Thursday, July 31, 2008

Solitude

Would it be too insane to say that sometimes i wish i could just disappear to some secluded place void of people and their incessant chatter, where i could just sit there and finish my sandwich (or whatever).

I want my fortress of solitude! Though not, of course, in the arctic as too damn far and inhabitable climate. I was picturing some sort of picnic-brochure-esque field or even an empty room, in which i could be completely bone idle and nobody would see or talk to me.

Last year after law tutorials i had to wait for YZ to finish his class and i would wander around Monash searching for a place of seclusion. And i found it, at the fifth floor stairwell outside the lecturer's office.

There are at least three staircases that lead up to the fifth-floor, only one of them leads to the staffroom entrance and the rest will bring curious wanderers (like me) face to face with locked doors right outside the staffroom. Nobody goes up the latter stairs as the lift provided a speedy alternative to the tedious ascension of 5 flights of stairs.

So these were the places where i spent my 1 hour wait. On the fifth floor of building 6. Sitting there (only in the late afternoon, burning hot on other times of the day) amidst the rhythmic clanging of construction work and the slight dustiness of the air, i found some semblance of solitude.

I'm not a hermit, and i like to be in the company of people, but there are times when i just want to be alone for a while.

***
On a more normal topic, Ergun Dogan is totally driving me nuts. I was so bored that i actually paid attention to the vaguely interesting girl-talk behind me on 300 ringgit straw handbags and Mid Valley boutiques. Geeez! I tried recording his voice (i had loads of fun recording Marketingdinghooi's feeble "OK? Ok anot? Ei. OK anot? Give me some response") but even that didn't work.

It's bad to have a boring lecturer who talks about difficult topics (at least you will try to listen for the sake of understanding said difficult topic), it is even worse when you have a boring one who teaches stuff that has already been taught. His spent a whole 10 mins explaining about demand curves and what not and i just can't stand it anymore. Will be presenting Econ Growth Theories with the charismatic Charisma, and after today... Bye bye to Friday classes. Am so not coming to Dogan's Friday lecture anymore!

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Random Quote #1



If love is the answer, could you rephrase the question?






♥♥♥

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Big Breakfast

this was with the sayang at Sunrise McD on some Saturday morning :)


toasted bun, scrambled eggs, chicken patty and hash brown :)


must put pepper wannn...


ahhhhh... the stuff that's flowing in my veins :)



So, have you got your breakfast yet?

Winner

Remember the Guessing Game posted up sometime a week ago? We've got a winner!




Congratulations Daniel Goh :)

Please do let me know when you're in Penang to claim your McD's Big Breakfast. Haha :P


Anyway, the picture is really the front body part of this cool frog :)))


Saturday, July 26, 2008

BKT

Bukit Kiara walk went surprisingly quite well.

Hookie came to pick me up freakishly early at 6.30. And we arrived at Bukit Kiara before sunrise.

*pictures rather blurry as i snapped them while walking uphill

S'good that we went early when the air is still cool and invigorating. It gets too sunny around 9.

Lots of middle-aged uncles and aunties striding round like seasoned pros, hands waving in rhythm.

The 5km walk didn't seem quite as tiring as i remembered it to be. I used to take forever, groaning and grunting and heaving and what not. I suppose i have built up my stamina over the past year. When i finished, i was astonished by how easy and fast the walk was. 0_0!

Anyone interested in having a walk with nature? XD Gimme a call and i might, just might be interested.

As we were coming down, quite a whole bunch of people were streaming uphill for their Sunday walk, but i had some other plans.

***
Went for bak kut teh with the usual gang, this time to another location in Klang. I don't know the road name and didn't bother to look, as i was the designated driver.

Seng Huat Restaurant. Located underneath... a bridge (i know how to get there, but if you ask me for a detailed description, under a bridge is probably the best i can give you). People say the best BKT can be found in Klang, and i couldn't agree more. Apparently this is one of the more famous BKT restaurants in Klang. It was bustling with customers when we arrived and i heard rumours that its bkt is sometimes sold out before 10 a.m.

What we ordered. Lots of pork. So people who are turned off by images of grotesque cut-up pork portions (notably Fish, whom we never want to invite to another bkt outing again), please shut your eyes, but imagine the delectable aroma of bkt! Seng Huat's bkt soup is pretty damn fantastic. Strong herb flavour, and not too thick and murky. It has, however, a slightly stronger hint of garlic but i'm not complaining much.

I think... this is some part of pork belly? I don't really know, but what i do know is that the jelly-ish, blubbery pork fat is mighty horrible. I never eat those (reminds me of myself, you see XD XD XD XD) *shudder* *shudder* but NSC loves them so i chuck them all to his bowl. The meat on the other hand is fabulously tender. Mm hmm! This is the part of the pork that you should be eating (minus the fat, of course) as it tastes better IMO.

Pork ribs. Hmm. Not much to say about pork ribs, i guess? Everyone should know pretty well.

Bak Kut Teh isn't really complete without yow char kuay/kuai/kuoai/kuey/guai/kwai/gwai etc etc. Goes incredibly well with the soup. Divine! :D

What i do have to complain about Seng Huat is that their BKT comes in these rather small serving bowls and the soup is often not enough. Due to the amount of customers, soup refills are limited to 1 tiny little red bowl.

Apart from that, our visit was great! We even doubled our order. XD

The girl who took our order was shocked! She asked "take away? or having here?" and we replied the latter and she said "whoa" in an omgwtf way. 8 bowls of bak kut teh. Oh my. I guess this renders my morning walk useless.

BKT

Bak Kut Teh outing tomorrow. 0_0! Not before horrifying Bukit Kiara 4km walk with Hookie. Used to go Bkt Kiara often with Hookie.

Let's see. Is anyone a Bak Kut Teh connoisseur? Recommend some places. Klang is peppered with BKT outlets! The place i go has no less than 12 BKT shops within a 4-5 row shop lot range. Freaky huh?

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Hmm

It's week 2 already and i've pretty much gotten the hang of my classes.

I'll be seeing Ergun Dogan 4 times a week for the next 11 weeks and that's a pretty bleak future ahead. Boring as he is, i have to say that he's a pretty nice tutor. Nice in a blur, amiable way. He let me escape my Friday tute to join the Tuesday one (on the condition that i present my topic on Friday).

Ms Ghazala is brilliant as usual, even more so this semester as the syllabus of IMC isn't quite as taxing as Consumer Behaviour so lectures are much more fun.

Dr Marketingdinghooi's Market Research Methods is disastrous. I have to ... urgh. Do loads of stuff. I'm not really clear anyway. He kept repeating in his draggy voice "Anyyyyy questionss? Ok anot? Ok anooooooooot?" and everyone was too hypnotized to ask much questions anyway. Each group is to find twenty freaking journal articles. Twenty! Sighs.

So back to school again. Not too bad. :D

Monday, July 21, 2008

Ability

If i had a super-human ability, what would it be?

Normally i would want something glamourous and fascinating, such as the ability to change my looks / to make myself filthy rich / to read people's thoughts etc.

Now, i would choose something mobile, to teleport or fly or something. Coz am totally sick of traffic. Dammit. If i could teleport, i would not have forgotten my bloody cheque and made a detour home only to be pulled over by a traffic police. Hmph! And i would not have gotten stuck in tortoise-slow traffic all the way to Kelana Jaya (took me 40 minutes. a journey which took me 3 minutes on clear traffic conditions).

Sighs.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Lesson

Life teaches us lessons everyday.

My lesson today was purchased from a traffic police officer at RM50, which was:

"Pakai handsfree."

Good news was that it came at a reduced price.

**
Seen The Dark Knight today and it was fantastic. The Joker was just fascinating! Psychotic and unpredictable and all. Harvey Dent a.k.a. Two Face on the other hand was kinda disappointing. Coin flipping didn't seem quite as insane and freaky as the Joker's antics.

Batman's Lamborghini isn't actually black, but a shade of grey. And it appeared for less than a minute or two before it was destroyed. T_T Broke my heart to see it smashed.

**
Downloaded Kung Fu Panda and it was hilarious. Po is adorable! :D

**
Mr Ergun Dogan is a freak ass bore. I'm gonna die in his classes. My goodness. I was just lying around on the seats hearing but not listening to his monotonous drone (which was punctuated with periodic stumble-mumbles) when i saw "Resource Constraints" on the lecture slides and heard him say:

"Resource constraints are... constraints that are related to resources."

WTF!! What the freakin' hell? Unbelievable. My Fridays are going to be free, coz i don't wanna go to his lectures anymore.

Can you guess...


What is this?


There is only one winner for this round of the guessing game. The first sole winner will get to have Big Breakfast with me at any McDonald's in Penang island :)

I'm lovin' it! Don't cha?

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Dinner

Bah. My dinner consisted of:

1 mouthful of onion omelet, before i rushed off for basketball

few gulps of 100 plus + 3 litres of water, during basketball

1 glass of strawberry yogurt drink, after basketball

Damn. Life isn't fun when i don't get to shove food down my throat like a super glutton. Oh well. Good for weight loss i guess.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

I Love ShoutOut - Our Nationwide Cafe




Thank you Lasker, Elise and ShoutOut... for this is a part of me. This is MAJOR! :)

For the many friendships that bloomed from this tiny little huge success.

For the knowledge and ideas exchanged among the community within the rectangular box.

For the cure of boredom and loneliness :P

For everything else... there's always ShoutOut to the rescue xD



Monday, July 14, 2008

Batman

Batman's subtle Lamborghini!

Black Lamborghini isn't colourful enough, but OK for Batman. Hehe.

Will be catching the Dark Knight on Saturday... Not my favourite day for an outing (parking hell) but everybody has class on weekdays now.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

School?

Urgh am not mentally and emotionally prepared to go back to school.

Have got Mondays free, but however hard i switch my classes around, i will end up having to go to campus for just one freaking lecture for a day.

Tuesday: 3-4 Bus Asia [T] 4-6 Bus Asia [L]

Wed: 9-11 IMC [L]
11-12 Managerial Econs [T]
1-2 IMC [T]
2-3 MRM [lab]

Thu: 9-11 MRM [L]
11-12 IMC [T]

Fri: 10-12 Managerial Econs [L]
2-3 Bus Asia [T]

So. Tuesday i have 1 lecture from 4-6, so if i shift Business in Asia tute to Tuesday, i'll end up having only 1 lecture on Friday, but that's good as i don't have to take a two hour break.

To avoid another two hour break on Wednesday, i can shift Thursday's IMC up, but that means i'll be coming to class on Thursday for only 1 lecture also. Hmm. Auto-allocated lectures suck big time!

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Langkawi Day 3

our cable car unit


on the way up...


up up up...


very high up...


we're almost there!


the view is spectacular :)


ohhh... scary :P


the group pic!


so high ;)


another one at many hundred feets above sea level :)


the hanging bridge


the oh-so-famous Black Sand


the real sand. wtf.


Telaga Air Panas. like fuck it is.

the water is used to wash plates and utensils - I see that with my own eyes!


our rented Nissan Serena - returned :)

Whatever? Anything?

Nyahaha! I like the Whatevers and Anythings!

Whatever (!) you get from one can of Whatever depends on your luck. Whatever is non-carbonated and may contain one of the following: Ice Lemon Tea, Apple Tea, Jasmine Green Tea, White Grape Tea, Peach Tea and Chrysanthemum Tea. If you're lucky you might get some cool flavours such as apple, white grape or peach tea. Or you might get the common chrysanthemum or ice lemon tea. And if u have shit ass luck like me, you'll get the fucked up jasmine green tea. Damn!

Anything, on the other hand, is carbonated and may contain Cola, Apple, Orange Cola, Rootbeer, Cloudy Lemon and Fizz Up. Whatever Cloudy Lemon and Fizz Up are. I would have liked to try Cloudy Lemon, Fizz Up and apple but i got root beer instead. Sigh!

Hmph! I shall buy more until i get to try my cloudy lemon / fizz up / white grape tea!

I like Whatever and Anything's concept, much like Bertie Bott's every flavour beans. :D Except that there isn't grotesque tasting stuff like salt water, mud, pee, acid (or... ok i won't say it) or anything like that.

Imagine the ridiculously fun conversations with Whatever and Anything?

"D'you sell Whatever?"

"Whatever?"

"Yeah, Whatever."

"I'm not sure what you're..."

"What about Anything then? D'you have Anything?"

"Oh sure, we have our monthly promotion of Tropicana Juices..."

"No, i mean. Anything! Don't you have Anything at all?"

"&$@^*%@!!"

Bwahahaha!

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Hah

Results turned out to be not too bad, and not too good either. Unlike Brown Bear, who had spent countless days nightmaring about his results, i didn't really expect anything much except that i would definitely pass all subjects.

My first ever HD (!) was for Media Studies. Bah! I take back all my vociferous bitchings about the subject and may the heavens shower infinite blessings on Dr Yeoh, Shi Ying and the examiner who marked my paper. Damn those Art students. Their HDs come flying in like pieces of cakes left right centre whereas us Business students have to slave like house-elves to scrape up a meagre grade.

Subjects for this semester, and lecturers:

Business in Asia: Ergun Dogan
Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC): Ghazala Khan (yay!)
Marketing Research Methods (MRM): Marketingdinghooi. He's back. (err.. yay..?)
Managerial Economics: Ergun Dogan

I have no idea who Ergun Dogan is, but his name rhymes! How cool is that? Since he's teaching two subjects I hope he doesn't turn out to be a crashing bore, or worse, speak with an Aussie slang.

Joseph will be in 5 (!) of my classes so i won't feel like an idiot sitting around trying to know other people.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Can You Really Decide?


HER?




or HIM?


Now decide and choose only...




TWO :)



Those are my specs. lol XD

Happy Weekend blog folks :)

Cheers!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

A Gruesome Creature at Chew Thean Yang Aquarium



Please click here to read about this feline breed


YES, IT IS A CAT! A HAIRLESS CAT!


WARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! SPHYNX!!! HELPPPPPP ME!!!


*meow*

Monday, July 7, 2008

How to Walk in High Heels


I do wear them okay, just not heels :P

Sexy right? Tee heeee!

AF1 rawks! XD

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Party

Attended Melv's birthday party yesterday, for the 11th time? XD

As usual a pretty simple gathering at his house, with lots of food! Ha. :)

Problem with the party was that... there were two cliques. One comprising of his current schoolmates, and another which was his ex-schoolmates: me, fish etc etc.

So there was this sorta invisible river there, group A were on 1 side, group B on another with Melv flitting across the river. Freaks me out really, and i guess both groups have this anti-social tendency to stick with their friends and not speak to the other strangers. Hmm.

Which, of course, leads me to think about what will happen if i were to host a party. Monash people. CHS schoolmates? CHS-classmates? Basketball people? Argh. And of course there is also Monash-other-faculty people?

Bah! Best to stay away from parties. Totally weird concept. Only party i had was when i was 10 and my entire class was invited and it was fun. Everyone knew everyone. But that's no longer possible, is it?

Happy Birthday Yin!



Happy Birthday Yiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin! You have been one of my bestest friend ever! You're god-sent ;) rwar.

Thank you for everything you've done for me and for the rest of us.

Thank you for the late night chats and advices - sometimes your words don't make much sense but it'll do. Haha, kidding :)

Thank you for all the senseless jokes and laughters throughout our friendship - those years in Selangor would not be as memorable without you in :))

Thank you - I could not thank you enough my friend. Tee hee. Please know that I'll always be there for you okay :)

I hope you enjoyed your day today and the day before. It was a fun stayover - Chin Master and the booze were evil. And oh... your presents too - I am sure you love them as much as you love me :P

May you have a good year ahead and many great ones to come!


With lotsa love,
- The aL -

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Random Speech #1


Me: eh, do you eat beef?

Pippo: socially

Me: O_o"

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Cartoonised


I am back! Do you all miss me? (:

Culinary

WS's Culinary Tip:

Sprinkle chicken stock on bland tasteless food and boom! Tasty food! XD Never underestimate seasonings. Really lame, i know. But mum just cooked this horribly tasteless curry so i poured liberal amounts of chicken stock on top. :D

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Food!

While i was out with Fish and Nico, we had lunch at Delicious Cafe / Ms Read / Ms Read's Delicious Cafe, which was extremely packed with customers.

I've been wanting to visit delicious cafe anyway for quite some time since Heko raved about it. Their food was delicious (otherwise it would be too damn ironic) which explains the amount of patrons.

My smoked salmon angel hair was served with a whole lot of smoked salmon, topped with a dollop of caviar. A little too salty for me, as they gave me far too much salmon (which is good thing, i suppose?) that the angel hair was not enough to balance the saltiness. The caviar that came along with the pasta didn't tame the flavour, either.

Nico's marsala lamb shank was, and i quote him, "heavenly". Huge, huge lamb shank, fantastically marinated and delectably tender. Served with nasi pilaf, cucumber raita & papadum. Nasi pilaf is, i suppose, the raisined rice in the picture. As i have no idea what nasi pilaf is, i'm not sure whether this is some Delicious Cafe innovation, tossing raisins in rice, or that traditional nasi pilaf recipe contains raisins in. Cucumber raita is some sort of cucumber-yogurt salad hidden beneath the papadums.

Fish's... grilled balsamic mushrooms on toasted multigrain... was just vegetarian. The mushrooms were fantastic and flavourful. But it was rather pricey, if you think about it. Mushroom sandwich for twenty bucks. No meat. XD I'm such a carnivore. I guess it sounds better than grilled vege and pesto on toasted ciabatta. Grilled vege... 0_O

The highlight of our visit would be the desserts. Oohlala. Deli-cious desserts!

Scones! Delicious Cafe's scones are just divine. I've always thought that scones were like.. muffins? Or muffin-ish croissants or something. But they turned out to be nothing like muffins or croissants! They were light and crumbly, and absolutely wonderful with preserves and pure cream. Scones! Just order scones when you go to Delicious Cafe.

Next up is the blackberry and apple crumble. Another divine dessert. Warm crunchy oaty crust and fragrant blackberry apple base, coupled with a large scoop of ice-cream. Ooh-lala! The apple cubes were dyed a sexy purple by the blackberry. :D I didn't recommend the peach and banana crumble as i've eaten it for years at Heko's Christmas Eve lunch, and i guess she copied their recipe.

Last of all, chocolate brownie. Chocolate brownie, with a large scoop of vanilla ice-cream topped with chocolate sauce. Absolutely sinful! So far the best chocolate brownie i've eaten. Warm, walnutty and not too sticky. Sinful. Very.

I've heard loads of good word-of-mouth about Delicious Cafe's desserts. Will pop by soon for more. :D I feel like trying the sticky date pudding. Or... the flourless orange cake. Hmm.

***
I've visited Dave's again. Screw Italiannies and wherever. Dave's is the place for pasta. Sis recommended their aglio olio so i decided to give it a try (i ordered my favourite carbonara, regardless, and shared the aglio olio with fish).

Here is the aglio olio with mixed mushrooms and truffle oil. Definitely different from carbonara. It is definitely less cloying and much lighter. If you like simple and light dishes, try the aglio olio. The mixed mushrooms and truffle oil version is slightly spicy, with little bits of chilli tossed inside.

Excuse the dark picture as i forgot to turn on the flash. You could always select whatever ingredients/toppings you like. Mixed seafood, bacon, salmon & spinach, meatballs... (wouldn't recommend smoked pork sausages as they have an overwhelming smell). The one you see here is aglio olio with mussels (might recommend mussels, fresh + sufficiently marinated). The mussel aglio olio tastes very different from the truffle oil one, with a stronger hint of basil leaves, and not spicy.

Dave's bruschetta is definitely worth trying. Crispy bacon and salsa bruschetta. Scrumptious. Absolutely delicious. And once again you can choose various toppings. They used to have salmon, smoked duck and anchovy bruschetta but i couldn't find it on the menu.