. However, as weird as it is, I can't wait to start another new chapter of my life.

Dearest Pey Shyan:
I am so sorry I didn't know about your departure date to Hong Kong so I could not go 'yum cha' with you but I wish you all the best in your future endeavours and do not forget me when you are rich and successful (maybe you might get married to a HK citizen and give birth to many, many lovely kids!). I am just kidding. =D

P/S: Banane, be patient, yeah? Your post will come out real soon. It'll be a surprise birthday gift. Oops, it's not really a surprise since I have told you about it. I will write all in Chinese so that you 'can' read it. =D I will find my ways to write in Chinese.

The land of fabulous food <3

I am now enjoying my trip on the Pearl of the Orient.

Look at the beach. Doesn't look as clean compared to other islands but we had the best view from the balcony of the room. By the way, we are staying on the 13th floor. Room 1313. Such a beautiful number, right??


Look at the people on the beach! I can hardly see them as people. Humans are such minute creatures, don't you think?


Some other apartments/hotels nearby. I love the way the sun shines at this point of time.


Last night, we had our dinner in the hotel. Not exactly 'in' because we had our dinner by the beach. The ambience was really good with a duo singing for us on stage throughout the night.


Our table


Some macaroni and ham slices with a cheese tart.


Every buffet definitely has this. The unmistakable mushroom soup!

After that I got lazy snapping pictures of the food that I ate. Anyway, to list them down would not be too hard. I ate ice-cream (I mistook yam flavoured ice-cream for chocolate as the lighting was too 'romantic'/poor). I had 3 SCOOPS of that. Next time, I shall bring a torch to check on the colour properly before scooping it.

Then, my bro had enough of grilled lamb so I helped myself with a small piece. It was so delicious.

The tandoori chicken wing was tasteless though.

The next day a.k.a. today:

We went to Prangin Mall and did some strolling and during lunch, we saw someone who draped the national flag over his shoulders with a hairstyle so similar to the Jalur Gemilang. A moment later, he shouted 'MERDEKA!' and we looked at him, stunned. A man who was tending his stall assured us not to worry about him (we thought he was a fugitive from the Blissful Hospital). He was actually very normal. It seemed to us later that he was the owner of the eatery as he sat at the counter collecting money from the customers. People nowadays are so interesting.

Then, we went to Gurney Plaza. Gurney Drive, here we come! The haven for more wonderful food.


Chee cheong fun with prawn paste and sweet sauce.


My plate of fried koay teow (egg + prawns -oysters)


Longan drink. My brother was busy enjoying his bowl of laksa.

Want to eat some brains?


It's OTAK-OTAK! It was not brain actually (For those people who know BM, they will know what the joke is about). It was actually fish with some eggs and I-don't-know-what mixed together and the combination was so great.


The night view of Penang. I never thought it would be this pretty. Credits goes to Deric for being the photographer.

I'll be going back to good ol' Ipoh tomorrow. Time indeed flies when I am enjoying myself. =)

My very own national day!

Sayonara to finals! Now I can take a break. Food and Beverage Service 1 is the most sane paper.

I'll be starting my 'merdeka' trips from tomorrow onwards.

First up will be a trip to the Pearl of the Orient. Yeah, I love Penang so much that I have to go there every time there's a holiday for me.

Then, there's a Pangkor trip on the 8th September. I can't wait to eat the seafood. Yummy!

=) =) =)

Final Exam

Finally there's just one more paper to go before I become as free as a bird. What I am hoping for right now is for the Food and Beverage 1 questions to be at least predictable and less out of the world unlike the previous three papers.

Safety and Hygiene in Catering paper was not completely out of the world. It was just plain EXTRAORDINARY. Whatever that we read from the text distributed to us can be considered as a 'light reading' material as only one chapter came out. What about the other components of the book? I'll just have to keep whatever I have read as my 'sweet memories' as I could not apply most of it in the written test.

I thought that the Safety and Hygiene paper is extraordinary enough yet it is still not the champion for being the weirdest paper of all.

When I stepped into the auditorium this morning, I was trying to recall all Food Studies facts that I have just read. Well, I actually don't have to refresh on what I read as history repeated itself. This time, 'EXTRAORDINARY' is an understatement.

When I looked at the questions, I was scanning through for words like meat, poultry, fish and other familiar terms. However, not one of those terms appeared on the exam paper.

The format for Hospitality English 1 is rather different too as it has the same format as Food Studies. One thing that worries me though. Will one liner answers be accepted since the allocated marks is 5? Yes, that was what the Section A requested. One liners. 8 ONE LINERS!

I did everything I could to 'crap' as sensibly as possible. Now I leave everything to God for His miracles to work.

Examination Blues

My first semester ended last Friday and it's time for the final exam to start real soon. If you were to ask me whether I am prepared for it, my answer will be the usual NO. I have this tendency to do everything at the eleventh hour which is a bad habit I can never get rid of. My first paper will commence on Tuesday at 9.30 a.m. (I hope I will not oversleep) and another one in the afternoon. Then four more subjects on the next two days.

To all my friends,

Take time off and relax while studying. Do not stress yourselves out because your performance will be greatly affected if you are too tensed up. No matter what choice you have made, whether it is right or wrong, do not turn back but try your best to make this decision worthwhile and not something that you regret.

Olympics 2008 will soon come to an end. I am waiting for the next one to be held in London in 2012. This time, I definitely must watch Synchronized Swimming no matter what. I hope the Anastasias from Russia will be competing once again. Love their routine so much.

I dreamt that Yoda died last night. It was horrifying and it seemed so real. The sound of Yoda eating is a relieving sound as it shows that it is still very alive.

These few days

I have had so many FREE stuffs recently and I just want to thank God for all that He has given me. =)

Firstly, was the free school play ticket from a friend. Next, it was the Lost World of Tambun ticket. The last free ticket I got was the free screening of Wall E by Magnum and MY.fm. I am so blessed!

Duyun, of course I wasn't talking about you. Since when you have been a 'he'?

Speaking of a 'he', I saw a tranny in Lost World this afternoon. She/He wore a blue bikini with a clearly visible scar (due to the breast implants) in the middle of his/her chest/breast/boobs/I-am-not-sure-what-to-call-those-anymore.

Anyway, back to the story. The fire has died down and I don't feel so angry anymore so it's not necessary to put him into the toilet. Thanks for the suggestion though. I will consider it the next time I see him. :P

A piece of my mind

It's a tiring day today but I was indeed happy. It's kind of weird to say that I feel happy washing dishes but somehow this is the feeling that I get when I was doing that chore.

To this 'someone' who thinks he knows me so well:

I just want to tell you that I love the way my life is going right now and I am not going to regret it. Don't you know that I love to start working from the bottom? Keep on looking down on me and I will succeed better than you expected me to do. Thank you so much for all the advice that you have given me and they didn't actually go to waste. I did listened and I deliberated. I choose not to follow your advice as it is not something that I desire to do. This course is my passion.

You keep on telling me that I will not like what I do but do you really, I mean REALLY know what I want to do? You only see me once a year (or less) yet you acted as though you live with me under one roof.

Is discouraging me what you think will make me a better person? I can tell that you want me to do something else just because you think my result has gone down the drain? I sat for STPM not because I wanted to go to public uni but the main purpose of it is for me to think through what I truly wanted to do. Well, I guess you will not understand that point at all since you didn't approve me of going into Form Six in the first place. Albeit pointless, I feel so much better writing that out.

Anyway, you have never taken up this course and tried it. You told me what I see right now is beautiful, but in the real world, things are so much different. Such wise words! Who doesn't know the real world is harsh? I have learnt a better phrase. No pain, no gain.

Anyway, I am so grateful to have such a caring person like you to voice your opinions which I highly appreciated. If you really read this post and deemed me to be rude, I hereby apologised because I am merely typing what I thought and had tried my best to filter my words to make them sound less hostile.

Exam's round the corner and I have to study so I will not harbour on what you have said to me a few months ago. You are not affecting me. I will not let your discouragements affect me. Or my life.

The end of food studies practical

So here are the dishes in visual form. Pictures courtesy of Miss Nurainie. =)


First up, the appetizer. Crab cakes are really delicious with some touches of bechemel and mayonnaise.


Chilled cucumber soup. So refreshing and 'new'.


This dish is deemed to be the best dish for the day. Chicken breast with orange sauce + honey.


The vege of the day. Broccoli with Mango and Capsicum Salsa. Without the salsa, this dish cannot be called a dish at all. =P


Last but not least, cherry tartlets served with whipping cream. Pui Yun hearts this the most, I mean the whipping cream.


Photography session.

From left: Obviously me (unprepared thanks to Pui Yun who kept on counting two and more twos), Christina (Appetizer Chef), Gayathry (Vegetable Chef/Waitress), Kevin (Meat Chef a.k.a. most celebrated chef of the day!) and Nick (Pastry Chef)


This picture is here just for giggles. The salsa brings a lot of meaning because they are downright important.

Just want to say thank you for everyone who made it successful (although there were some glitches here and there throughout the service).

I will miss Food Studies practicals since this would be the last time wearing the apron and the hat pretending to be a real chef. The semester is going to end real soon and it's time to tackle the theories now.

It's a tiring but a fruitful day.

Sarah and Ah Yun,
Glad to see you both again today. I'm glad you like the food. It's a little something I can do for you guys for being such great friends to me. Oh, and I just remembered. We should have snapped a picture together. Ouch!

Tomorrow is the day!

Finally summer is about to end in Malaysia. I think 'fall' is coming.

Anyway, today we went to do our marketing and we actually spent above RM80. I can't believe that the things we bought were so expensive. The preparation was smooth today and I hope things will be as smooth-sailing tomorrow.

There's an alteration regarding the sorbet. Instead of strawberries, lemons will be used in the sorbet. I actually feel this is better since it's more original.

To my two dearest friends, Sarah and Duyun:
Thank you for your undying support for me. Really appreciate it. I can't wait to see you guys again tomorrow. Miss you both so much although I have just seen you last week.

Oh, and another thing. A very happy birthday to Amy! 080808 is such a nice date to celebrate your birthday. All the best in your future endeavours and never forget me, okay? I officially welcome you to join the two-zero club. =D

I love Christmas with snowflakes!

Just tried out the cucumber soup (which is currently chilling in the quick chiller). I found that it actually tasted better than I had expected it to be but I am still not so sure whether it is supposed to taste sourish. Anyway, will be bringing the soup to college and see what others think.

I had a wonderful day today strolling in Sunway Pyramid and we did buy some stuffs. I wonder how were the rest of the people who went for the My Gopeng Resort trip doing? I guess they did consume a lot of fruits. Oh, I love fruits!

As Malaysia is having summer now, it's better to cut down on durians and other heaty fruits. I think I am getting an ulcer or it's either a wisdom tooth growing at my bottom left jaw. I remember feeling the same pain once last year and I thought I could be wiser since I am getting a wisdom tooth but it didn't grow. Quite disappointed, I dare say.

Back to the horrid weather. I hope Malaysia is not going to have summer all year long so that fall and winter can come. I would like to see some snowflakes. I love the sight of Christmas with a snowy surrounding. Oh, and the pretty flowers that bloom with the start of spring.

I know this doesn't make sense but it would be lovely if we have four seasons, wouldn't it?

The wonderful set lunch

The set lunch today was excellent.


The table setting


The appetizer: Vietnamese spring roll

Tasted sourish when dipped into the sauce and it's a real good starter.


Next up, is the Minestrone soup. Simply delicious thanks to miss. =)


Dragon fruit sorbet


Lamb cutlet (95% cooked)


Mushroom vol-au-vent


Mixed fruits dipped in chocolate

I was so stuffed after all the courses. Thanks to everyone in Group B and also miss for the wonderful meal!

A note to Mr. Simpson: Your service is not too bad la. But you should have danced to make it the ultimate service. Haha!!

Anyone would like to have a 5-course meal for lunch on this auspicious day?

The tension is building up and I hope I can work better under this condition. I know I have posted a big, fat personal note about this on MSN but let me just do it once more in my blog, okie?

Now here's the announcement.

Date: 8 August 2008 (Friday)
Time: 12.oo p.m.
Venue: Olympia College Ipoh

So what's the occasion? There will be a 5-course meal (every course prepared by me and my group members respectively) served and if you are interested, you can leave me a comment here/sms/call/email me. The set lunch is charged at only RM20 per person. We are only preparing for a table for FOUR so the earlier you inform me, the better your chances will be to be able to get a seat.

The menu

Appetizer - Crab Cakes
Soup - Chilled Cucumber Soup
Sorbet - Strawberry Sorbet
Main course - Grilled Chicken with Orange Sauce
Vegetable - Broccoli with Mango and Capsicum Salsa
Dessert - Cherry Tart with Whipped Cream

So what is your decision?

The Joker rocks the show!

Still coughing like crazy today except for the hours when I was at church. It's really a wonderful thing to be in the house of God because all the pains and sicknesses that I have seems to go away and will never come again. Praise God for that. =)

I've watched The Dark Knight today and I would say that it's really not bad. I really loved the scenes when the Joker appeared.

Why so serious?

Do you know how I got this scar?

Let me put a smile on that face.

He is just so funny in a creepy way. It's so sad to know that it is his final movie. If only he were to be still alive.

Just bought the ingredients to try out the soup for the food project. I just hope I don't mess things up on that day. The soup is really simple to make as it does not involve heat or pot. All I need to do is just to whiz everything together in the blender and chill it before it is ready to be served. So, what is the name of the soup? I will reveal it later when I have made it successfully.

The cross-stitch project is still under construction as I have been feeling lazy as usual. Procrastination often gets the better of me and I am still wondering why. I hope the picture will be completed before 2008 waves goodbye. I will try my best to complete it before next year, I promise.

The aftermath of Trailblazer

I've been getting sore throat, fever, eye irritation and cough this week. Now I am getting better which is a good thing.

I wonder how Ju Dee and Bih Tong did in their Food Studies project. Hope they did a good job. So sorry for not going to college to support you all. Was too lazy to wake up early. I can't wait to hear all about it on Monday.

There is no more practical class on Friday as last week was our final one which we made cream puffs. Too bad no pictures were taken. Or else, there would definitely be a post about it.

On another note, I wish Sapphire Blu have a safe journey to Sabah and remember about the souvenirs. Take extra care of yourself and love you always. Muaxie muax!

Trailblazer 2008

Trailblazer on Saturday was fun.


Look at how large the money was (We were given $5 at the start of the day). I think they were afraid that we might lose it throughout the challenges so the organizing committee deliberately enlarged it.

On another note, yes, I had chopped off my hair.


The two-dollar bill.


One dollar bill.


Bih Tong and I are rich with money. She said that it was 'munny' (the kind of money that you can earn in fluffbook in Facebook).


Another shot before the challenges started.


We were divided into our clusters and these are my group members!

We were in the CREAM (the colour of the shirt we wore) CLUSTER!


Can you spot me?

This picture was taken after the results were announced and unfortunately, our cluster only managed to get second place. The Blue Cluster got to go to Papan for their final challenges (to fight for RM10,000) but anyway, we got back the money we earned throughout the game in real cash! Yes, they converted for us. It's only RM10 per person, but it's really a good feeling to get back our money.

There's also a goodie bag for everyone. The contents were:

• A February 2008 Galaxie magazine
• A complimentary ticket to watch movies with (*) label in any Golden Screen Cinemas
• A voucher to get a free regular-size Domino's Pizza
• A pen with four different ink colours
• A notebook courtesy of Maybank
• A newspaper article with Trailbazer news a day before (18 July 2008)
• An environment friendly bag from Blackmores

After a really, really tired day.


Our team tag: The Challengers was supposed to be the correct spelling.

I think I am starting to fall sick. Going to take some panadols before I leave for college later.

Khairul is so curious to know what sort of bad things I said about him.

I've finally managed to gain access to Crunchyroll.com once again after changing the mother board of the pc. Now I can continue watching my favourite dramas/movies/animes online (I know there are better sites but I still love Crunchyroll <3).

***

There's this guy in college named Khairul who wished to see what I am trying to lie/talk/crap about him. This is for you.

A note to Khairul:

"..................... ........... ........................ ..... ........................!"

Can you figure out what that is?

Okay. That's all I wrote about you. Are you sure you really saw an evil grin on my face? It's not a grin, just a very wide smile. =D

P/S: By the way, the dots are neither symbols or any sort of secret code. Khairul just got pranked.

Lunch at Ritz

Today's lunch was special because we don't have to eat at our regular place, the VEGETARIAN SHOP. Want to take a guess where we ate? It's at Ritz Recipe/Garden (whichever way you prefer to call it)

I had many rounds of yummylicious food and some of the food pictures can be seen from Ju Dee's blog.

Our group picture after the meal.


Well, not everyone was in the picture. Some of them are too bloated to be in the picture. Haha. I am so mean.

Now it's time to prepare an evaluation about the level of service and some other criterias about our 'lunching' experience there. I'd probably say that everything is good since the food is delicious.

Bread pudding and Sweet Pastry

We made sweeter stuffs as the weeks go by. Ju Dee bought a new camera so I am promoting the quality of her 7.2 megapixels pictures here.




This is the soaking-and-squeezing process of the soggy bread.


It's not at all a pretty sight but something that looks gross like this can turn into something so beautiful and delicious.


Mixing in all the ingredients.


Before baking it in the oven.


Meanwhile, Ju Dee is catching up what she missed out in last week's class.


She was feeling so proud after sieving the flour.


The crusts before they are baked.


Ding! The bread pudding is finally ready.


The crusts being baked before the filling is added in.


Time to tuck in, everyone!


Peachy and creamy


More alien designs courtesy of Ju Dee and us.

That's all about our cooking practical on Friday.