Happy Birthday Sook Chen!

Another person getting older but also getting wiser! It is the cycle of life darling, so dont be too sensitive and sad about it k?

A very happy birthday to u! *muaks*

For the past few days, most of us in the company arent in the mood for working. But that DOESNT mean that we are not productive, okie? Bear that in mind, people.

This morning, a few of us decided to make some decoration items for the office. We had the reception area decorated last Tues, but the rest of the place looks very dull. Okie, I know CNY is just 2 days away, and this is rather late, but late is better than none! Rite?

Meowny taught us how to make fishes out of the red packets. So we made lotsa them and have it hanging from the ceiling. Now thats more like Chinese New Year... :D

I will try to take some photos of the decoration we made tomoro and post it up here.

In the meantime, enjoy this photo of an instant popcorn product. My colleague got it from PHX, US and it is really easy and convenient. Just put it in the microwave for 2 mins, and *tadddaaaa*, a bag of popcorn to be consumed.


Nice thought hor... cool!

If u are out of idea for CNY...

What will u be doing during the Chinese New Year break? Any plans for the festive season? What are the nice places to go?

Those are the most frequent questions i was asked since last year. I wonder if i looked like a party animal to them? Or is it because i went out too much? hmmm..

For those outstation folks working in KL, going back to hometown is definitely their ultimate destination. I heard that a lot of people will be heading back starting this coming Fri already. I can imagine how crowded the PLUS highway would be, no matter going North or South. So guys, u all better start your journey earlier in the morning to avoid crawling in the supposedly 110km/h speed highway. -_-

And for those locals who had no idea on where to go or what to do, here is something that u can look forward to.


Lantern cum Flower Festival 2006 (click image for larger view)

This festival is held every year @ Jenjarom, Selangor. My frens went there last Chinese New Year and they said it was beautiful. For photo fanatics, this is a good and must-go place to get a nice shoot! For more information, click here.

I am planning to go this year too. I really wanted to check it out on my own, after hearing so much about it. Let me know if u guys are going too, we can meet there!!! Or better still, can go together. ^_^

You've got tagged...

Yup, i have been tagged. I think this is the first tag of the year 2006. But it is fun sometimes, to go through some brain exercise, just to fulfil the information requested.

4 jobs you've had in your life
~ Paper bag maker
~ Food Seller
~ Promoter
~ Data Entry Clerk

4 movies you could watch over and over
~ Sleepless in Seattle
~ You've Got Mail
~ The Mask
~ LOTR

4 TV shows you love(d) to watch
~ Desperate Housewives (im waiting for the next eps already..)
~ Friends (Jennifer, we love u although Brad dont anymore)
~ Full House (Rain is so cute!)
~ Survivors

4 places you've live(d)
~ Taman Universiti, Skudai (when i was studying in UTM)
~ Taman Marida, Senawang (when i was a trainee in Sbn)
~ Bukit Emas, Sbn (when i was working in Sbn)
~ Ampang (currently)

4 places you've been on vacation to
~ Singapore
~ Hong Kong and Shenzhen
~ Shanghai
~ Guang Zhou and some other places in China

4 places you would rather be
~ anywhere with my loved ones (this includes family members, okie). So there is no need to name 4 lar...

4 of your favourite foods
~ French fries (how could i not put this at the first place!)
~ Ice-cream and chocolates
~ Fish (all types of fish, as long as it is nice)
~ Assam Laksa
~ the list shouldnt stop there.. but i guess there is no way in here which can fit it...

4 websites you visit daily
~ Email (Company's, hotmail, yahoo, gmail)
~ Blogspot
~ Sky news
~ The Star online

4 tagged
~ Hui Ying
~ Clive
~ Louis
~ Ji Ric

These people that i've tagged are people that i rarely seen the response to any tags (except Hui Ying). I hope to see a miracle here.. O_o

Ji Ric, Shen Re Kuai Le!

No reservations after 7pm!

That is the cruel reply when we tried to make a reservation via phone for Ji Ric's birthday celebration @ The Ship in Jalan Bukit Bintang. Not wanting to give in just like that, but without much choices left for us, we would just have to walk in.

The quality of the food there has taken a downfall over the years. I remembered i had a Mother's day set meal 2 years ago with my mom, and it tasted very good. But that nite, it was rather disappointing. -_-


The birthday boy had to peek out from behind to get a shot... i seriously didnt realise that until i saw this pic. Oooppss... Pai seh pai seh.


Alot of traditional Cheongsams being sold..


Expandable creatures in the water....

Everyone kinda have fun, at least the CNY mood is coming bit by bit.

By the way, our company's CIO came for a visit last Thursday. U guys may wonder "what the heck is CIO?".. never heard about it.

Well, i dont blame u. I was surprised as well when i heard about it for the first time. CIO stands for Chief Information Officer, if i am not mistaken. And if u have already start thinking that the name CIO is weird, we even have someone in the company called CFO (Chief Finance Officer)!

Whenever someone mention CFO, everyone would end up giggling. CFO ~ UFO? I wonder how they could come up with such a funny name.


Group photos @ Chuai Heng Restaurant in 1U. The ang moh is our CIO.

Code : Black

I've got invitations to go to the Guiness Code : Black Party @ Zouk tonite. And i am allowed to bring 2 frens together with me. But there is a problem, i am having more than 2 frens with me tonite, so who should i bring? I cant be unfair to anyone, rite?

So, i've decided to scrap the black party idea and go for a birthday party instead. Sorry Zouk, friends come first!

Thanks for coming!

It was a really last minute invitation. I know... so I am truly grateful for those who were willing to spare your precious time for this celebration. It was a night worth remembering, and we had a lot of laughs and fun too, dont we?

There is even at one point where we asked each other questions that are supposed to be asked by total strangers or in the chatrooms/ICQ, not friends...

~ where do u live now?
~ what u working as?
~ where is your office?
~ got bf/gf?
~ when wanna get married?

GOSH!

Guess we havent been seeing each other for a VERY LONG time.


The 6 of us plus the camera girl, who decided to hide from the photos.. (Hui Ying, come out come out!)


Lovely Yee Ling and her cakes and dessertsssss..


Unfinished food. The corn was there since beginning but no one wanted to take a bite.. how pity.

Lesson to be learnt at the end of each buffet session ~ never be too greedy! I guess that particular information doesnt seem to stay in our mind huh? *_*

We commited the same mistake over and over again, without fail. As a result, I slept only around 1am this morning, cos i was too full. *burp*

But not only that lar, the other reason was because i need to check out the problem on my aunt's laptop. Her browser is having some issues, seems like it cannot attach any files in the yahoo mail (no matter whose id - so definitely nothing to do with the profile lar). After selecting the file and clicking "attach files", the browser never stop processing. It wont proceed anywhere.

But the weirdest thing is, only yahoo mail cannot attach files. I tried using hotmail and gmail, both were successful. Any idea?

I guess my laptop's IE and her laptop's IE are siblings. Same evil thing. :P

Happy Bird-day Yee Ling!

I think i have a lot of birthday posts in my blog lately. I wonder why so many people were born towards the end of the year. Is it a coincidence that most of my frens are born at that time?

There was once a fren told me one funny joke about the reason why babies tend to come into this world during the last quarter of the year.

"do u know why there are so many ppl born from aug to dec?"
"err, dunno.. why?"
"cos the married couple got nothing to do during the long CNY break. So they make babies at home.."
"...." -_-"

Hahaha. It is really amazing how they can think of such stuff to relate this. I have nothing more to say.

By the way, me and my lunchmates went to try out the newly opened restaurant called C-Jade Express in MidValley. I was understood that this chained restaurant is very famous in Singapore and apparently this is the second outlet in Malaysia. The first is at Lot 10, BUT, i never heard of it before. Only recently, when one of my colleagues went over to Singapore and tried it, then only i was informed about its popularity. What a shame....


C-Jade Express.


Ordering our food at the counter. Read me, SELF-SERVICE!


Express food for take away. Crispy beancurd with salt and pepper, crispy chicken wing, etc..

Steamed beef rice, steamed chicken rice, Korean style steamed chicken rice and pork rib noodle. *slurps*

The food is quite nice, there are also breakfast, lunch, hi tea as well as dinner set available. Prices are almost like Chopstick Noodle House, a bit pricey i would say, but they compensated by giving u a big portion (of rice.. O_o).

Well, gotta go. Im having a dinner later with my ex-coursemates to celebrate Yee Ling's birthday. Ciao!

Mandarin oranges everywhere

I woke up earlier than any normal Sunday today, cos i was suddenly in the mood to go to the Imbi market for breakfast. If u guys havent knew, they serve the best Hainan Tea and toast bread with kaya and butter that you have ever tasted, or so it was claimed.

You may have wondered how is this tea diff from any others? Well, it is not the normal Chinese tea that u had in any kopitiam on the street. It's a combination of coffee and tea (maybe u can somehow relate this to yin yong in those HK style restaurant).

Apart from that, me and my mom shared a bowl of fried pork intestine porridge and Sister's Crispy Popiah (this is the first stall before they started off their chain business), where u could find one in MidValley. *yummy*yummy*

The market was super crowded by the time i reached there. A lot of aunties were seen making bargains for clothes, fishes, chickens, veges, raw ingredients and most obviously, fruits! Finding a place to sit was also a big headache.


Different variations of fruits, but all looked almost the same colour... orangy!!


How can we miss out the famous mandarin oranges?

Nevertheless, u can really feel the Chinese New Year mood when u stand among the crowds. People are happily chatting and buying the festive goods.. ranging from flowers, cookies and also decoration items.

Wanna feel the mood too? Go to the market early morning. Dont be a lazy bum! :D

Sad and cruel news

Early in the morning when i just came in to work, i received an email from a friend - breaking out a super sad news.

Her friend's (whom i met a few times in Singapore) mother was robbed and murdered at her home on Thursday nite. You can read the news in Sin Chew Jit Poh online. *sob*sob*

I really dont understand how could someone killed an innocent old lady, who was incapable of hurting the two male robbers in any ways. And not only that, her left arm was chopped off and her neck was almost broken into two, as a result of multiple and merciless stabs on her body. Why cant they just take the money and go? Do they really have to commit the murder?

I wonder what has our dear Malaysia turned into... once a multi-racial country full of harmony and peaceful, but now, a place full of sins and speechless crimes. Where is the love?

I wish that two robbers will be caught soon and that they will never have any good night sleep after this!

I was already deeply saddened by this shocking news, but my Internet Explorer decided to fail me at this point of time. I could not open any Discoverer reports, whereby it keeps on stucking at the initialization stage. The screen wont proceed further, and there is a stupid message at the status bar stating "Applet TestApplet notinited". Great! -_-


My stupid discoverer just wont works in IE.


Zoom closer at the message.

I have tried all i could, from disabling the JVM that is using the default runtime, installed the necessary JInitiator, etc..etc.. but to no avail. Maybe i have installed too many Java stuff in my notebook which causes the conflict? Can somebody please help me on this?? Drop by my cube, post a comment, send me an email, anything... as long as it can help me on this issue.

Thanks in advance.

Happy Birthday Wei Siang & Jan Nee!

It is Wei Siang's big day today, while Jan Nee's is just around the corner. So we decided to give them a birthday celebration luncheon at New Paris Restaurant, SS2.


The birthday boy and girl.

We were seated in 3 tables but we (those seated at the same table as me) were the noisiest among all the crowd in the restaurant. We chatted, joked, played pranks, called nicknames, and the best of all, yum seng!!

The other patrons were glaring at us in disbelief.. O_o

Suddenly, the mood was up, and both of them went to the other two tables and did the yum seng again. It looked as though they were holding a wedding lunch.. with 3 tables of guests... only. -_-


Yum..yum...yum...seng!

They must have been either very poor or have very few family and frens... muahahaha :D

Anyway, it was really fun, and a good get-together.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Hang Kasturi, or Hang Tuah?

When was the last time you went to Petaling Street?

I was there yesterday to bring my cousins to the Kasturi Tuition Center for registration. If u havent know, this is one of the most popular tuition center for the past few decades. It was very famous during my aunt's school days, it was also very famous during my school days, and now it is still famous during my cousin's school days.

I wonder how much the owner of this center has earned? He must has been super rich by now, looking at the number of students thronging the place day by day. From some high profile schools like Methodist Boys School and Victoria Institution, all the way to those low profile or unknown schools in the more rural area.

Being there again made me feel like a school children once more. Last time, i used to rush to the center after school in order to book a place at front seat. My super fast walking pace was trained at that time, and we didnt even have time to have a proper lunch, just grabbed some buns along the Petaling Street on our way. O_o


After the renovation, Petaling Street which was once a filthy street, potraits a whole new image to the people with nice roof top.


The operation hours have been fixed and obliged (do they?)


Although the look and feel is different, but there are still some youngsters approaching ppl to sell pirated vcds/dvds. Macam mau gaduh...


The ever famous Air Mata Kucing stall.


This tau fu fa stall serves the best soya bean curd i have eaten so far. Smooth and delicious! Located at the cross junction of the Petaling Street (diagonal opposite the Air Mata Kucing stall).


Hmm, this muah chee stall came out in the paper sometime back. Never knew its existence before this...


Got pandan, black sesame and normal plain flavour. The auntie kept yelling "good stuff, good food" -_-


This row of non-halal meat slice shops are crowded lately, when the CNY is just around the corner.


*drooling*


These school kids heading back home at the Plaza Rakyat's LRT station surely reminds me of myself when i was their age.

But i wasnt "that" old after all.... *self-console*

Oh yeah, btw, i saw 2 different insects outside my house door when i was on my way out to fetch my cousins.

Clearly some war has been going on. Both were laid there motionless and injured. One upside down, and the other, torn into two. -_-"

Changes we all made

It has been a long time since me and my secondary school buddies came out and have a proper yumcha session. We used to come out every weekends to update each other on what is happening among each and everyone of us. Some of my colleagues find it rather shocking as to how frequent we gather together, not to mention that most of us are having 100% attendance.

"how could u guys come out every weekend?"
"why not?"
"what is there so much to talk about? even though me and my frens come out once in a few months, also i find myself dont have much to update them.."
"well, i really dunno, but somehow we talked non-stop whenever we meet up" ^_^

When i first started working and they were still in uni (i was the earliest to grad among all my buddies cos i skipped Form 6), i talked about my encounters in the working world, while they talked about the funny stuffs that happened in their universities. Although we were in a diff world by then, but we still managed to click with each other.

Now, all of us have our own jobs, ranging from IT, Chemistry, Customer Service, Engineering, Stats, etc and etc. How have we all grown up...

I had this one particular interesting remark from one of my frens last nite, during the yumcha session.

"hey, were u with us in the Redang trip about 5 years ago?"
"yeah, why?"
"u know, i was looking back at our Redang photos few days ago. i saw this person, and i pondered for a while thinking whether it is u or not"
"cant u recognise me? we have been frens for more than 10 years dy" *trying to throw tantrum*
"yep, but man, what have u done to yourself! u looked so diff compared to the photos. have u been doing cosmetic surgery?? muahahha!"
-_-"

I flipped back the old Redang photos when i came back home after that. Man, i cant really believe my eyes too. A bit on the "leong" side.. *faster keep the evidence in the closet*

But i guessed it is a good thing, and that i have changed for the better... ;)

Mama, I Love U!

Today is my mom's birthday, but i forgot to wish her this morning cos i was rushing to work. The school has started again, therefore, i predicted the traffic would be super jam. I wouldnt wanna be late for my team meeting.

Anyways, i've got her a birthday present dy last weekend. A dozen of bird nest from Eu Yan Sang. That is enuff for her to get herself all pretty and healthy for the CNY later this month. Hmm, mebbe i can curi curi take a bottle for myself.. hehe...

Btw, i earned a free teh tarik (can i choose a different drink?) from some one just now. It is indeed an advantage being observant :P Thanks ya!!

Belated New Year's Outing

I havent been staying at home very much during these 3 days vacation. i was supposed to bring my mom for CNY shopping, but ended up i bought more than her. Now i am all done with my new year clothes shopping spree or whatever name u wanna call it, but i am really done. I can foresee my headache when i clear that credit card statement next month. Been swipping it like nobody's business. *faint*

And i ate like a pig as well. Think i need to watch out for what i eat, CNY is really just around the corner. -_-

Today, it was another fun outing. We went to Klang for their famous Bak Kut Teh (food again). Thanks Eddy for your hospitality and your precious time to entertain us all.


I came here once last time, with my coursemates. Shows that it is really quite a popular restaurant.


*slurps*slurps*

After the enjoyable brunch, we headed straight to Sunway Pyramid. We were given a 20 person room when we only have 7 of us there, can really dance anywhere and anyhow we like. To top it all, they let us sing frm 1pm till 7pm. *cough*cough* I havent been singing for quite some time ever since my birthday celebration, but this is really too much. If it wasnt because of Eddy complaining that he was hungry, i think we would continue on singing till we lost our voice. O_o


Never really got the chance to appreciate their signboard at the counter.

The different food we had in Kim Gary after karaoke.

Overall, it was a great. Hope that we can do this more often next time.