The Domestication of Kim? - A Beginning

It was productive Saturday indeed... Also, a "domestication" experience, haha!

1. Had (almost) a good sleep (Mom chucked me out of bed cos Dad wanted to go out for lunch - I slept very late the night before lar... so much for trying to make up for lost sleep, hehe!)

2. Cleaned (a portion of) my room - this task had been procrastinated for a while, hehe! (Hopefully this momentum will keep going so I can finally revamp my room as well!!)

3. Helped cook dinner... Yeah, man... I cooked!! Lolz!!

Banana Fritters:

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Chicken bites:
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Other offerings on the dinner table:

(Assam Asparagus) &

(Bittergourd >.<)

4. Made cookies (or also known as "non-cookies") after clearing up after dinner... I was on a roll from the momentum, perhaps... hehe! Or maybe it's the nesting instinct, haha! (Since Mom was telling me I should learn to cook, etc... "if not how to find husband, get married...") So, cookies galore!! (Sorry, Shu Ling - if you read this, think you're already back in Penang when this was done... Next time lar)

I shall call it Cocoa Cornflake Crumble:

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So tired... yet can't seem to unwind quite yet... Gotta get up early tomorrow some more... haihz... Long day tomorrow... And then Monday will come, and it's back to work... again...

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** Hmm... I hope the video loads properly...

Unpreferred Residence

Residence Hotel @ Uniten... A place I was put up in for two nights, as a workshop I had to attend was scheduled to from 8am till 10pm. I thought, the workshop venue was all the way in Uniten, which is located in the Serdang/Bangi area, and since accomodation was arranged for, why not... (Despite having heard a negative review of the hotel) As a result, my room at Residence Hotel @ Uniten was called "home" for two nights.

As usual, after checking into my room, I "explored" the room... Checking out the fridge contents, which switch turned on/off what, etc... My first impression of the room as soon as I stepped in was probably 2 stars, as the room didn't look that well maintained... Little did I know the surprises in store for me as I started checking out the nooks and crannies...

When I opened the fridge, I was greeted by little creepy crawlies - baby cockroaches! There were at least 2 or 3 there... I don't know how they managed to get into a fridge, which was supposed to be airtight... It was obviously left off as it wasn't even cold when I opened it... No wonder our little uninvited guests made it their playground!

I then proceeded to check out the coffee/tea making setup... Cups - check, spoons - check, kettle - check, coffee/tea/sugar/creamer - check... They were on a tray, which when lifted... Creepy crawlies - check!!! Gross!!! More mini cockroaches... eww!!! I then started to notice that there were little unwanted guests running around on the table!!!

Obviously, my rating for the hotel dropped... duh!

To top it off was the surprise I got when I woke up this morning!! I think you can see where I'm getting to here... hehe! Yep, lo and behold, I was disgusted to find a cockroach in my bed!! It was about 1.5cm long!!! The biggest one I've seen yet!! Super disgusted by now... It crawled onto my pillow, which I immediately picked off my bed and tried to shake off the little pest onto the floor... I thought it had dropped onto the floor and ran off, but oh was I wrong!! It managed to hide from sight... When I looked again a few minutes later, there it was on top of my pillow!!! Argh!!

So, I took the pillow to the bathroom and tried to shake off the cockroach again... It was somehow annoyingly impossible to shake the little critter off the pillow... So in the end, I had to muster up all my courage and overcome my utter disgust, took a tissue paper and quickly pick it off my pillow and toss it into the toilet bowl... Kim 1 - Creepy crawly 0!

My rating for this hotel now is way, way, waaayyy below the initial 2 stars that I rated... I hope I won't be awakened to anymore surprises tomorrow morning! And also, that none of these unwanted pests hitch a free, uninvited ride home with me... ewww!!!

Time to sleep... Will try to post some pictures later on... Just a note that the food is not too bad, but the buffet spread is limited and mainly a Malay food spread... The meeting venue was not too bad also, but it certainly was freezing in there!

Signing off from the unpreferred Residence... Goodnight.

Reflections of Chinese New Year 2008 [Part 1]

Yes, I'm back... finally!!! Been super busy and occupied, so the blog has been super abandoned too, sighz...

Anyway, I got to drive back to Penang this year... We left really early in the morning and we made it to Penang in one piece, woohoo!! =) Stopped over at Tapah for a short while for a caffiene boost before continuing on to Penang...

Before heading up to Butterworth, we stopped by Tua Kor's new house, where she was all smiles to see us... Even tried to get the dog to smile, hehe!!

As usual, if we get back to Penang before Chinese New Year, the food hunting ritual shall commence, and commence it did!!! The must-have favourites: (From L-R) Ais Kacang; extra "attap chee" for the ais kacang; Laksa; Tar Mee; Hokkien Char...

The spread and variety of food at reunion dinner this year... (Yum yum!!)
And the yummilicious Ian was everyone's favourite "dessert"... Such a cute kid!!

Observations...

It's been quite a hiatus from blogging, with all the CNY hols and all... Have some stuff to blog about CNY but the pictures aren't ready for posting yet... Hence, been hoping to do the CNY blog first, which added to the procrastination of posting a new post. Finally decided to just continue blogging and posting the CNY one(s) as and when I get to it, hehe...

Anyhoo, back to the topic...

While dining out today, my attention was drawn to a little girl at a neighbouring table who was wincing as she beared the pain of a needle prick - I soon found out that the mother was doing a finger prick test on the girl who seemed about 4-5 years old. I suspected that the girl had diabetes as she later was given an insulin shot via a pen injector... My whole body cringed as I watched her get pricked by the lancet for the finger prick test and then my whole body froze as she calmly braved the insulin shot... Even recollecting it now is sending shivers up my spine!! Okay, so I'm a wimp when it comes to needles... Me no like-ee needles!!

On a different note, an update on the office MSN connection - there is now NONE!! Sigh... No more Live Messenger... (I still can sign in but cannot send/receive messages, except an offline message I received, which I'm not even sure if it got through due to a glitch - so no point there, right? As good as none... =P) Even Meebo or WebMessenger or e-buddy websites are firewalled... The firewall is so annoying that even Friendster and Facebook have been blocked! Gmail Chat... no more... Even the chatbox on this blog now will say "Access denied" or something to that effect... >.<" However, I guess I have to be thankful that Gmail is still okay, as well as Blogger... (so far... *fingers crossed*) So I suppose the only way to "chat" to relieve stress is to email people or post on the blog, lolz! Perhaps you'll be seeing more of me on the blog, eh? But blogging takes a bit more time and effort as compared to MSN-ing, haihz... So my two-minute break may take 20 minutes instead... Oh well... take what you have, right? *winks*

"Pin-drop" ponderings...

It's like "pin-drop" silent lately... at work, anyways. Not much work (not much that requires rushing anyways), not many demands from people (seems like a lot are out of office this week as well) and generally been very quiet (perhaps everyone (outside, i.e. customers) is busy with clearing their own stuff before Chinese New Year?) So, it's the re-emerging of the blogger in me, hehe... Provided that there are stuff to talk about lar. Here's some anyways:

The Ikea Incident
This happened to me at Ikea last week - went there on Friday with my colleague for lunch. Craving for Swedish meatballs, hehe. So anyhoo, as those of you who are familiar with the drinks system at Ikea - there are two types of cups available for the free flow of drinks (either carbonated or coffee/tea). The first cup, the glass goblet-like cup, is for the carbonated drinks only as it "cannot" withstand high temperatures - priced at RM1.50. The second, the ceramic(?) mug, is able to withstand the heat of hot coffee/tea - priced at RM3.00 and people who "purchase this cup" will get the convenience of safely consuming either hot or cold drinks in their cup. Okay, I think the foundation has been laid... Now for the feature "presentation":

I got the RM3.00 cup, which meant that I could have either hot or cold drinks. And, not wanting to start with the delicious coffee before I had anything to eat, proceeded to fill my cup with a carbonated drink. As the bubbly gush of sweet, sticky (if you spilt it!) drink filled my cup, I got a "oi, you can't take cold drink in that cup - only meant for hot drink!" from the fella (most likely foreign and new to Ikea) who was refilling the coffee beans in the coffee machine (ooh, they've got a new coffee machine by the way!)... grrr... >.<

The Lack of Live Messenger
Windows Live Messenger, or previously commonly known as MSN Messenger, had always worked perfectly well in my office. Hence, on days like these I can at least catch up with some people - most times, I'm swamped with work and my status is set to "Busy" (to the point that Irene Lai will "ask permission" to chat, haha! - no need lar... so pai seh liddat ler!). Sadly, from Monday (28th Jan), although I am able to sign into Messenger, I am unable to send or receive messages. To the misery of some other "Mesengger-kaki's" at the office and myself, it continued on in this trend the next day...

Then a glimmer of hope came on Tuesday (29th Jan), after lunch - Irene Lai messaged me and I received it!! Since then, it was back to normal. What joy for all of us!! Messenger worked just fine for the rest of the day. =)

The joy didn't last long, as yesterday (30th Jan) the inability to send or receive messages via Messenger set in again... and the trend has continued on till now. Withdrawal symptoms, such as increased stress levels and a gloomy outlook, seemed to have set in for the Messenger regulars, who have since (in attempt to retain their sound mind) either resorted to continuing their moping and lamentating, or to Web Messenger (which seems to be working just fine). Thankfully, I also have a blog to keep myself occupied, no? *winks* Haven't resorted to using Web Messenger... yet. I still harbour hope that it's just some problem at the "Messenger service provider", which should be resolved... soon?! =S I do hope it's not my office firewall-ing (the horror!!) Messenger, sigh. Here's hoping Messenger works properly again!!

Happy Chinese New Year!!

To all my readers; to one and all...

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!
GONG XI FA CAI!

Wishing you journey mercy for your travels this festive season...
Wishing you a restful and enjoyable holiday... (Erm.. to those who do not have holiday, hope you will enjoy the festivities nonetheless!)
May you have a wonderful time with family, friends and your loved ones... (Dogs, cats, hamsters, etc all included... *winks*)