My Fatty Journey

I blah a blah

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 12:43:00 +0000

Hello people, how’s your weekend? Mine was just exercise and catching up with some work and then more exercise. I am trying to train for a 12 km marathon which I have not register for it yet. Scared la. I cannot actually run but just brisk walking.

Can you actually see that? I actually achieved 12 km in 99:53 minutes! And burnt 480 calories! Well at least that’s what my treadmill says. But I did actually worked out for 99 minutes and yesterday was 85 minutes.

Then I went for a massage and gua sha session yesterday. I have been longing to go for a massage for ages. And each time I was either too lazy to make an appointment or just too busy with other things.

The full body massage was 1.5 hours of total indulgent. I have been having stiff neck and shoulders for sometime. Who could blame us office folks for facing the PC for like 10 hours a day?

Then the Gua Sha session was unplanned. As the masseuse was massaging my shoulders and back, she noticed that I was too “heaty” or too much heat inside my body and suggested I should do one. And so I did.

In case you are not aware of what Gua Sha is – it is a traditional Chinese or Asian therapy by “scraping” your body to remove body toxins and to regenerate cell. To know more, see here.

So the immediate result is that you’d feel much more relaxed and any nagging pain you have almost gone instantly. But the side effect is that, your back will have all these red patches from all the scraping.

Looks scary right? But no worries, these patches fade in 3-4 days and it’s fading now. It does not feel hurt either inside nor at the surface of your skin. It’s not the surface of your skin that’s red. It’s actually inside. And if I were to go out like that, people may think my “husband” was abusing me! It really looks like that.

Next, what else …

Oh yeah, that was me, shooting dad making lobak. Stay tuned for that entry.

Basil Thai Nudle Bar @ Bangsar Shopping Village

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Basil Thai Nudle Bar

Another place which we frequent during working days. It’s located at the ground floor of Bangsar Shopping Village. I like this place because it’s located at the corner of the shopping complex with a lot windows surrounding it.

See that spacious space? I personally like restaurants with a lot extra space, cool environment and bright. This place is particularly suitable for working people like us together with the extremely hot weather these days.

I love the color of its menu. Reddish pink! For chef’s recommendation, they have a “heart” by the side of it. But seems to me everything single item on the menu is marked with a “heart”. Maybe they should mark only those not so popular and say “not recommended”. Well, I’m just “thinking out loud”. Don’t take me seriously.

And because it’s a Thai food restaurant, it does highlight to its customer what dishes are spicy and what are not. I think that’s pretty handy because, not everyone can take spicy food and with this indicator, a group of friends both spicy or non-spicy tolerant can enjoy having meals here.

Thai prawn fried rice with a piece of chicken wing. You couldn’t actually see the prawns from here but there was actually 4 pieces of prawns. This is non-spicy. I am not sure how it tasted but I suppose it’s good enough to give it a pass. But according to Jm, being a fried rice lover, she loved it because it’s not dry. However, she thought the prawns could be fresher.

Mixed vegetables Thai green curry. This is a must have and this is why I am always looking forward to come here. It also has chicken cubes, calamari and prawns in it. This green curry is very rich in flavour. How do they make green curry? I think, based on my minimal cooking experience, to get that green yellowish paste, you need lots of green chilies and tumeric powder.

The Thai green curry at Basil is served with white rice or those transparent glass noodles. Do you know that the restaurant actually charges RM2.50 for a plate of plain white rice? Well, what could you do? This restaurant is located at the complex where expatriates frequent.

Thai style spicy fried kuey teow. This is pretty good and simple. I love the way they serve it with a little chili powder by the side. To mix that kuey teow with chili powder is so yum yum! It’s also served with a big thin piece of fried egg and prawns. Amreez ordered this and she finished the whole thing! Usually she would leave some behind for …

And if you are at a Thai restaurant, you cannot be there and not have Tom Yam. I ordered the Tom Yam noodles. It has the usual seafood mix. What’s unique of this Tom Yam is that I think either milk or santan is added to it; so it tastes really rich. Oh yeah, it’s definitely quite spicy. Love it!

Overall I give this place an 8/10 simply because I love spicy, sour cuisine. And the service is quite good.

If you wish to make reservations for office functions or family meals, that’s the contact number.

Belanga @ The Gardens, Mid Valley City

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Last Friday we went to this Malay cuisine restaurant, Belanga, located at the Gardens. In case you are not sure where the Gardens is, it’s actually an adjoining part to the Mid Valley Mega Mall.

In order to get to the restaurant more easily, you should park your car at The Gardens, instead of parking at Mid Valley. Follow the signs to the Gardens, then find a parking either at the “U Zone” (RM1 per entry) or the “Premier Zone” (RM5 per entry).

If you are parked at the “U Zone”, take the lift down to Ground Floor and then take another escalator down to the Basement area where all the different cuisine are sold. If you are parked else where, I’m sorry, I don’t know how to guide you.

On this particular day which we were there, the customer service provided to us was fairly poor. According to one of the waitress, they were having a function at that point in time. I think the function was something to do with media review, because we saw a sign board that said so.

We were not given as much as attention a customer should have been given. When the waitress was taking our order, I told her that I also wanted to take away something and then her tone to me was rather impatient and told me that, I should wait until she has gotten all the “current orders” first. And sort of brushed me off!

Some of our orders were mixed up and some came only until we have finished almost everything.

From a human being point of view, I understand that they were extremely busy that particular day with some VIPs. OK fine, you want to give a good impression to the media reviewers, but does that mean you could ignore regular customers like us? Nonetheless, let’s just say they need to buckle up their customer services and stop showing faces to the customers!

But luckily their food is tasty enough to avoid a boycott of my frequent visit to their restaurant.

The one above is Nasi Lemak Ayam Berempah. Nasi Lemak is rice cooked with coconut milk (santan). The main essence of this dish is of course the rice. For this one here, the rice is very well cooked; very fragrant, tasty, you can taste the coconut milk but not too much of it.

Ayam Berempah means chicken cooked in spices. Not spicy as in chili hot but (I think) with assorted spices, peppers, and what not. The chicken is nicely fried. But I think if they fried it to be more crispy (garing) at the bones area would definitely be a plus point.

The red paste is called Sambal Tumis – chili paste with onions and anchovies. Something not be missed with Nasi Lemak. Their chili paste is good. But I think if they were to add some chili padi in it to make it spicier would be much more exciting! Well to be fair, they need to cater to general public and not just people who loves super spicy food like yours truly.

For this, I give it a 7.6/10.

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Nasi Kerabu Ayam (I think)

Nasi Kerabu literally means rice salad. I think it originated from the East of Malaysia – Kelantan area. It comes with its own sambal tumis, a special coconut milk based gravy with local herbs and spices, with a hint of chilies. But according to Lina who ate the dish above, the restaurant might have forgotten to serve with the gravy. What was poured on top of the rice was some curry.

The rice is yellow color, which I suppose they must have used tumeric in its preparations. I have tasted this in my previous visit. The chicken is grilled and served with white cream sauce. It’s pretty good actually.

I give it a 7/10.

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Cucur Udang

Almiraz ordered that for everyone to share. Cucur udang is a type of fried prawn based pan cake of sort. It’s chili sauce is different from that I had in Penang. The one in Penang was peanut chili paste – much thicker. And the cucur udang itself is thinner and crisp all round. The one in Penang is crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. I will give this 6/10. To see the one in Penang, click here. *Apologise for the blurish picture*

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Nusantara Ice Blended

I do not know why they call this Nusantara Ice Blended. I googled the word “Nusantara” hoping to find if it’s a kind of fruit, but no. Babes, “Nusantara” is not a fruit. Nusantara is an Indonesian word for the Indonesian archipelago.

Anyways, I haven’t tried this drink yet. I have learnt my lesson of drinking full creamy milk drink during meals. It makes me sick. I think I am partially lactose intolerant. But according to Joshua (Abang Lai), it’s a type of coffee mixed drink with whipped cream and some funky weird tasting berries on top.

According to its menu, this drink is a “perfect complement in delivering an intense & stimulating coffee experience” woh …

We went there in a group of 5 but 4 of us had the same dish of Nasi Lemak. Hence unable to introduce more dishes in this entry. Maybe next time.

The food here, despite somewhat local, is not as cheap as “local food” should be. For 5 of us, it cost around RM130. Probably due to where it is running its business with high rent and high maintenance.

Despite my complaint of poor customer service, this place is still a local favourite. And if you wish to get a good seat, be there by 12 during weekdays. To be fair, our encounter was perhaps a one-off incident.

Full House Lifestyle Store & Cafe

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Full house Lifestyle Store & Cafe. Have you been there yet?

I bet many have already. It is a new type of concept store which combines boutique, accessories, food all into one store. The place makes you feel very girlish and cute and you tend give a cute-little-girlish-wow when you enter the shop-cum-cafe. Let’s take a look of the interior of the cafe first.

Basically, the decor of the cafe looks very much English fused with Korean/ Japanese cartoons.

At the outside area of Full House is where they sell cakes and puffs.

This “outside area” setup gives the customers the feel of those western cafe along so-called walkway.

Next, let’s take a look at its boutique and accessories store.

I think these things are imported either from Korea, Japan or Taiwan & it’s freaking expensive!

I came here with my eating partner, Amreez.

Now, My Fatty Journey would not meet its destiny without introducing the food.

Firstly, let’s take a look at its menu.

What I ordered was this:

The Smoothies Fruities Fish – RM22.90

The sauce tastes berry-like fragrant sweet. The berry is grilled and also garnished with some mushrooms.

Rosella Spaghetti – RM14.90

A type of pasta with 4 pieces of prawns.

Honey Dew Milk Shake with Jelly Beans

* * * * * * * * *

Overall, I think the selling point of this place is its decor and style.

Having had all sorts of cuisine and local delights, the food here is just mediocre, maybe a 4.5/10.

Sari Ratu at Subang Parade

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

My next eating place brings me to Sari Ratu at Subang Parade. It serves Indonesian Cuisine known as Nasi Padang. From my point of view, it’s a type of mixed vegetable, fish, meat, poultry with rice. The dishes are cooked the Indonesian way. It’s hard for me to explain the explain the difference between the Malaysian style cooking from the Indonesian style, because I don’t cook.

We had the following dishes:

#1: Curry Sting Ray

The sting ray is fresh and chewy. The curry is quite spicy and full of other spices.

#2: Deep fried fish

The fish is split half & half and then deep fried. Super crispy!

#3: Indonesian style salad

It a mix of boiled egg, tempeh, chips, bean curd, long beans, and the sauce is a kind of peanut sauce.

#4: Fried prawns with sweet chili sauce

Not bad. The prawns are quite fresh. The green paste behind is the green chili paste which is super spicy!

#5: Potato meat cutlet – deep fried

This is a common dish of the Malay cuisine. I love this and the potato is very well smashes up. Yum!

#6: Potato stir fried with chili paste and anchovies

This is Amreez’s favourite. Quite spicy know! But anything spicy to me is yummy!

I went with Amreez, Almiraz and the prince of Almiraz.

#7: Avocado ice blended desert

The prince was having this Avocado ice desert which was also served with coconut and mango. Looks yum.

Mother and child and all the food we ordered.

And the prince is very adorable.

This meal totaled up to RM90 ++ for 3 persons.

Verdict: 7.5/10

Public Speaking

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 02:47:00 +0000

Recently, almost everything that we do is all about reaching out to the public in making sure that they are aware of what’s going on and what not.

Everyone here has a fair share to create that level of awareness. As a junior staff, my audience for our so-called out reach program is at the students level. University students to be exact; not kindergarten babies.

Despite the fact that they are just students, it doesn’t and wouldn’t discount my fear of public speaking. I have stage fright. Well giving a talk to these students in our office boardroom does not really constitute a stage, but you know what I mean.

In one of the public speaking training course I attended, I was told by the trainer that almost everyone has a fear of public speaking; second to the fear of death. Personally, touch wood, I think I fear of speaking out loud in public much much more.

Last week was my second time giving a talk to students about our company and what we do. These students were only Year One students in their tertiary curriculum. So I prepared my slides, rehearsed a couple of times at home and come the day of the talk.

These kids – Yeah, I call them kids because I’m like almost a decade more senior then them – are almost all well fed, looking healthy and uber cute!

After my boss had made the opening introduction, it was my turn to speak. This time, it was my first time having to speak through the microphone. I don’t know about you, but I find that having to listen to your own voice through the speakers could be quite annoying and to a certain extent, I felt embarrassed. I am not sure why but that’s how I felt.

So I started my presentation with a trembling voice for almost like forever! How could I keep track of the time?

Tremble tremble tremble.

My face was burning hot and I think my butt was sweating like a mad cow. Was that the adrenaline working its own way or was that the phobia taking over my body?

I kept on asking myself: slow down, keep calm. You know more than they do.

My voice started to calm down when, instead of just me doing the talking and presenting, I asked them questions and more interaction with the crowd. Phew~

Later on, boss came in to participate in the Q&A session.

After that it was the “a token of appreciation” ceremony. They usually give us a souvenir as a token of thanks for our “national service”.

Finally it was the photo taking session. You know what I’ve really learnt during these type of public speaking event? I’ve learnt that students are having much more cooler and advance phones that I do!

Then the club head came to introduce himself to me. He was the most outspoken one.

“Hi! I haven’t introduce myself, I’m XXX, I’m the DIRECTOR!”

“Oh Hi! Nice to meet you! Thanks for coming here, I’m Ah Jo, just a staff, not a director.”

Some how, this young man really takes pride in his position as the DIRECTOR!! of his club. Hehe, cute!

Then when it was time for them to leave, a girl came to me and said, “You gave a very good presentation, thank you.” Awww, I heart these kids.

That’s the kids and yours truly

Well, although I was speaking in a trembling voice during half of my presentation, it was a pleasure and fun experience to be mingling with these young minds. They tend to have a brighter aura as compared to …

With all the stupid adrenaline rush which went on, I felt sick the next day and couldn’t go to work. Silly me!

Chinese New Year: Last Day of Reunion

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Last Sunday was Chap Goh Meh, i.e. the 15th night of Chinese New Year, which also means the last night of this festive season. The picture above shows the tiny lanterns outside of our balcony. Cute eh?

For our dinner, dad prepared Nasi Briyani with mutton soup. Briyani is a set of rice-based foods made with spices, meat and vegetables.

Dad used the Basmati rice to prepare the Nasi Briyani. Inside this rice, dad included raisins, star anis, cinnamon stick, chestnut and many other spices which I could not recognise. For the coloring, dad added the turmeric powder for the yellow color and the reds were just edible coloring.

The taste of this rice was just perfect. Hard to describe in words, but what I would say is that you could just eat the rice on its own without any other side dishes. It tastes that good. Yummy!

This mutton soup is another successful dish prepared by dad. I am really not sure what or how dad made it, because I think I was busy with work in my room while everything in the kitchen was going on. Again this taste really light at the same time full of fragrant.

There the whole setting. I know it’s a little un-traditional to be having non-Chinese food on the last day of Chinese New Year. However, I think it’s quite refreshing to have something different.

At the same time, celebrations wouldn’t be complete without a little sparkle of …

And now, the cam whoring session …

So did you have a great time during this festive season?

Chinese New Year Dinner @ Oversea Restaurant

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Oversea Restaurant is a chain under the Restaurant Oversea Corporation Sdn Bhd. Their chain of restaurants are mostly located around the Klang Valley area with one in Ipoh. The one we went to is located at Jaya One.

As it was almost the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations, most of the Chinese restaurants were fully booked. We were lucky to be able to reserve a table for 10 pax. We were there pretty early around 7 in the evening. And by 8 plus, the whole restaurant was full!

Chinese restaurants usually have a few set menus up during all these extremely peak periods. I think this is to ease the chefs, kitchen helpers and everyone else in the restaurant to manage the huge crowd. That being said, humans being humans, when you get too busy or tired, the quality sort of deteriorates.

We ordered one of the set menus with the following dishes:

#1: Yee Sang with raw salmon

That would be my 3rd Lou Sang “ceremony” this year. The ingredients inside this yee sang were rather rough in sizes and shapes. It could do with more of the sweet and sour sauce. I think I prefer the one bought from PJ Hilton. So if I have “lou sang” for 3 times, and asked for more bonus for 3 times, will I get 3 times more bonus than I should? Like they say, 3 times a charm.

#2: Shark fin soup

Another common yet expensive dish. For this one, I will rate it 6.8/10. Quite ok better than average.

#3 Steam cod fish with vegetable & sea weed

Cod fish is probably my favourite type of fish. This fish has a natural layer of fats that when you put it in your mouth, you can taste just how rich the fats is. Total yum! I rate this 9/10. Very well prepared dish.

#4 Vegetable with Fu Zhok

This is good. The vegetables were quite succulent and “sweet”. Fu Zhok, I think, can be explained as being made from bean curd skin. The dish behind this is the roasted suckling pork skin. I did not put up the picture because I think it’s quite ugly and rude. It was served with jelly fish. I loved the jelly fish though.

#5 Butter stir fried prawns

I think that was how these prawns were prepared. Honestly, I am not too sure because by the time this dish was served, I was quite full and tipsy from the beer. Just ordinary at about 5/10. Even though the size of the prawns were huge, something’s missing in its taste.

#6 Lap Mei Fan

Steamed Chinese Sausages with rice. I quite like this dish. The rice is sticky, soft and well fragrant. However, the for sausages and “waxed” meat, I prefer the one served at the Ming room (as I’ve mentioned in my last entry). I would give it a 6.5/10.

#7 Fried nian gao with sweet potato and yam

This is quite a disappointment because of the way it was served – messy, loose and all over the place. But the taste was quite unique because not only that it was fried with sweet potato but also yam. I love the one beautifully prepared in Ming Room.

#8 Chrysanthemum sweet tea with sea coconut

This is some sort of sweet desert soup with Chrysanthemum tea served with sea coconut. I love sweet things and I rate this 6/10.

We also ordered two bottles of red wines and 5 cans of beer. So this meal totaled up to RM1,200 for 10 pax. According to dad, it’s not considered expensive. Gosh, I don’t know.

Chinese New Year Lunch @ The Ming Room

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The Chinese New Year festive lasted till last Sunday after 15 days of celebrations. While the festive season was coming to an end, people would try to have as much gatherings (which of course comes with eating and non-stop eating) as they could possibly fit into to their busy schedule.

For us, we “stopped-by” the Ming Room again!

This is the third time I am blogging about The Ming Room at Bangsar Shopping Centre. The other two times were blogged about here and here. I think I will have a few more blog entries (until I have tried everything in its menu) about this great restaurant where its dishes is endless and very creative!

This time, we insisted on trying Chinese New Year dishes. Restaurants only prepare these dishes once during the festive month.

For a start, every table is served some light appetizer which intended to keep your stomach from being too hungry but still not full enough to affect your appetite for the main meal.

#1 Appetizer: Peanut with fried tiny bean curds.

Tastes sweet, a little salty and chewy for the bean curds plus crispy for the peanuts.

#2 Dim sum: Prawn dumplings with fish eggs

The dim sum’s at the Ming Room is always a delight. The prawns are super fresh & “bouncy”. And always tastes really light. For this one above, I think the unique about it was the mix of prawn & fish in the dumpling. We ordered some other dim sums that day but I have mentioned about it my previous entries.

#3: Vegetable in broth

The essence of Chinese cooking is its broth or stock. Once I was told that this broth or stock is prepared over a long period of time; and restaurants almost never throw it away. What they do is that, every single day, the broth is re-boiled over and over again. Ingredients like chicken bones are added into the broth to make it tasty. So for this dish, it’s called Broth soup vegetable. I am not sure what’s the English name for the vegetable; it’s called Bayam in Malay. The soup with the mixture of the taste from the vegetable + some Chinese mushrooms, makes it a rich tasting dish.

At home, we don’t have such broth. What mom does is use this instant Chicken stock cubes from Maggie to prepare all sorts of dishes and soups.

#4: Fried bean curd layered with vegetable; garnished with mushrooms

Oh my god, this is a must have must try! Unfortunately, I have forgotten the name of the dish. I think, if I am not mistaken, this is a Chef specialty, meaning to say, the chef makes the bean curd from scratch. What’s unique is that a layer of vegetable (again don’t know what type of vegetable, I am very sorry 2x) is pasted onto the bean curd and then the whole masterpiece is deep fried. Very yummilicious taste!

#5: Roasted duck with Ngah Gu

I am not a duck meat lover but this is a green light for me. Firstly, Ngah Gu is a kind of edible tuber, or also known Arrow Root. This Ngah Gu is a common ingredient mostly only available during Chinese New Year. It tastes somewhat like potatoes but crunchier, sweeter and has lesser starch. The roasted duck from Ming Room does not have that much of the “duck-meat” taste which often almost made me want to puke. So this one suits me. And the Ngah Gu is cooked separately (I think) from the roasted duck. I think the Ngah Gu is steamed first & then served together with the duck.

#7: Steamed Chinese Sausages with Ngah Gu

Another common Chinese New Year dish which only served from the 2nd day of the festive season onwards. For some culture, a vegetarian diet is practiced on the 1st day of Chinese New Year. This dish is also usually served together with “waxed” duck meat. The pinkish color is the normal Chinese sausages, the darker ones are waxed organs (which has a funky taste like the pate – goose liver paste), and the end of the plate is waxed pork. The waxed organs sausage is an acquired taste for me because sometimes, I just couldn’t accept the taste. This dish is served with a specially prepared rice with specialty sauce …

For some restaurants, the rice for each serving to a table is cooked, perhaps, in one single pot (maybe a clay pot). And when the rice is served, the bottom part of the burnt rice is also served. Now, some may think that this is rude or the chef has no idea what he’s doing. But before you conclude that, I need to tell you that this burnt part of the rice is probably the best part of the dish. You know, like barbeque thingy and the crispy part? The burnt rice taste exactly like that!

#8: Desserts (1) – sticky rice flour with mango pudding

I think I have mentioned in previous entry that this is another Chinese New Year specialty. The sticky rice is wrapped around the mango pudding and it’s served cold. Tastes light, not too sweet.

#9: Dessert (2) – Coconut Jelly

I love the chef who is in charge with preparing desserts. This Coconut Jelly is something which I have never tried before. From the looks of it, the coconut flesh is already dug out of the husk and cut into strips. The coconut juice is mixed with those jelly-making-liquid to make the liquid and juice becoming solid. Also, the stripped coconut flesh is added into the mix and place it back into the husk to refrigerate.

Yum! Yum! Yum!

For these dishes above, it costs RM180 for 6 pax. And I think that’s quite reasonable for such tasty food.

Verdict: 8.5/10.

Chinese New Year : Family

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:30:00 +0000

Of course the most important “agenda” during this festive season is family.

It happens so that there are more women than men in our family. And usually there’s really nothing much to do but chit chatting and catching up on the times when we were not gathered together.

Sis-in-law and cousin sis were looking at those beautifully drew fake nails. Girlish girlish stuff.

Since our cousin sister and aunt are so feminine, we (sis and I) requested them to help us curl our hair, one day before Chinese New Year.

Sis having her hair worked on.

Then it was my turn.

We were inspired by our Aunt.

If you have watched “Kung Fu Hustle” (by Stephen Chow), you would notice that the “land lady” wears her hair that way, almost all the time.

And the result …

I think sis looked really cute with curly hair. But her was straight the next morning.

Having meals together with your relatives was another important agenda.

Then we had our so-called formal family portrait session …

A lot of trial and errors going on …

Especially those at the back row. Those VIPs in front seemed to be ever ready.

The back row is still not ready and chit chatting. And now the women of the front row seemed to be interested in the conversation as well.

And finally, after 1,327,986 times of trial and error, we’ve finally got a beautiful picture.

OK too much seriousness, why not have some fun?

A little “Taiwanese V fun” and a little romance at the other end. But the VIPS still very serious & proper.

Now time for the young ones to take some shots.

I wonder what made sis laughed that way?

I love this picture but cousin sis (in black) looks too small. So let’s switch places.

Yeah that’s much better!

Chinese New Year Sight Seeing

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:00:00 +0000

There are a lot of places which you could go in Penang. I am a beach lover, so of course, I had to go to the beach to chilax. (“Chill” + “Relax”)

So usually we will take the “Penang Bridge” route while approaching the island.

Approaching the bridge

The second pillars of the bridge.

The bridge is behind us now and we are heading towards the island.

Somewhere around New World Park, there is this whole rows of bamboo trees. It’s beautiful and does not even feel like we were in Penang.

Before we check-in to our own hotel, we drove along Batu Feringghi and stopped by the beach of Rasa Sayang Hotel.

Dad and mom enjoying the sea breeze.

Someone’s ugly toes relaxing by the beach.

The real hotel guests relaxing by the garden. Sun tanning, reading books, napping. We are just the “hotel hoppers”. Illegally enjoying the cool breeze and soothing sun.

Next we hopped to the Hard Rock Hotel. It’s a new hotel in Batu Feringghi.

The interior of the hotel is pretty cool with lot’s posters of the Beatles.

There are also clothes and guitars which claimed to have worn by super stars.

What really fascinates me is the rooms just be the pool. See the blue benches? Those benches are actually placed at the balcony of the room. And if you just open the door of your room to the balcony, you could just jump right into the pool. Awesome! What’s even more awesome, these rooms, a.k.a. Lagoon Suite costs RM1,200 a night! The normal rooms are about RM700 per night.

As for ourselves, we stayed at a much cheaper hotel, which costs us RM200 per night. It’s the Tanjung Bungah Hotel. It’s local a few buildings next to the Penang Swimming School, I think.

The back view of the hotel. The main entrance is facing the main road.

Dad was busy digging clams for dinner.

As for me, doing my usual thing of photo shooting.

Playing with shadows …

Another beautiful view is the sight from my aunt’s apartment which looks across Gurney Drive and out to the ocean.

When we were heading back home, we took the ferry.

Nothing much to see from the very but vast area of the ocean …

It would be pretty awesome if I own of those thing, eh?

Chinese New Year Temple Visit

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 01:00:00 +0000

It is also part of our family’s customary Chinese New Year routine to visit the temple.

In the Chinese culture (I say culture and not the religious point of view. Well at least, it’s my personal opinion), it’s customary to pay respects to family members who have left this world during the festive seasons. That’s what most of the families in Penang do on the first day of Chinese New Year.

This year we just dropped in one of the temples to get some blessings from the monks.

The monk will tie the “blessed” string on your wrist. This string represents some form of protection for the bearer.

The temple which we visited is where the famous monk Luang Phor Thuad’s statue is placed. According to some stories I heard, this statue was the mummified body of Luang Phor Thuad. We do not know how true it is, but respect must be shown for any religious stories. LP Thuad was a famous monk in Thailand.

Another customary act in Penang is also the burning of super thick joss sticks on the first day of Chinese New Year. These are medium-sized ones, about 2 feet high. There are even larger ones, taller than an average Chinese man and almost as thick as a car’s steering wheel.

And that’s the visiting temple episode …

Chinese New Year Foodies

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:32:00 +0000

What is Chinese New Year without food?

And also what is a Penang Trip without indulging in its glorious local food?

For a start, as we arrived in Penang, we headed to New World Park Hawker Centre, located there, as what the map showed.

Firstly we had Chee Cheong Fun.

I gotta be honest. The Chee Cheong Fun at New World Park is a no no. The “white noodle” itself is too chewy and a little too hard. It shouldn’t be that way, it should be “looser” and softer. And the dark sauce, a.k.a. Har Kou sauce (made of prawn paste) is too thick and too salty, so it’s a little to the gross end. Sorry to the Uncle who is selling this, but there’re definitely a lot of rooms for improvement.

Next dish, Penang Char Kuey Teow. Well they actually just called it “Char Kuey Teow” without the “Penang”. Like you don’t go China and order “Chinese Food”.

The prawns were really fresh. I didn’t try the noodles though, I was avoiding as much as possible of gaining any holiday pounds.

For deserts, you have to have “Ang Dao Sheng”, a.k.a. Ice-Kacang. But only order this after you’ve finished your main course.

Fruit rojak with prawn paste sauce.

Banana Apam Balik with crushed peanuts. Apam Balik is a kind of pan-grilled pancakes – Malaysian style.

Now at New World Park, what you really need to try is Cucur Udang. It’s a kind of fried-prawn-pastry with bean curd. It’s served with sweet peanuts chili sauce.

That’s the Cucur Udang. What’s unique about it is that, even the external layer is fried to golden grown, the internal layer flour is still moist. So imagine this texture in your mouth, crispy and moist half cooked flour.

That’s Mr. Cucur Udang with dad by his stall. According to Dad, this business was started back in the 1960’s and Dad has been having it since then. Back then, it was Mr. Cucur Udang’s uncle who ran the business.

The stall.

At one of the dinners, we went to this hawker centre, right opposite of Cititel Hotel at Penang Road. It’s so ironic that in a state known as Penang, you actually have road called Penang road.

We had Thai food. But because it was a freakin hot night, and we were having spicy hot Thai food, I wasn’t really in the mood to take much pictures.

Thai steamed fish. The sauce is really sour and spicy with lots of Chili Padi.

Chicken Tom Yam! This is really good. According to Dad, it tastes as genuine as those in Thailand.

The next morning, we went to Pulau Tikus. Other stuff which we had were pretty normal but this is something you need to try, Ipoh Chicken Hor Fun with Tau Geh (Ipoh is a town before Penang, Hor Fun is a type of white noodles and Tau Geh are bean sprouts)

The Chicken meat is in strips and garnished with stripped ginger and parsley. It’s light and yummy.

For our reunion meal, Aunt cooked the following for the whole family.

#1: Boiled chicken. This dish is something like a “must-have” in every festive season in every family and I do not know why. I do not know why they never cook lamb or fish.

#2: Curry prawn. Something of Aunt’s specialty. I love this.

#3: Bangkuang with stripped carrots and stripped squids. Bangkuang is a type of root vegetables.

#4: Mixed vegetables. Something VERY COMMON in Penang families.

#5: Lo Bak, i.e. meat rolls. Another Penang specialties. The skin tastes sweet and the meat is really chewy. Yum.

#6: Stir fried clams by dad. I think he fried it with chili padi and spring onions.

And dad caught those clams by the beach at the hotel we were staying.

So that’s the food part, more to come …

Chinese New Year Preparations

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:04:00 +0000

Chinese New Year is all about red, gold, prosperity and red, oh I’ve mentioned that haven’t I?

For our home, dad did a little nailing and pasting of Chinese New Year decor. Not too much, just enough to light up the festive mood.

Dad dyeing his hair the day before we left for our festive celebrations.

The new year lantern illuminated under the yellow light.

“Wu Fu Ling Men” – I think it means to welcome 5 prosperity into your home. What are the 5? I don’t know.

There. Where the lanterns are hanging.

Dad also bought these red “balls” to red-up the garden.

That’s “Chun”, which means spring. I think. I hope I am not wrong. Hmm the thing about my home’s decor is that there’s no theme at all. You could see Chinese New Year decor at one end and Indian paintings at the other. Oh we also have Egyptians art and contemporary paintings from Ikea. T__T

Then we went to Penang to visit our Aunt. Aunt is very good with origami and girlish stuff.

This year she decorated her home with ang-pow-paper-folded fishes.

Not just fish. Those were actually Karp.

Folded butterflies forming the word “Chun”.

Paper lantern made from tiny pieces of ang pows.

Look at the wall at Aunt’s home. Pretty eh?

Eau de toilette

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 22:00:00 +0000

Just when I was about to replenish my perfume supply, uncle Jason gave me DKNY’s “Be Delicious”.

Perfume is as necessary to me as make up is to other women.

This DKNY’s Be Delicious is light and young & apple-ish Perfumes which smell young is very important. You could sometimes accidentally acquire some perfumes which smell really “granny-ish”.

So I really love this new fragrance. It’s yummy!

Oh yeah, before I forget, Happy Valentine’s Day people! And Happy Chinese New Year!

Lou Sang here & there

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 01:30:00 +0000

(Humming to the tunes of “Old McDonald had a farm”)

Ah Jo Ah Jo went lou sang
Eee Yaa Eee Yaa Ooo
And when she lou’s she shouts out loud
Eee Yaa Eee Yaa Ooo
”More Bonus!” “More increment!” “Less-er Work!”
"More rest, more fun, every day!”
Ah Jo Ah Jo went lou sang
Eee Yaa Eee Yaa Ooo

Yes, Chinese New Year is just right at the corner. To be exact, tomorrow’s the eve and that’s when family members all gather to have reunion dinner.

And for us at work, we had our fair share of fun and glorious food as well!

First stop: The Ming Room, at Bangsar Shopping Centre.

What’s shown above is the menu for “Yee Sang”. I am not sure what’s the exact meaning of “Lou Yee Sang” but I am pretty sure that everything that has got to do with Chinese New Year has to be about money and … money.

We ordered the fresh salmon yee sang.

There. With salmon laid on top, together with the other ingredients like pickles, and crackers and other fresh vegetables. The yee sang was topped with honey sweet and sour sauce.

The restaurant actually prepared us with another set of Longer chopsticks for lou sang.

That is why we needed longer chopsticks. OK! Getting ready to “Lou”!

“Lou ah!” When you “lou”, i.e. tossing the food as high up as you could, you should also shout out stuff like: More money ah! More increment ah! More bonus ah! Less work ah!

Geez, I have never seen anyone look so bored while doing this!

The restaurant manager, Mr. L was a funny guy. He rejected my shots twice & finally agreed to one good one.

Now, let’s check out the glorious food we had. What is “My Fatty Journey” without the mention of food?

Appetizer – cooked ground nuts. Tastes sweet and a little salty. The texture is soft.

“Char siew sou” – Minced meat pastry. The meat tastes sweet and the crust is light.

“Chee Cheong Fun” – Steamed thin layered flour with meat inside it.

Fried prawn dumpling with mango.

Steamed cod fish with bean curd skin and black salted beans.

“Siu Mai” – steamed minced meat dumpling.

Steamed prawn dumpling.

“Char Kuey” – Stir fried flour with eggs, bean sprouts and a little chili paste.

Pork chop with black pepper and honey sauce.

Mixed vegetables with fried Macedonia nuts.

And for deserts, we had glutinous rice cakes with mango and pudding. A Chinese New Year specialty.

Fried “nian gao” – sticky rice flour (I am really not sure how they make “nian gao”) topped with a piece of sweet potato.

All these food together with the fresh salmon yee sang cost us (7 pax) RM220 (inclusive of tax). I think it’s quite reasonable for a restaurant like the Ming Room.

And if that’s not enough we also had our office Lou Sang the very next day.

We bought it from PJ Hilton’s Chinese restaurant. Well um no, we didn’t really buy it. Teacher treated us.

We ordered the jelly fish yee sang and this is for at least 10 pax. I think it was about RM75.00.

Someone cannot wait to lou…

“Get Ready people!”

Let’s analyse this picture:

[1] Ah Lai struggled to get his face into the picture (at the bottom of the picture)

[2] Almiraz needed to make sure that her face was all in.

[3] Those very important “Cikgu” and “Ketua Darjah”’s faces were not shown.

Sigh these people. >_<

Nonetheless, yay! Everyone’s here!

Suddenly I saw the Red-riding hood in our office! My goodness! Oi, Ms. Hood, where is the evil wolve?

Instant camera fun!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 03:37:00 +0000

So Almiraz bought a mini instant camera just for fun!

Trust me when I say fun, it’s really fun!

I don’t even remember when was the last time we had our pictures developed.

That’s the camera.

The camera cost RM300 + and 10 pieces of instant films cost RM25. Expensive!

Nonetheless it’s fun!

Here are some of the pictures we took. It’s blur after you developed it instantly and the re-scan as softcopies.

A fridge full of mandarin oranges!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:35:00 +0000

Our printer, Mr.. Y, sent us 4 boxes of mandarin oranges sempena the coming Chinese New Year celebration!

that’s Amreez’s hand.

After seeing this, we almost wanted to ask Mr.. Y, why only 4 boxes? Haha!

Yes, we are a bunch of never-satisfied-greedy-creatures!

So Chinese New Year is just round the corner, I’m not really feeling it yet.

Recently I have been busy with:

[1] Work

[2] Working out

[3] Story books – I’m reading Twilight Breaking Dawn for a second time!

[4] Watch downloaded TV shows and movies – I actually finished Season 1 of Glee in a week’s time!

[5] Not ironing clothes

So anyways, keep smiling! keep moving! keep dancing in your beautiful little world yeah!

Here’s dad wishing you guys a Happy Chinese New Year

Barbeque? When was the last time?

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:00:00 +0000

Gosh, I really could not remember when was the last time I attended a barbeque party! It must have been more than a decade ago! Some time during high school I think.

Last weekend, Debb invited me to join her friends for a barbeque party. No special occasion, saja-saja.

So the girls did all the shopping. And we headed to Wai Kong’s house to start the preparation. Well not actually “we”, I was just tagging along and taking pictures. The girls did most of the work.

Debb pilling off the “grass head” off the baby tomatoes.

The girls buttering the loaf to make garlic breads.

In the midst of it, Wai Kong was curious about the size of the water melon …

Then we found out that the water melon is actually almost the same size as Wern Ching’s head and it cost RM10. I mean the water melon cost RM10; not Wern Ching’s head.

While the girls were in the kitchen slicing and dicing, the boys were setting up the barbeque pit.

The male bonding session …

Which began since 1960’s … hahaha … I really love this 1960’s effect of the picture.

Then I found out that some one (don’t know which male) was trying to add some tangerine flavor to the fire.

While everyone was busy with something, Ruff remained cool and indifferent.

And what did the girls prepared for the barbecue?

Garlic Breads

Very fresh salads!

Wern Ching’s onions and Valerie’s capsicums

Edible fungus!

Chicken wings, lamb chops, beef steaks, sausages and someone’s fingers.

And a whole chunk of other stuff!

Everyone took turns to cook something …

Hmmm, almost everyone. You didn’t see any of my face near the barbeque pit right? To be honest, I couldn’t really stand the heat and was already sweating mad! Anyways, it’s fun watching people cook. Haha! I know I am a little spoilt.

Then the “biting” competition begun …

Later on, when everyone was done with the barbequing and eating, it was Pictionary time.

How Pictionary works is that, you will be given a card, then you have to draw out what the card requires you to, and your team mates suppose to guess what you drew to earn points.

It was pretty good fun!

Lunch at Belanga

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 06:08:00 +0000

It’s Friday.

And we have been working for the past 4 days.

And it’s almost impossible to get through today itself coz 5-day work week really feels like a dread.

So we need to have some Brain Stimulator; well at least for me, I know I need that.

I suggested Mid Valley.

The girls suggested Belanga at The Gardens (which is next to Mid Valley).

And so three (together with Amreez and Almiraz) of us had this:

Nasi Kerabu Ayam Percik. It’s Kelantanese food.

The rice comes with heaps of vegetables such as bean sprouts, finely cut cabbage and lettuce and some kind of parsley leaves, as well as budu, kerisik, and sambal. Usually it will also come with fish crackers but I not sure why this did not.

The chicken is grilled and garnished with a special sauce. I think there’s milk in the sauce and perhaps a little of mushroom taste? But it’s totally YUMMM~~

It’s priced at about RM12.00 for this dish.

If you have a thrill for spiciness, you could ask for an extra helping of sambal belacan. We did but it wasn’t that spicy either. Nonetheless, the combination of the rice, with the fresh vegetables, and the succulent grilled chicken is awesome.

Gosh! I love Malaysian food!

Note: Be there earlier like before 12.30 pm during weekdays, otherwise you would have to queue and wait for your turn.

Later on, we had Big Apple Donuts during tea break!

Don’t you just love Fridays?

** Picture taken using my Sony Ericsson W890i of only 3.2 MP but “enhanced” using Picnik – the online picture editor.

I thought I could be Tar-Jo

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 22:00:00 +0000

Firstly, let me explain how the name “Tar-Jo” came about. It is a combination of “Tarzan” and “Ah Jo”, hence, you’ll get Tar-Jo.

So last week my friend Debbie asked me if I would like to join her and her friends for a Skytrex activity Saturday morning. She gave me the website and I saw this.

and immediately I said: Woah looks so fun, count me in!! without thinking. That was also why I bought “Renesmee”.

It was a jungle expedition, I thought as I was preparing for the activity. I needed to get all the necessary ready, because, again, it’s a jungle activity.

For such an outing, it’s always very important to charge your batteries: your mobile especially (like what if you got lost in the middle of the jungle right?) and then your camera battery (you wouldn’t want to have a low-or-no-batt situation when your friend is making really funny motions).

I was using this Canon Ixus 870 IS – borrowed from office. This is crucial because when your life is literally hanging on a few steels and bars and lanyard, you really don’t want to have anything else hang over you. Besides, what if my Nikon D300 fell off me and got lost in the jungle? There would go my RM-XXXX. Yeah of course you’d say that I may lose this tiny digital camera as well. True, but if I do lose this, it’s cheaper to replace it.

Mosquito repellent. I packed that too. It’s jungle, of course you would need it. You would really want to try to reduce the risk of getting dengue fever. Do bear in mind that, all these thoughts and preparation took place before I had any idea what or how that Skytrex place would be.

Food and water! Totally essential because what if you got lost in the jungle for a couple of days? They say you really could not do without water and food for more than 3 days or you will die. I think I will die if I skipped even just one meal!

Road map to the jungle place! IF you are really not sure how to get to that place, and you don’t have a GPS but only your woman’s six sense or driving instinct, you would definitely need a map. Also, it’s really embarrassing if you got lost even before you had a chance to get lost in the real jungle.

Next, you need to gear yourself up for the outing. I was contemplating between shorts or long sweat pants. And in the end, I went with a cotton comfy Adidas sweat pants and my new Renesmee.

And then I am ready to go! I reached there on time as what was instructed. But my outing mates weren’t there yet. So I took a few shots of the area.

After when everyone has arrived and gathered, we hopped onto a shuttle bus service to get to the main jungle climbing area, which Debbie thought was a scary ride. TT___TT

And then we reached our main destination …

Thank God it was a DRY and Sunny morning. It has been raining for almost every single day of the week.

The nature is quite something right? Although I am totally scared when it comes to grass, trees and insect; being in this jungle was quite refreshing. (That’s what I felt before any of the climbing and flying happened)

Before you start doing anything, you need to sign your life away. Basically you agreed that the activities which you were about to do is risky and should anything unfortunate happen to you, Skytrex will not take full responsibility. Yeah that sort of thing.

Next, you definitely need gloves. You really don’t want the flesh and skin of your palms to get ripped off by the wires while you “fly”.

Skytrex is selling them at RM3.00 per pair. You could use your own. But in any case, you have to put some on.

And one more thing, remember those water, food, mosquito repellent, mobile which I mentioned earlier? Well, in the end, I did not bring any of those into the jungle because that was too many things to carry. Instead I left those stuff in a locker and only went into the jungle with the Canon camera.

Then we took a group picture for “stock take” purposes. Just to make sure that at the end of the activities, no one will get left behind. Or at least we’ll have some evidence of who was here … what the hell am I talking? Like as though some thing was about to happen to us and that this was our last picture. Choi! X 3 and touch wood! This is just a group picture for the purpose of a group picture ok.

After that we were off to get our equipments all strapped up!

The guy sorting out my gears before putting it on me.

That’s me. Almost done with my gears wearing.

That’s Debbie being strapped on. Make sure it’s really tight. You really don’t want anything being loose while you are flying.

Voila! All geared up and ready to go! I have to say that the gears were not very comfortable and it asserted a lot pressure to your crouch. I really wondered if it would really bother the males. On top of that, because you have to wear it tightly, it tend exhibits what you usually wish not to exhibit.

I really need to do something with my fringe. It looks like a big stash of unnatural hair sticking on my forehead.

At first we thought this was it. OK. That looks pretty do-able. And then I was wrong. This is for the children and not adults. As adults, if you think you only have the courage of a chicken, then you can just do this.

THIS! is this first hurdle of the adult challenge. This picture could not even show the peak of the ladder. It was about 2 to 3 storey high. I had no idea how much time I spent climbing that stupid ladder.

And this picture was the last picture that I took. Because I needed to concentrate on my livelihood. So the pictures that follow were taken by Wai Kong. I passed him my camera because he was carrying a little bag pack.

Just to give you a rough idea of what I went through.

First you need to climb this ladder; which was really daunting because you could fall. The thing about the fear of falling is not so much about getting injured or what. It’s the fact that you may need to do it all over again otherwise it will definitely be a wasted effort.

Once you are up there, you will be alone. There won’t be any in-charge person there. You are taught how to click and unclick your safety belts.

Then after the climb (not “The climb” by Miley Cyrus), you need to click yourself to prepare to fly off the 3 storey high platform; extremely daunting initially. And you only have yourself to “push” yourself off the platform! I think I hesitated for 16.8 seconds and fuuuuuuck I fleeeeeew!

So you would think that ladder was the end of the whole challenge? When I reached the next platform after the “flying fox”, I needed to climb another similar ladder. But at that point, my energy level was like 60% left. I had no choice. I did the second climb. My arms were killing me. My legs were fucking weak. And I was sweating cold sweat because I was fucking tired. Then I continued my climb, imagining someone from the bottom was going to kill me, to stir up some adrenaline.

Once I got on top, I really felt like dying. I felt like puking and I could hardly catch my breath. That was how tired I was. And you know what? I heard there was a fucking 3rd ladder to climb …

I am pretty sure I have lost 1.73 kg after climbing the ladders.

Let’s take a pictorial tour now …

That’s Debbie again. And I sort of took a short cut and skipped this challenge. This came right after climbing twice and flying twice. I almost wanted to die remember?

That’s Ailin and also another challenge which I skipped.

Finally that’s me! And mind you, that’s after climbing the bloody 3rd ladder! Then you were expected to “roll” this way to the opposite platform. I asked Wai Kong to take a picture of me doing something. Then he said “smile” and I had no idea where I was looking other than the camera. Maybe I was too tired I couldn’t see the camera in his hands.

That’s Wai Kong, looking exhausted. I think AiLin took this picture while they were waiting for me to “cross over”.

10 minutes later, I think, I am still on the bloody wire. And then AiLin said: Hey Joanna smile! It’s not easy to smile when you were scared that you might fall off that single wire and you could no longer feel your arms.

Wern Ching and Debbie. Looked so happy. Must be too thrilled to climb the 3rd ladder.

That’s Deb flying. That’s what they called the “flying fox”. Surprisingly, though “flying fox” looks pretty scary but it was the easiest challenge to do. You don’t really need to do anything but just place your faith onto the gears you wearing and off you go.

OK. Debb has reached the platform.

Wern Ching and another pretty horrible challenge. Basically, both your arms and legs would need to be stretched out in order to cross to the next platform.

Debb doing the “papan on ropes” challenge. The planks were very wobbly and unstable. Every single step you take needs to be calculated and you should definitely not rush yourself.

Me finally done with all those torturous challenge.

And the side effects …

Scratches on both of my arms. Those were from the ladder-climbing. When all you cared was to hang on to the ladders so that you won’t fall. And as a result, you would just grab the ladder in anyway to secure yourself.

So let me analyse this:

I paid RM3.00 for entry fees. Another RM3.00 for the gloves. For the whole “fun” expedition of climbing and flying and dying, I paid RM40.00. So basically, for Saturday morning, I spent RM46.00 to get myself scratched, muscle tore and feeling aching over the whole body for the whole weekend.

Well jokes aside, I think it was definitely an “extreme” experience for me. For people like me, people who never ever challenged their body to the extreme ever before, I never knew I could get so tired.

I never knew I was brave enough to do the flying (I am terrified of heights!). I never knew I could manage all those climbing and rolling and balancing (I was never an athlete my entire life). And while I was catching my breath and resting on one of the higher platforms, the jungle is actually a very beautiful place to be in!

And you know what? Ladder-climbing is probably the best work out you could ever get. It works your arms, hands, shoulders, belly, thighs and calves. Basically, every vital parts of your body!

All in all, it was good fun.

By the way, the people at Skytrex said that this version of the “Extreme” package was already much easier than the version before. The previous one would need 5 hours to complete it. And the one I did, took us 3 hours.

What the fuck?

Sport shoes which never last more than 3 years

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:30:00 +0000

If you have been a work out junkie (I know someone who said shopping is walkathon is not) or that the only shoes you wear every day are sport shoes, then you would have known this – Fucking branded sport shoes never lasts more than 3 years!

This is my really old, worn Nike which I bought in 2007! You would think it still looks fine.

Even from this angel I guess you must be thinking that I am bull shitting …

Look at that! I bought it in 2007 and by 2009 (though I am still wearing it now to work out on my treadmill) the bottom sole wore off! Literally! It happened to all the Nike shoes which I bought for the past decade. Yes, I think I have had about 4 fucking pairs of Nike shoes for the past decade.

So this weekend, I am going for some serious sporting activities (which my bones may break) and I thought it’s time I get some really safe for sports.

And this time, I chose its rival.

Everybody, meet Renesmee, my new Reebok shoes. In case you are not aware, “Renesmee” is the name of Edward Cullen’s and Bella Swan’s daughter from the Twilight Saga – 4th book – Breaking Dawn.

Renesmee has a function called Hexride. I have absolutely no idea what’s that all about. But she is really light – almost lighter than air.

Let’s take a look of Renesmee from other angles:

Full side view.

Rear view. Oooh yeah!

Yeah baby!

So Renesmee cost me RM300. After I paid it and I asked the sales personnel how long it could last, he told me it would be about 3 years. Fuck wit!

I think that’s a sales gimmick which these major corporations are playing with.

Make shoes which will never last for more than 3 years,
so customers can come to us again and again!

Bloody blood suckers!

Anyway, I am going to “HexRide” my Renesmee tomorrow at some national park. She better behave well. My life is depended on her!

I “heart” technologies

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 01:00:00 +0000

Finally, the Astro Beyond which dad has ordered is finally here! If you want to know more about Astro Beyond, click here. For your information, and if you are not from Malaysia, Astro is the satellite TV provider and Astro Beyond is the latest promotion offered by the company – where the technology known as HD (High Definition) is used.

That’s the decoder for the new Astro Beyond. It’s a cool black box.

If you do plan to install one of these machines at home, do look out for this sign on the machine to ensure it is the genuine version.

Currently, it only offers about four channels with the HD technology.

The HBO HD – do note the “HD” added to the name of the channel. The programs are also different from the original HBO channel.

National Geographic HD

The other two channels are History Channel HD and Sports HD.

Verdict: Although you cannot see the quality here through the pictures I took, the quality is really awesome! If you have ever watched those super duper clear DVD movies, this Astro Beyond is exactly like that.

Price: From April 2010 onwards, Astro will charge its customers an extra fee of RM20 on top of your usual monthly subscription.

On another note – I also bought this HDMI cable sometime last year.

HDMI stands for High Definition Multimedia Interface.

which looks like this. Mine cost RM 39. But I also saw another one which cost RM600. Hmmm … well I wouldn’t spend that much for some cable. As long as it works and meets my objective, it’s a done deal.

The HDMI cable has heads such as above. Looks a bit like those USB cables but not exactly. These heads are larger than those on USB cables.

So the use of the cable is that:

(1) You need to check if your laptop has that HDMI port.

(2) You need to also check whether your television has the same port.

(3) You connect the cable at both of these ports.

(4) Search for the TV channel which transmits the HDMI technology.

(5) If you are using an amplifier at home, you need to make sure that the sounds (AV) are transmitted as well. Search for the correct mode.

When all is set, now you can watch your super clear downloaded movies from your lappie transmitted to your HDMI-able TV.

Cool eh? The best part is that I can enjoy those banned or will-never-arrive-in-Malaysia U.S. movies at home.

I so love technologies. Imagine just a few decades ago, television was just a fantasy. What would men create a few more decades forward?

The Haiti Aftermath: What can we do?

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 05:38:00 +0000

If you have been alive for the past week, I am sure you would have learnt about the devastating earth quake which took place in Haiti.

So the dead is dead. Now comes the worse part, the survivors – literally fighting amongst each other for their own survival. Aids have been prepared by the large non-profitable organizations but it is not reaching the hands of these survivors because of the damaged infrastructures.

I watched the news last night and people are practically fighting, pushing, pulling each others hair and what not to just to get a grab of pack of aid food. It is a very sad scene to witness.

Now what can we do? I know we are all concerned that if we have made some financial contributions, will our contributions ever reach them or will the authorities have utilized it otherwise? On the other hand, if every single soul in this world thinks that way, then the Haitians will never get help.

This could happen to anyone! You, me, anyone at all.

So if you do have kind heart, click here for a few avenues where you could learn how to help.

Things I supposed to do during the weekends but …

noreply@blogger.com (Jo de Vampire Princess) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:27:00 +0000

So here’s the thing, every Friday, almost at the end of the work day, I would draw up a list of “Things-to-do” virtually in my mind, the stuff which I am so-called “inspired” to do over the weekend. Every single weekend without fail. Well, it’s really easy to draw up a list. There were only two things which I were supposed to do: (1) To iron my clothes; and (2) To read a work document.

And here comes the challenge. Imagine the calendar is a huge piece of paper where you could “stand” on top of each day. That’s how I see every single day of the week. Right now, I am standing on “Saturday”. I woke up and was feeling a little quizzy, sickly, head heavy. I felt like I was going to fall sick; definitely a great reason to really take a rest. There, Saturday came and went.

Let’s talk about the first item on my weekend to do list:

(1) To iron my clothes.

Do you know how many weeks have I not iron my clothes? Counting … 1 … 2 … 3 … Um … I think it has been about a month. And what have I been wearing to work these days? Every morning, I would put on a T-shirt, my work pants, slippers, and a rugged jacket which would keep me warm. Totally casual. FYI, my organisation is a professional organisation. But who are we kidding here?

Reasons why we should be allowed casual wear in this work place:

There are only about 15 of us – no more no less.
We do not meet external parties every single day.
So why do we need to wear really pretty office wear?
Who are we trying to impress or attract?
We promise (I mean I promise) to put on professional wear when we have meetings.
On second thought, can I only wear office wear when there is a really important meeting? And not on normal little meetings?
Wearing comfortable casual wears make the person feel more at ease and hence would result (indirectly) in better work performance.
Wearing casual saves money.
Ironing clothes take up too much time and energy and would only be worn once & the clothe would be due for ironing again!
And let us wear the office T-shirt with the office logo and everything – that way we are not in violation of anything.

So for both Saturday and Sunday, I did not do any ironing but I did wash my “work T-shirts”, dried them and folded them – way much easier!

(2) To read a work report

Have you ever analyse how your mind works? In terms of whether your brain will automatically switch to a “Week Day Brain” or a “Weekend Brain”. I think mine works that way.

Due to the recent heavy work load, I am always telling myself that I should do something over the weekend to catch up with some back logs. I honestly did tell myself that and I honestly did bring back work reports home. And here’s what happened, almost every weekend …

Last Sunday, I was feeling much better after Saturday’s “almost-falling-sick” episode.

I did a good work out of power walking on the treadmill for like 80 minutes. I really want to hit 90 minutes but failed.
Took a shower after that.
Had a fruit snack.
Watched TV to relax a bit but I was still reminding myself that I needed to read the work report.
Had lunch.
Feeling a little sleepy after lunch, so I made myself a good cup of coffee.
OK so finally I sat down in front of my desk, opened up the work report, read TWO PARAGRAPHS and I felt thirsty.
Went to the kitchen to have a glass of water.
Suddenly I craved for more oranges, so I took 2 oranges, sat in front of the TV and enjoyed my oranges.
And then a good movie was on screen, I must really catch it and so I did for the next 3 hours.
Now it’s already almost 6 in the evening, my work report was still there on my desk, opened up at the same page where the TWO PARAGRAPHS were.
Walked into my room and looked at the work report. Looked a little more to the right where the “Shopaholic” story book laid.
Grabbed “Shopaholic” story book and read it till dinner time.
Had dinner. Took a quick shower. Continued with “Shopaholic” story book – it was very exciting because Becky Bloomwood was about to run two weddings almost simultaneously.
Almost bed time. Switched off room lights. Fuck the work report.

Conclusion

My brain cannot work on a weekend unless boss says: If you do not finish that report, I am going to kidnap your camera and your laptop.

But I am proud that I managed to exercise for a total of almost 3 hours over the weekend and finished the “Shopaholic” story book.