pieces of me...

moved...

2009-08-05T14:51:00.000+08:00

here's the new site...

office like a war zone...

2009-03-30T14:51:00.000+08:00

there are some changes going on in the office, with some reshuffling going on. resulting from that, i need to move from my "bestest cubicle in the world" to another work station (a not so best one *sob*sob*). but the moving is taking longer than expected coz some ppl who will be moving out are still here and some ppl who are moving in are already here, earlier than they should be.

anyway, to make a long story short, i'm currently 'cubicleless', coz i need to clear my cubicle for the move, but can't move to my new work station yet! so now my stuff is all over the place in the bossboss's room, making it look a war zone...

i dare say abt 75% of the things in here are mine!

earth hour 2009

2009-03-30T11:20:00.001+08:00

happened to be at ikea last saturday with N and her cousin, and managed to catch the earth hour 2009 event they had at their cafe. they got the mixFm team in, and there were some games and stuff going on.

needless to say, the place was packed and we had some trouble looking for a place to sit. many ppl were just sitting around at the tables even after finishing their meals. then we thought, maybe these people were just curious as to what's going to happen for the countdown and after that, they will leave. so we did not worry too much abt getting a seat, but proceeded to join the long queue to buy our dinner.

even before 8.30pm, they have toned down their lights
at the eating area. only the food counters were lighted up

after the count down, all the lights at the dining area were switched off and a few ikea staff came out bearing trays of 'pirate lanterns' (my fav kinda lanterns!) with lighted candles inside, to be placed on the tables.

pirate lanterns for a new dining experience...

true enough, after the countdown to earth hour 2009 at 8.30pm, most of the tables became empty.

just an hour without lights and already we felt the inconvenience.
we had difficulties polishing up our fried chicken wings
nicely to the bones, coz we couldn't really see!

let's go minum!

2009-03-29T20:40:00.000+08:00

of all the different cultures in the companies i've worked for up until now, there's one glaring thing that sets my present company apart from the rest... and that is their minum culture!

i've never drank with any of my colleagues before i joined this company, but it's a norm now. but i'm not a heavy drinker... just a social one. if i need to drive back after our minum session, i'll just have one glass of beer. if i'm at the resort/hotel and have only need to walk back to my room, i'll have 2 glasses!

from a session at quattro recently...

but one thing's for sure, i've become a heavy 2nd hand smoker! :S

vote earth!

2009-03-26T19:53:00.001+08:00

wah... suddenly my blog is filled with the earth hour banners and logos! haha, just taking my cue from auntyjo!

anyway, i placed an order for the earth hour 2009 t-shirt last week, and it arrived yesterday! i was supposed to get it last week, but the organisers received so many orders that they just couldn't make it on time. and the wwf ppl were bothered to call me up to explain abt the delay... so nice and considerate of them!

front view...

back view... "see your world in a whole new light"

well, it's a good thing that they're getting so many orders, coz it means more ppl are supporting the cause! i think this year's earth hour malaysia will be a much a successful campaign compared to last year's. i think it really was due to ignorance rather than indifference, as the writer had hoped, coz i've not heard abt this thing last year. but this year, nearly everyone has some inkling of what it's all abt.

the other day in a meeting, the bossbossboss was even talking abt pledging to switched off at our hotels and resort. but sadly in the end, it was deemed undoable, because we talked abt it too late. these kinda things need to be planned way in advance... things like informing our guests, planning an activity for guests so that they would not feel bored sitting in their darkened room without tv, lights and air-cond for one whole hour, making sure no one gets trapped in the lifts, making sure there're enough food, safety measures, etc etc... hopefully we'll be more prepared for earth hour 2010!

neeways, here are my personal efforts in minimising my carbon footprints on this earth:

1) my housemates probably think me a miser, because whenever someone accidentally left the lights on throughout the whole night or forgot to switch off their lights when they go out, i'd sure to be the one to point it out to them! then they'll try to placate me by promising to foot a bigger share of the electricity bill... but even though i'll talk abt the skyrocketing electric bill, IT'S NOT ENTIRELY ABOUT THE MONEY! there's also the wasting unnecessarily and the effects on global warming...

2) i'm paying more attention to all my switches... to make sure whatever i switch on are switched off after use.

3) i've been having this habit of pressing the fridge door with my fingers everytime i walk pass it (to make sure it is shut properly) since i found it to be slightly ajar sometime last year. i think it's safe to say that most people, after they've taken out/put something into the fridge, would just push the door shut and walk away, without really checking to see if it has shut properly. maybe the fridge was too full and the door has bounced back out by something in there. so even though the fridge door may look closed, if the side rubber (is that what it's called?) did not stick, air can and will escape and that will cause higher energy consumption.

4) i try not to accept plastic bags whenever possible... but this really needs a big conscious effort because it's just so natural to receive something you've bought in a plastic bag! and i kept forgetting abt my 'yellow foldable bag' given to me by M in my backpack, put in there for the purpose of carrying my shopping in.

5) i try to separate out the recycleables from my rubbish bin. i rinse out aluminium cans and plastic water bottles at home and i reuse the A4 papers when printing in the office. i also have a special tray for papers that has been used both sides, so that i can pass it to the cleaning kakak when it's full (coz i know they sell them for extra income).

6) i always save up all the used envelopes (paper and plastic ones alike) i receive, and reuse them whenever possible, especially when the document is to be passed on by hand.

well, these are just a few of the things i can think of for now. but while i'm consciously trying to minimise my role in damaging ole mother earth, i know what i've done and am doing are nothing to shout about. more effort should be put in! i'll try harder, i promise! :)

read also:
1) earth hour malaysia - it's as simple as a flick of the switch!

pet peeve #104607: people who don't know the difference between formal and casual communications

2009-03-23T03:10:00.000+08:00

i don't know... but friends who use "corporate language" in casual settings really get on my nerves! this is especially true in written comm. here are some classic examples, and tell me if i'm the only weird one who feels this way.

1) sms from a bf/gf
"Please advice the best time to come and pick you up"

2) e-mail reply from a good friend, when informing him/her of something
"Noted with thanks"

3) sms in reply to an invitation from a close friend
"Sorry, I am unable to attend due to work commitments"

i mean, hello?!? don't we get enough of "corporate talk" in the office? i even switch to casual comm when typing out an e-mail to some of my better acquainted vendors, for crying out loud!

maybe the reason some ppl write this way is becoz the only time they speak english is in the office and that's the only way they know how to communicate in the language? or maybe they do not want to use bahasa pasar (bm for "street language"). but there are many ways of communicating casually without having to resort to bahasa pasar wat!

for the examples above, won't it be more intimate and not so starchyly-stiff if its written a bit differently?

1) "what time shall i pick u up?"

2) "ok, thanks!"

3) "oh, sorry i can't make it. i have work to do"

but personally, this is how i'll write it:

1) "pick u up at wat time?"

2) "okie! :)"

3) "kenot lar! need to work!"

so to friends and acquaintances out there, please ar! don't use corporate language with me hor!!

"3 drops of sweat" conversations...

2009-03-05T19:50:00.000+08:00

stargal: *grumble*grumble* company making money, and yet force us to take unpaid leave...
bossboss: must think positively. this way, u can go home more often mar
boss: yeah, must spend more time with ur parents...

a few days later...

bossboss: wah, u're taking so many days off for cny?
boss: yeah lar. how can take such a long stretch?
stargal: must spend more time with the parents...
bossboss & boss: *sweat*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

KL: hello, i won't be going for practice tonight ok?
stargal: har? then how?
KL: so u all just do ur own sectional lar
stargal: sien lor. why u can't come???
KL: my car broke down lar. u wanna buy me a new car?
stargal: ok, so u dun have to come lar! bye-bye!
KL: *sweat*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

aunty: why u keep carrying your backpack like that? put it down lar...
stargal: hehe... it's ok. i'm used to it
aunty: don't you feel very "san-fu" (canto: difficult) carrying your bag like that while eating?
stargal: no lar, i'm always doing this. besides, i'll be the first to go if we need to "jao-lou" (run away)
aunty: *sweat*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

stargal: KL, those extra cake, u bring home for your Tiger lar
KL: har? who is Tiger?
stargal: ur dog's name is not Tiger meh?
KL: since when? no lar...
stargal: eh?? then Tiger is whose dog?
KL: how i know ar?
stargal: i dun care! ur dog is Tiger!
KL: *sweat*

typing with the right fingers...

2009-02-26T18:59:00.000+08:00

it's really quite amusing to see some ppl type. the boss types with only 2 fingers, with the index fingers of each hand. the bossboss types with 6 fingers, using the thumbs, index and middle fingers of each hand. the bossbossboss types with all 10 fingers, but not the right way.

other than the bosses, i've observed many amusing typing styles in many ppl. and that being said, the bossboss particularly loves watching me type. during meetings when i'm typing out the minutes as they speak, at my work station where she'll linger just for the sole purpose of watching me type, or even at HER workstation, where she'll push her notebook towards me for me to type out an e-mail reply while she dictates. i guess she finds my typing as amusing as how i find hers amusing...

actually, i got to learn how to type the correct way rather coincidently. since we were young, we had this big ass manual typewriter at home which belonged to the mother. sometimes we would insert a paper into it and just type things out with our two index fingers just for the sheer fun of it. then when we got older, maybe around 10-12 years old, the mother would try to encourage us to learn how to type on that typewriter. because u know, there's no harm learning a new skill and u'll never know when u'll need them. anyway, neither the bro nor i payed any heed to the mother's words and just continue tapping away with our 2 fingers.

fast forward to 1996. the brother has just gotten into uni and has bought a pc. whenever there's a sem break, he'd bring the pc home and i'd go crazy going online everyday! that was the era of icq and geocities websites... anyway, the brother had this cd-rom that teaches us to type. but instead of those really boring prog that tells you where to place your index fingers and which letter should be tapped by which finger, this prog is really awesomely cool! they formatted it into a sort of a game, and i was so hooked with this computer game that i was typing away in just days!

who could've imagined that typing is really so easy? before i got hooked with that typing game, typing seemed like a really serious and difficult thing to learn. i guess i got that skewed perception from one of my tuition classes all those years ago. when i was in form 6, i had 2 classes of tuition in this old crickety building in jln trengkera, known as something-something chamber of commerce. it's one of those pre-war 2 storey shop houses that line that part of m'ca, and all our classes were conducted upstairs. but in the main hall of the downstairs, there's a classroom with desks and chairs... and an ancient, bulky metal typewriter on each desk. at first i thought that classroom was just a remnant of times gone by and is now not functioning anymore. and those typewriters were just left there to rot. but then one day, as i was passing by to go upstairs, i saw a small girl of about 10 years old sitting at one of the desks and typing out something. in the desk next to her sat the skinny aunty whom we all thought was the building's caretaker. she actually has a second role as the typing teacher! she was practically breathing down the little girl's neck in trying to make sure she's using the right fingers to type out her exercise. yikes, how boring to be learning to type on an antique typewriter, in a dusty classroom in an old rickety building and with an old scrawny aunty as your teacher!

well, actually i don't reallly know what's my point in writing this post. it's just that i get so amused with the bossboss staring at my fingers flying about the keyboard everytime i type in front of her. anyway, in retrospect, had the brother not brought back that cd-rom all those years ago, maybe i'd still be typing out this post with only my 2 index fingers!

anyway dear readers, do you type (the right way)? how did you learn? a curious gal wants to know...

earth hour malaysia - it's as simple as a flick of the switch!

2009-02-23T17:37:00.000+08:00

read abt this in biow's blog...

What began as a campaign to get Sydneysiders to turn their lights off, has grown to become one of the world’s biggest climate change initiatives. In 2009, at 8.30pm on March 28, people around the world will turn their lights off for one hour – Earth Hour. We’re aiming to reach one billion people, more than 1000 cities, all joining together in a global effort to show that its possible to take action on global warming.

Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia with 2.2 million homes and businesses turning their lights off for one hour. Only a year later and this event had become a global sustainability movement with up to 50 million people across 35 countries participating. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square, all stood in darkness, as symbols of hope for a cause that grows more urgent by the hour.

Earth Hour 2009 is a global call to action to every individual, every business and every community. A call to stand up, to take responsibility and to get involved in working towards a sustainable future. Iconic buildings and landmarks from Europe to The Americas will stand in darkness. People across the world will turn off their lights and join together in creating the vital conversation about the future of our precious planet.

Over 64 countries and territories are participating in Earth Hour 2009. This number grows every day as people realise how such a simple act, can have such a profound result in affecting change.

Earth Hour is a message of hope and a message of action. Everyone can make a difference.

Join us for Earth Hour 2009, turn off your lights at 8.30pm Saturday 28 March and sign-up here to be counted.

crocheted wrist bag

2009-02-22T22:56:00.000+08:00

*update: realized that "tote bag" means "large, 2-handled open-topped bag (usually of canvas material)". so i've renamed this as a "wrist bag" instead.

here's my latest craft... a wrist bag for N, who just started working for a new company. it's for her to carry her purse and handphone in when she goes for lunch.

found this pattern free at www.katcrochet.com

angel amigurumi

2009-02-12T12:40:00.000+08:00

my colleague, A is leaving the company to go backpacking in china. so i made up an angel amigurumi as a farewell gift to her, to watch over her and keep her safe in everything that she does... completed it yesterday.

front view...

side view to show a bit of the wings and halo...

close-up shot...

read also:
1) i'm ami sifu!
2) more amis
3) amigurumi angels

post-cny post...

2009-02-04T19:09:00.000+08:00

ok, so cny is not over yet... but for us workers, they sure as hell are! even though it's just the 10th day and i'm still getting one or two ang-pows, nothing bursts the "yay-it's-cny" bubble like having to drag urselves out of bed in the morning and sitting thru an hour of traffic to get into office on time!

on cny, it was ok lar... spent a total of 11 days at home! pure bliss, i tell u! but after all the bingeing and lazing around, it's kinda good to be back. i watched so much astro at home that i did not even touch the two books i brought home to read!

anyway, i would love to post some photos of my cny, but the very clever me brought home the camera case without the camera! ok, don't anyone mention about the weight difference and all! i was packing in a hurry and rushing to leave the house, ok?

ok, i think that should be all for now. gotta get home early and get some good rest today. stayed up late to finish up marley and me (2nd read) in prep for the movie. gosh, i always hate the part where they die in the end. cried my eyes out, which resulted in a blocked nose the entire night. and puffy eyes today. and a headache from sleeping on tear-soaked pillows! :S

crocheted baby booties

2009-02-03T17:03:00.000+08:00

remember this? well, as i was making the carrier bag in the office, my colleague saw it... and immediately ordered one for her niece! so here it is... completed it before cny, but as i was already on leave, i can only pass it to my colleague tomorrow (she's on leave today). anyway, here it is... in pink as requested. photos taken by the brother, who dubbed it "goody 2 shoes"...

read also:
1) ah bao's baby booties

less than one week before cny...

2009-01-20T18:32:00.000+08:00

and one more working day before i go on leave! i think this will be my longest cny leave yet...

that being said, the cny mood, or rather the holiday mood has taken a firm grip on me. so even tho i've tons of work to finish before i go on leave, i'm moving at such a slow pace! and having my work external drive crashing on me is of no help at all! what better excuse to procrastinate than running recovery on my external drive, which stores ALL my documents? *note to self: backup all my files during the holidays*

anyway, i myself am also on recovery mode. the past few weeks have been a flurry of practices and rehearsals, that even tho' it's all over (well, momentarily, at least), i'm still so burnt out. ok, so part of the reason for my exhaustion is caused by the hk series gem of life, but it's also because i missed my 'hibernation session' the past weekend! *note to self: to make sure to sleep away my panda eyes before my trip home*

speaking of practices and rehearsals, our performance at the klpac open day last sunday was ok lar... not fantastic, but we didn't suck either (i hope!). oh, check out these great photos taken by adrian, a fine arts student, seen lugging around a big equipment with humongous lens that day. and see if you can spot a shot of me in action! hehe...

read also:
1) what i've been up to lately

what i've been up to lately...

2009-01-16T15:29:00.000+08:00

hmm... what have i been up to ar? mostly work, work and more work... cny coming, so need to get all the pending job out before the long break. i hope i won't need to turn on my notebook once during the whole duration. keke... fat hopes lar!

other than work, been ingesting the latest and hottest TVB drama series --> the gem of life. blame it all on N for getting me hooked! coz she's my official supplier lar.

but even though i'm watching so much of drama series lately, my hands were not idle ok? i've been crocheting! hehe... lately i've been itching to pick up the hook again. so watch this space for my latest project, ya!

oh, and i've been bz with practices... first was for the new year performance. then immediately after that, we started practicing for a performance for this coming sunday --> klpac open day. so we've been practicing hard, even tho' it's so near cny and all other gakkai activities have stopped.

ok, just a short 'report' for now... gotta get back to the grind!

new year gift...

2009-01-09T13:28:00.000+08:00

see what N made for me as a new year gift!

tic-tac-toe coasters...

while i like to work with yarns, N is more of a felt person. below is the 1st coaster she gave me, abt 4 months back... this is her first few attempts and i think she used too much fabric glue on this. so the edges are a bit jagged. but i still love it. cute, right?

tree and flowers coaster...

ah bao's baby booties...

2009-01-08T12:22:00.000+08:00

actually i finished making this for ah bao more than one month ago, but was just waiting for N to buy the buttons. coz she said she'll take care of the buttons mar. but until now, i've yet to even get a whiff of the elusive buttons, and i think if i wait longer, baby ah bao's feet will no longer be baby feet anymore!

so i went to buy the buttons myself and finally completed the booties yesterday night. red and pink buttons are to make the booties more colourful.

as i sewed on the buttons quite late last night (2 am!), i did not have time to look for a nice paper bag to put them in. and anyway, i dun think any normal paper bag will be suitable. so i fashioned out one that has a broad base so that the booties can be placed side by side. i did it in the office, using whatever resources i have --> coloured A4 papers, cardboard, green ribbon (from our new year performance, still tied to my cello case), double-sided tape and paper clips! nice effect?

read also:
1) new project...

short weekend getaway: my gopeng resort - day 2

2009-01-05T00:46:00.000+08:00

free & easy

woke up bright and early at 8 something... looked over to N's bed and saw that she's still there, despite announcing loud-loud the previous day that she would wake up early to watch the rubber tappers at work (despite me warning her that they start work VERY early, as early as 5am!).

ah... nothing like breathing in fresh, unpolluted
morning air away from the hustle and bustle of the city!

this is the 'pondok telefon' (malay: phone booth) of the resort.
serious! see those polystyrene plates at the roof of the booth?
they have "you can make your phone calls here" and "celcom, digi & maxis"
written on them. apparently, the connection here is the best!

N lining up for breakfast

one more before we go!

after breakfast, we didn't want to depart for KL so early and thought we can squeeze in one more activity before our journey back. among the list of activities offered, we were only interested in 2. my 1st choice was the wet abseiling, where we abseil down along the waterfall. sounded like fun! but too bad we were the only 2 who wanted to do this and their minimum pax is 6 person. so we had no choice but to go for our next option: white water rafting. turned out to be not a bad choice!

N saw this 'hermit crab' walking by the briefing area...

waiting for the start of the briefing...

traffic jam at the starting point...

as there were quite a number of rafters that day (8 rafts from our group alone!), the organisers told us to body raft down the river so as not to jam up the starting point. basically, body rafting means we float down the river with just our life jackets on and the guides will 'rescue' us by throwing ropes to us and reeling us in. it was blardy fun, i tell u!

N did this before in sabah, so she went first with me at a close 2nd. i didn't do so well on my first go, coz i think i leaned back too far, sort of like lying on my back in the water. that was y at the first rapid, i was engulfed by the waves and kinda lost my bearings. but it was dem fun! as we were the first 2 to go, we had to wait for quite some time for the rest of the participants to body raft down one by one. nearing the end, the resort boss, Mr. Lim (forgot to mention that he joined us on this trip too) asked N and i if we wanted to do it a 2nd time. of course we did!

my 2nd attempt was better, coz i tried putting my body upright in the sitting possition (with my legs straight out paddling the water in front of me). i managed to keep my head above the water, even at the rapids, and was able to keep my bearings and see where i was going. after that, we all climbed onto our rafts (4 or 5 to a raft) and were on our way!

this river we were rafting is the sungai kampar, with 14 rapids along the stretch. on a good day, this river can produce class 4 rapids. but as the water levels were quite low that day, we only had about class 2+.

oh, and i'm proud to announce that i fell into the water at one of the bumpier rapids! i was paddling at the back right position and at one of the rapids, the front left of the raft bumped against a large rock, tilting the raft. i think i was leaning slightly out of the raft, busy paddling and didn't anticipate the tilt. so i just fell head over heals overboard! my first thought was, "Oh shit, i fell", but said in a calm manner. my 2nd thought was, "better grab hold of the rope". the 'rope' is tied along the rafts as a handhold for rafters during bumpy rides. but as we were in the middle of the rapid, waves after waves kept pushing my head underwater that i couldn't see where my hands were grabbing. then i felt the guide grabbing my life jacket and pulling me along with the raft, so i just went along with the ride and only concentrated on keeping a firm hold on my paddle. it was only after we passed the rapid that the guide pulled me back on board. but anyway, it all happened so fast, like maybe 15 seconds, that i did not have the time to be afraid. instead, after i got on board, i thought it was loads of fun! hehe...

at one of our pit-stops...

we were allowed to come down and rest and play around in the water

at one of the pit-stops, Mr. Lim asked N and i to follow him across the river where there was a tree with a branch overhanging the water. but halfway through, even though the water is considerably calmer here, the currents were still very strong. most of the time, the water just came up to our waists, but we were still not able to stand properly! when we tried swimming against the current to get upstream, we only managed to stay where we were, without moving an inch forward! and once we stopped swimming, we were swept away by the currents so fast that the guides had to come rescue us before we were carried away too far downstream!

but on our 2nd attempt, we managed to cross the river (with Mr. Lim's help) and get to the said tree. once there, Mr. Lim climbed up to the overhanging branch and jumped down into the river! apparently, the river bed below that tree is quite deep and they (Mr. Lim and the guides) are used to jumping down from it. so N and i climbed up behind Mr. Lim... with shaky legs!!! it's not really a high branch, abt 2 meter up, but just because it's over the water, we were overcame by our own mental weaknesses. imagine, i was not an ounce afraid when i fell into the river in the middle of a rapid, but was shivering like a wet puppy out of the drain on top of a low tree branch! anyway, N and i jumped twice from that tree, the second time jumping together holding hands, and less shaky! hehe, i'm sure the mother is gonna scream if she saw me! :P

all in all, i think this rafting is the best activity out of the 3 that we did in gopeng, even though it's the one that gave me all the scratches and bruises (not to mention sunburn. even my ears were burnt!). so now we're looking forward to our next wwr trip! haha... from caving to wwr! such thrills!!

going home...

after getting back to the resort via the transfer lorry again (this time we weren't so lucky; we had to hop onto the back like the rest of the "zhu-chai" [canto: piglets]), we had our lunch, bath and then checked out. before we go, we took a walk around the area surrounding the resort.

the afternoon session of rafters setting out...

been there, done that...

as gopeng is actually very near kellie's castle in batu gajah (only 6km away), we decided to drive over and check it out. i won't bore everyone with the details of this castle here... any of you interested in reading more abt it can click here.

view of the castle from across the moat...

the corridor at the ground floor...

view from the roof of the castle...

N: "i'm scared of heights..."
the opening on the roof from where the stairs come up...

ok, really going home...

saw this swamp full of lotus flowers along the road not far from kellie's castle,
so we stopped by the roadside and got down to take this photo...

detour at tapah...

me: ling, remember to stop at the tapah r&r wor.
N: y ar?
me: i wanna buy jambu air and seedless guava. can ar?
N: u asked oredi, takkan i won't stop for u!

but on the way to the jambu air stalls,
something more tempting lured us from our path!

who needs jambu air when we can have baskin-robbins? yums...

but in the end, we bought our jambu air also lar... hehe...

end of the journey...

taking our own sweet time coming back, we only reached kl at abt 8pm. it's great that the next day was a public holiday (awal muharram). we do not need to rush back to prepare ourselves (mentally and physically) for work the next day... and to close off our trip (and after all the simple kampung food, and also because i was craving for chicken those few days), we decided to treat ourselves to kenny rogers! yummers!

we can eat a lot! see, i got coupons!

short weekend getaway: my gopeng resort - day 1

2008-12-29T23:13:00.000+08:00

one fine day...

this was a very last minute trip. it all started last tuesday, when i was feeling particularly restless. so i sent N an sms:

“i suddenly feel so sien… feel like going away somewhere for few days. u think our gua tempurung trip can happen dis weekend?”

at which N promptly replied:

“can… so long v got friends go with us… u check website for min requirement. min 5 pax if i’m not mistaken”

but after asking everyone we can think of (that we wanted on the trip), no one wanted to go with us! i think it was because it was so last minute. less than 1 week's notice! i wanted to ask san, but she wasn’t online that day… and i reckoned it’ll be too last minute for her too.

so in the end, we decided to go by ourselves, which i think still worked out for the best! less ppl, less hassle! and we also decided to go to gua kandu instead of gua tempurung, which is also in perak.

long morning wait

as mentioned in my previous post, i was pissed with N for (i think) not taking this trip seriously that i nearly wanted to cancel everything and crawl back into bed. luckily N managed to persuade me otherwise…

and so, our trip began! since it’s quite a long drive to perak, we didn’t want to make it a day trip. so we booked a package at My Gopeng Resort, inclusive of full board (5 meals), 1 gua kandu trip and 1 night jungle trekking.

bored in the car

in between yakking abt anything and everything, and singing tunes from mama mia! at the top of our lungs, i was pretty bored in the car. well, i think these photos explained my boredom…

one indication that u're nearing ipoh
is the limestone caves along the highway...

N sempat lagi (malay: still had time) to pose for my camera!

yours truly... i was bored, ok? not very sharp pic, coz of the moving car...

our breakfast-on-the-go!

nearly there! 1 more km to the gopeng exit!

getting into gopeng town

well, the map indicated that upon turning right from the toll, we are to look out for a bus station on our right, at which we are to turn into gopeng town. but after driving for 15 minutes, we still did not see any bus station. and we were already heading towards setiawan! so we called the resort to ask again and found out that the bus station is only abt 3-4 minutes from the toll. ok… we made a u-turn and only saw the bus station after driving really slowly and opening our eyes really big.

the place don’t look like a bus station at all! i think the resort should indicate more landmarks in their map, such as the post office next to the bus station and also the police station next to the post office. those are the more obvious landmarks, compared to the bus station. also, i think the resort should have a sign board by the main road pointing INTO gopeng town, instead of appearing AFTER we’ve gotten our lost selves into there.

while lost, we passed by this 2 rows of empty pre-war shoplots...
very eerie. it was quickly dubbed as 'ghost town' by us

and the journey continues

dear, u think this one ok ar?

after a brief stop at an electrical shop in gopeng town (where N wanted to buy a headlamp or a torchlight for our caving), we followed the signboards scattered along the way towards the resort… from town, the road got smaller and the surrounding overgrown with bushes and undergrowth. the adventurous selves in us were awakened and we can’t wait to get to our destination!

this wira a few cars in front of us had some trouble with the pot-holed road.
so we got down from our car to 'kay-poh' (hokkien: become busybodies).
moral of the story: don't modify ur car!

along the way, i was looking if there were any cars behind us, and saw this!

some 20 over ppl packed behind a lorry!

we were laughing our heads off, commenting that they look like kena ‘mai-zhu-chai’ (canto: ‘sold-off pig’ --> human trafficking).

arrived at last!

main entrance to the resort...

entrance to the carpark at the back...

the place is very nicely tended, with vast open space and has a very peaceful kampung feel to it. after checking in at abt 1.15pm, we straight away had our lunch before checking out our living quarters.

the dining area... looks like a canteen, hor?

their buffet lunch was a simple fare...

back to basics... but good thing everything was very clean. no icky feelings!

and the adventure begins!

after settling down and changing into appropriate clothes and shoes, we were brought to gua kandu… on the lorry as mentioned above! turned out, those lorries are used for transferring the guests and participants to the various activity locations around the area! so the moral of the story here is, do not laugh at ppl at the back of lorries looking like ‘zhu-chai’ (canto: pig) on the way to the market, coz u’ll never know when u’ll end up like them! but we were lucky coz on this trip, there were only the 2 of us, so our guide (an org asli named ah ngah) let us sit in front with the driver while he climbed onto the back of the lorry.

we had to climb up a small hill to get to the opening of the cave

N was very excited when she saw this huge 'umbrella'! if u've watched
the cartoon 'my neighbour totoro', u'll understand this...

gua kandu is very different from the dark cave in batu caves. the whole feeling of the cave is different. for one, there weren’t any ‘adventure route’ for us to creep and crawl through. secondly, the smell of guano is minimal. thirdly, the chambers and ‘halls’ in gua kandu are huge! we felt like we were in a whale’s stomach!

also, there are more loose sand and dirt in this cave. according to ah ngah, if we were a group, the air will get very dusty from the trampled loose dirt. unlike in the dark cave, the inside of this cave is mostly dry. so instead of mud, we get a lot of dust on us.

an opening at the opposite side of the cave...

rock curtains... don't this reminds u of davy jones'
"octopus beard" from pirates of the carribean?

another cave opening... this opening is
actually very big, with a long drop below

one for the record! we were here!

with ah ngah. at another opening at another part of the cave...

haha... i made N do this! to show that the stalactite and stalagmite
are nearly touching! but they would still need a few more hundred years
to actually join into a column

there were also no regulations whatsoever in gua kandu. visitors are allowed to touch the cave walls and rock formations, which will actually erode and spoil them. and we are allowed to take flash photography wherever and whenever we like. no worries abt scaring the bats! i think the reason for this is because there weren’t any body managing or guarding this cave, unlike the dark cave, which is managed by mns. here at gua kandu, anyone is allowed to come and go as they please. we went in equipped with only our flashlights, without any safety helmets! and there were even rubbish scattered here and there, especially plastic water bottles.

water bottles left by some irresponsible visitor...

also, i think the resort can improve on this package by providing a more expert guide. the orang asli guide is a good guide, in the sense that he made sure of our safety and knows all the route to take. but on top of seeing the cave, we were also looking to learn more about it. so it would be great to have a proper guide to explain to us the facts abt the cave.

the communists hid here in the 1950s...

i don't read chinese but according to N, it said
"long live chairman mao!" and "long live the communist party!"

we emerge from kandu cave via this huge opening...

to get back to the road, we need to go through this path in the undergrowth...

back at the resort

no, i wasn't taking N's bum. i wanted to capture the menu
for today's dinner! ok, so i lied. i was taking N's dirty bum. so sue me!

sweaty and dusty, we went back to the resort for our afternoon tea. as we still had some 2 hours to kill before dinner, N and i decided to take a short trip of our own to explore the area around the resort. we heard that there is a waterfall nearby, so we drove up the road from the resort entrance in search of it, even though it had started to rain.

we got to the waterfall after abt 15 minutes of driving. it’s not everyday we get to see a waterfall, so we jumped right in! ok, not really… we just waded in up to our knees, just to soak our feet. and yes, in the rain! N was even wearing her poncho! what a sight we were! luckily there were only the two of us…

see, it's really rubber ler!

getting back to the resort, N the city gal excitedly went to examine the tapped rubber tree next to the resort car park. this was her first time seeing a real life rubber tree and she announced loudly that she’ll wake up very early the next morning to see the rubber tappers at work!

dinner!

after taking the coldest shower in my life, we went to the mess for dinner. there, we found that dinner for that night was barbecue! each group had our own bbq pit and portions prepared according to the number of person in our group. i think this was done very well. everyone gets their share and we don’t have to crowd around a huge bbq pit. other than the raw meat and vege for bbq, the resort also prepared some fried rice, chicken curry etc to make sure big eaters do not starve!

night jungle trekking

after dinner, N and i went back to our hut to change back into our dirty caving clothes for the next activity --> night jungle trekking. personally, i did not enjoy this. normally i like jungle trekking, but it being night, we can’t really see anything other than the small area lit up by our torchlights. and because the group was very big (50 of us!) with a mixture of adults and kids, the trek was very slow. some trekkers who were ‘not so deft’, kept stumbling and slipping on the muddy and slippery jungle floor, slowing down the ones behind. N and i were right at the back (roll call number at 40 and 41), and we got pretty bored after awhile.

and because there were only 4 guides spread along the long line of single file participants, we did not hear anything the guides say. again, we were looking to be ‘educated’. so it would be great if the groups were smaller and the guide can explain things to us as we go along.

but N and i enjoyed the river crossing near the end of the trek. initially they had wanted to cancel the river crossing, because there were kids in the group. but N asked if we can be split into 2 groups, with one group going for the river crossing. so that’s what we got! of course, the river is not very wide, but the water was very rapid! and cold too! the water level came up to our chest and we had to cross it by holding on to a rope tied across the river. i would say it’s the only interesting part of the trek.

we got back to the resort at about 11.30pm. another cold shower ensued! brrr… if only they had hot water for these nighttime showers!

goodnight!

after shower, we were dead tired. those who know us would expect us to talk into the night, but nope! we just rolled out our sleeping bags and fell right asleep!

just a quick one...

2008-12-27T08:56:00.000+08:00

my vegetating days have begun! on 'leave-clearing' leave beginning 24th dec till 4th jan. but actually, have been so bz that i've not much time to vegetate... hopefully next week will be better!

neeways, had some friends from the orchestra over for a pot-luck session and gifts exchange on christmas eve. a lot of stupid and crazy jokes flying around... and played our own version of "truth or dare" --> "truth or drink!"

christmas day, had extended orchestra practice in preparation for our 1st Jan and KLPac performance. a fruitful practice session, i would say. but didn't really enjoy the company. after practice, went for yum-cha with a few orchestra members and a short heart-to-heart as to why i don't enjoy the company of some of the members.

boxing day, was bz with work (from home). need to get everything sent out by the 27th... finished work at abt 2am, pack for today's caving trip (yes, another one!) and went to sleep at abt 3.30am. did not sleep well. kept tossing and turning and waking up every hour or so.

woke up at 7am today. gave N a morning call and got myself ready by 8am. waited for N to come pick me up... now it's past 9am, and still waiting... argh!!! found out she did not pack the night before, but went straight to bed after we spoke on the phone at abt 12am. if i'd known earlier, i'd sleep an extra hour and not feel like shit now.

~~BIG sigh~~

happy winter solstice...

2008-12-22T00:36:00.000+08:00

actually my family is not big on these 'additional celebrations' of the chinese... that was why the mother did not even bother to call me to see if i'm eating anything special or if i had the opportunity to eat the 'tong-yuen' (glutinous rice balls) on this special day, even tho wikipedia dubbed the dongzhi (winter solstice festival) as one of the most important festivals celebrated by the chinese.

but housemate M is really a gem. she made sure housemate P and i get older by one year (as the chinese believe) by preparing us these glutinous rice balls... 3 balls with 3 different fillings each - peanut, red bean and black sesame. really a good wife in the making, huh that gal! kakaka...

time for giving, time for caring...

2008-12-21T11:49:00.000+08:00

that's the theme for the company's christmas csr program every year. this year's program took place today... so here are some photos...

having my face painted...

it's a sea horse! but very big hor?

with 2 very cute kids from the New Life Home...

going home... hope u enjoyed yourselves today...
pls study hard and create a good and meaningful life for yourselves!

long overdue gift...

2008-12-18T17:57:00.000+08:00

since a few years back, i've been sending birthday cards and gifts to my cousin's 2 daughters in singapore. well, it was pretty easy to choose gifts for them when they were younger. but now that they're nearly teenagers (you know how singaporean kids mature earlier), i've been struggling with gift ideas these 2 years. it's not easy being someone's fav ah yee, you know! and singapore being such a material-conscious place, i don't want to just buy any expensive branded stuff for the girls and encourage materialism in them. i want gifts that are meaningful and would help in their development.

previously, seeing that their parents are not big readers, i try to encourage the reading habit by getting them books that i hope would instill the love of reading in them. i've given them so many books by roald dahl that i lost track of which books they have and which they have not! and then after a while, i'm not even sure if they're reading the books i sent them... coz of course they would answer a sweet 'yes' when asked if they like their presents!

anyway, this year, i totally forgot abt K's birthday (in september)! i only remembered it like one month later... so then began the whole process of cracking my head on what to buy. and then before i found the perfect gift, i forgot abt it again! hahaha... so boh-sim (hokkien: not sincere) hor?

then early last month, our families had a gathering at my house. the moment K entered the door and saw me, she went, "ah sue ah yee! you forgot my birthday present!" and my cousin mentioned that K kept bugging her to check the letterbox everyday for my gift! yikes! :P

so i was thinking and thinking of what to buy her, when i suddenly thought of Jullie! now that K is old enough to have a handphone, Jullie's handmade handphone charm would be just the perfect gift! and since Jullie is in singapore, she can just send it straight to my cousin's address.

and today, it's finally done! here's the pic Jullie sent me. it's made of 100% swarovski crystals. gorgeous! can't wait for K to get it in the mail!

read also:
1) overdue gift
2) cny '06

random conversations on my caving trip

2008-12-17T15:08:00.000+08:00

me: would u be interested to join us for caving?
M: CAVING??? eh, i saw in the documentaries hor, got a lot of cases where the ppl got lost in the caves!
me: heh? no lar... got guides one mar
M: yes, but still will get lost one
me: and got trails one mar. just follow the trail. dun simply-simply walk lar
M: yeah lar, but still will get lost one. u'll never know...

----------

me: ok, confirmed! going caving this weekend
M: scary
me: kekeke
M: forbidden
me: yeah lor... i also foresee u won't like
M: wooo... once in... no out
me: hahahaha
M: woooo... wooooo...
me: karut (nonsense) lar
M: tell san... once in... no out
me: she went before lar
M: never out. takkan keluar. won't out. tak keluar keluar. beh tan chut lai (can't come out)

----------

me: i'm going caving. u interested to join?
yw: aiyo, no lar... like so scary
me: ok
yw: if u see Batman there, let me know ar

----------

me: y dun wanna bring Ke Er?
N: my sis said very dangerous wor. worry the thing will collapse
me: aiyo, if after so many millions of years, the cave choose to collapse on the day we are there, then i also bo-pien (no choice) lar
N: and so happen to collapse on us, right?
me: yeah lar. then is really fated. nothing we can do

----------

ks: ah sue ah yee, y is it called 'hei fong dong' ("black-wind hole" - mandarin name for batu caves)
me: erm... didn't you remember how dark it was inside just now?
ks: oh yeah, but 'fong' (wind) ler?
me: erm... erm... neh, just now there was one tunnel, where it was really windy, remember?
ks & ke: oohhh...
me: *phew*

bento #22: the one also with the kao-zhi

2008-12-17T14:43:00.000+08:00

got M to help me buy these from pasar malam yesterday... 5 for RM3. so saved 2 for today's breakfast bento.

read also:
1) bento #13: the one with the kao-zhi
2) bento #3: warm-hearted breakfast

caving at the dark cave...

2008-12-15T21:57:00.000+08:00

N has been telling me about this caving adventure since forever, but i've only had the chance to go try it out last weekend.

this cave is called The Dark Cave, and it's a part of Batu Caves. not many ppl know abt it, coz it's only until recently that they started advertising and commercializing it. i think the management of this cave was taken over by MNS (Malaysian Nature Society) only recently, coz the 2 previous trips that N went (this is her 3rd trip), they were not so organized and did not provide the necessary tools for the cavers. there were also minimal rules and regulations as compared to now. of course, the entrance fee were also much cheaper then.

anyway, we arrived at the batu caves at 10am. as our group consisted of only 2 adults and 2 children (N's 2 nieces), we were asked to join another group for the adventure trip. the fee for a group of 5 adults and above is RM80 per pax, while 4 adults is RM90 per pax (children is at a flat rate of RM60).

we need to climb abt 180+ of the batu caves steps to get to the dark cave's entrance

fee inclusive of safety helmet, headlamp and boots...
but N and i opted not to wear their boots, coz it's so icky!

the group we joined was a troop of scouts from SMK Confucious. we later found out that 2 more canadian girls are to join us as well. the 4 of us were the first to arrive, followed shortly by the group of 30+ scouts. after some waiting, the canadian girls arrived and we were ready to start!

a short briefing and some educational facts before the start of our journey...

take the opportunity to cam-whore a bit, while we're still clean!

did you know, batu caves is actually a part of the titiwangsa range? i didn't know ler...

our guide (we didn't find out his name) explaining about the rock formations, the sea water level mark on the cave walls, the plate tectonic movements etc...

at the entrance to the dark cave, the stench of guano is overpowering. but that's just the beginning. the smell gets stronger when we went into the cave, especially at one particular spot where there were millions of bats hanging overhead! we were reminded to close our mouth when we look up at them, lest we get a taste of the yummy guano! haha...

the beginning part of the journey is the educational route, where we were shown some cave wonders such as stalactites and stalagmites, flowstones, rimstone pools etc and how they were formed.

the inside of the cave is pitch dark!

at the end of the educational trip, we were brought to sit in a small chamber and then asked to switch off our headlamp. boy, was it dark in there! it's so dark that our eyes hurt, coz our eyes were trying hard to focus on something, but there were only pitch darkness. it's like the darkness was pressing down on our eyeballs. we were then asked to keep very quiet and very still, and just listen...

at one of the few places where we're allowed to use the camera flash. sudden bright lights will scare away the bats, and considering the number of bats in that cave, it could result in an 'air stampede'!

after the educational trail, we began our adventure trail. from here onwards, we had to keep our cameras in a sealed plastic bag, coz our whole body would get very wet and muddy! take note of how white Ke Shin's and Ke Er's t-shirts in the picture above. and look at the pic below!

all wet and muddy! at another spot which allowed flash photography

in the adventure trail, we were brought through a series of small tunnels and confined spaces where at some places we need to bend down, walk like a duck, crawl on all 4s or even creep along on our stomach! some places were so small, we can't even do the commando crawl because there weren't any space for our elbows and knees to protrude from our sides. all we can do is stretch our hands straight in front of us, legs straight behind us, and use our fingers to grip on the rough ground to pull while using our toes to push ourselves forward. sometimes, we even need to turn our heads to our left, coz if we look in front, our heads would get stuck in the small opening due to our safety helmet. but why look to the left and not right? coz somehow, the left side of the openings are bigger than the right.

and every time we creep along, we'd only move abt an inch forward! it's really a slow and labourious process that leaves us totally exhausted and need to take a rest while crushed in between the rocks! after a while, we just couldn't care abt being dirty anymore and just rested our whole being, including our faces, on the wet mud!

one day before this trip, a friend cautioned me that this adventure will be a big challenge for those with claustrophobia. and i went "oh shit! i think i am slightly claustrophobic!" so he was trying to reassure me, asking me to relax, do not panic, just go at my own pace etc. and at the beginning of the adventure trail at the entrance of the first 'hole', where our guide did a 2nd round of briefing, i kept looking at the hole and ask myself if it's really possible for an adult human being to go thru it??? the holes could get as small as abt 30cm (h) x 40cm (w)! but luckily the guide is quite fat, so if he can get thru, surely i can too!

but all those crawling and creeping took a toll on my shoes! at just the beginning of the adventure trail, the soles of my left shoe gave way, flapping at every step i took! argh!!! so i just tore it off and passed it on to the guide as a souvenir! kaka... no lar, he took it from me to keep in his sling bag coz we're not supposed to leave things in the cave and furthermore, i needed both my hands free to move about in there, as well as to help Ke Shin (who was under my care) and sometimes to hold her hand. then later, on the last leg of the journey, my right shoe began to flap! gosh, those nike shoes are really useless! i didn't even bother to bring them back. just threw them into the rubbish bin in the bathroom... that'll be my last pair of nike ever!

and in the confined hollows of the caves, we can see fine particles of lime dust floating about the whole chamber. it's like inhaling the dust from the whiteboard chalks from our school days, which is actually the same thing. imagine inhaling all these dust for more than 1 hour! i think my lungs must be pretty clogged up now!

well, this whole trip was estimated to take abt 3 hrs (as per advised by the liaison person when we called in). so when we exited from the cave, i expected it to be around 1pm, or 2pm at the most. as non of us wore any watches (coz we knew we'd get really dirty), i only found out abt the time after we got into the car on our way home! in actual fact, we came out from the cave at 3.30pm and finish our bath at 4pm! 5 hrs in there! no wonder i was famished! i think the extended hours was due to the group being so big. nearly 40 of us... and for most of the adventure trail, we need to go one by one, very very slowly.

overall, this trip is really educational and adventurous. and N's 2 nieces really enjoyed it! so we've promised them we'd go again next time, when they start to learn abt rock formations, stalactite and stalagmite etc in their school books. but u know, i think by then i'd be too old for such exhausting activities! even now, my arms are still aching and my body (esp my elbows and knees) are covered with bruises and scratches. i feel like a big splat of rock has dropped on me, or i've been beaten up by someone! hmm... maybe we'd just drop them off and then come pick them up again after we've done our shopping! :P

bento #21: the one with triangles of rice...

2008-12-15T15:02:00.000+08:00

went to midvalley with M yesterday... so bought these onigiri for today's bento. yummers!

read also:
1) bento #18: the one with all the shapes
2) bento #17: discounted sushi again!
3) bento #6: sushi breakfast and home-cooked lunch...
4) bento #5: discounted sushi and nando's leftover
5) bento #1: bento mania!

must've jinxed myself!

2008-12-12T13:32:00.000+08:00

right after i publish this post (specifically item #2 & 3), things began to turn crazy in the office! suddenly i'm so busy! and the boss is STILL throwing work at me, as if i've not more than i can chew on my plate. relaxing my @ss!

but yikes! u think the boss is reading my blog?! :S

things the mother said to me recently...

2008-12-11T14:14:00.000+08:00

1) har? it's nearly noon and still in bed! if i have a cane now, i'd surely give u a good caning!

2) your brother saw an ad for a vacancy with xxx company in the newspaper today. u try to apply lar. they're offering very high pay and comes with good benefits. u try lar...

3) i tell u ar... u're not young anymore ar... anyone courting you now? when are you going to settle down? please ar, be serious ar...

4) cny coming. go out and buy some new clothes for yourself lar... (fwaaah! the mother is asking me to go shopping ler!) what? no money? *repeat nag #2*

5) how come your panda eyes getting darker? always sleep late somemore lar! *repeat variations of nag #1*

why i love december...

2008-12-10T19:13:00.000+08:00

1) the weather is not so hot, with more rain... ok, sometimes it's a nuisance trying to get our laundry to dry, but i'd trade this cool weather with the hot, dry and windy one typical of cny any day!

2) with the year nearly over, all the projects, contracts, scheduling etc. are done. so things in the office are generally just tying up the loose ends, planning for next year and doing the budget

3) it's the time where everyone is clearing leave! everyday, someone is surely on leave... so generally, the office is quieter and the atmosphere more relaxed

4) it's the time i get to clear off my leave! (tym, dun jealous!) so looking forward to my long leave end of the year! gonna do some serious vegetating at home! keke... :P

5) it's xmas month! not that i celebrate, but it's a good excuse for parties, right? and gift exchanges! bring out the booze, ppl! :P

6) it's the end of the year, with next year a clean slate. time to put all the bad stuff behind us, and look forward to a new year, with fresh hopes, renewed vigour, new goals and new beginning!

here's an early happy christmas and happy new year to everyone!

first christmas pressie...

2008-12-10T19:06:00.000+08:00

ok, just a short one. received my first christmas present of the year... from the bossbossboss! how sweet... (pls ignore the mess on my table!)

some videos of chewie

2008-12-02T17:10:00.000+08:00

was particularly bored in the office today, so was browsing thru my phone and found these cool videos of chewie. even until now, i still can't get over how smart she is!

sitting-up. i don't wan to use the word 'beg', coz this trick is NOT to beg. just to make her look oh-so-cute!

play dead. she's so good at this!

for a dog who loves food so much, it's amazing that she understands the word 'wait' and can really sit there patiently until my cue for her to eat!

gosh, i miss her so much, it hurts! :'(

read also:
1) a more obedient pup?
2) chewie at 4 months +

new project...

2008-11-28T14:43:00.000+08:00

i guess everyone must be thinking i've stopped making any crafts, now that i'm so bz with my job. not true! actually i've done a few items, but just did not post them up. will do so one of these days lar...

anyway, here's my latest project... have just started lar, so can't show anything yet. it all came about when i saw jullie's blog on the cute bootie her friend made for her baby joel. it's just so cute! then i remembered that i was supposed to crochet a baby bootie for N's sister's baby ah bao... but now baby ah bao is already abt 4 months old, and baby booties is still... hehe... bayang pun belum nampak lar (not even the shadows of it)!

actually, it's not that i procrastinated lar. it's just that i can't seem to find a nice pattern to work on. so when i saw jullie's blog, i straight away asked her abt it and she directed me to sylver, who's selling her patterns on etsy. boy, this seller is really great. so many cute booties patterns to choose from!

and seeing that baby ah bao is a girl, while jullie's baby joel is a boy, i decided not to make the same one as baby joel's, but chose a sweeter pattern instead. here's a pic of how the finished work is supposed to look like, taken from sylver's etsy. cute right? hopefully my end product will look just as cute lar! :P

as for my work, i've only just finished the soles of one shoe. i'm such a slow worker! hopefully by the time i finish, baby ah bao can still fit into them!

movie: 10 promises to my dog

2008-11-25T09:03:00.000+08:00

actually, this is a movie i watched a few weeks back with M, N, and N's 2 little nieces. and gosh, how we cried like mad! in fact, the whole cinema was crying!

i think for anyone who loves dogs and who has ever had a dog in their life, or any pet for that matter, would totally understand and relate to this movie.

this is basically a simple enough movie, dealing with a girl's journey through life and her little companion by her side. actually, i think it's the other way round... a dog's journey through life with his/her owner (i just realized that we don't know if Socks is a male or a female!).

anyway, this really reminded me of my chewie, and made me miss her sssooooo SO much! and of all the promises to her that i broke... :'( i cried so hard in that cinema that i had a headache afterwards! and it's so hard watching sad movies in the cinemas coz we have to tahan ourselves so as not to cry too loud and disturb other ppl! haha... halfway through the movie, i wanted to stand up and shout to M and N, "haiya! next time don't watch this kinda movie in the cinema lar!!" :P

read also:
1) august rush
2) mama mia! fever!
3) spring waltz

right or wrong?

2008-11-24T12:02:00.000+08:00

this post has been removed on request from certain party, due to the sensitiveness of the issue.

mount kinabalu challenge: departure day

2008-11-23T14:05:00.000+08:00

opps... i realized that i forgot to explain why we need to cut our toe nails really short, as mentioned in my post on day 1.

well you see, during the descent, because we're going downhill the whole time, the front of our toes will always be hitting the inside of our shoes, for more than 6 hours straight! so if it's our toe nails that are hitting the inside of the shoes, we may run the risk of injuring our toe nails, especially on the big toes. i've heard of many cases where climbers come back with dead toe nails, meaning they turned black and then eventually fall right off! and the time it takes for the new nail to grow back is torturous, not to mention we can't wear covered shoes the whole time! that's y it's important to cut our toe nails real short, so that only the front of our toes hit the inside of the shoes, and not the nails.

but of course, it's best to wear those strapped-on sandals for hiking when descending lar. actually i brought along a pair, but as it was raining heavily and i don't think my sandals are the kind that are made to be worn wet, i decided against wearing them. and besides, since my sports shoes were already wet from the ascent, no point wetting another pair, right?

ok, let's continue with our story. i promise this will be the last installment on the mount kinabalu trip! hehe... i know it's getting a bit stale. just bear with me lar... :P

8am
woke up with an aching body! at first, i've decided not to follow HL to the market, but to sleep in and get more rest. if possible, i do not want to move any part of my body even for an inch! but in the end, i thought it'll be stupid not to explore the city, after coming so far. i won't know when will i have the chance to go back there again, right? so i had to peeled myself from the comforts of the bed lor!

turned out, everyone (except for kc, whose flight was at 1pm) was game for the walk to the filipino market, abt 2km from our apartment. we must've looked like a troop of OKU (org kurang upaya), walking like penguins around town! haha... we were laughing at ourselves along the way!

slow and laborious walk to the filipino market...

10.10am
arrived at the filipino market and walked around. nothing much to buy there, and the prices were not exactly cheap.

10.40am
HL wanted to go over to the wet market to buy fresh seafood to be brought home to kl. so our group splitted into 2. one group went to the wet market, while those of us who didn't want to buy seafood went to walk around the shopping complexes at the area.

11.00am
after walking around aimlessly and looking at whatever that caught our fancy, we got a call from R and wife, saying that they are at Warisan Square, having lunch. so we trudged over there to join them before heading back to the apartment to pack-up and get ready to go to the airport.

1.00pm
we were coached to the airport, abt 15 minutes away. as our flights were at 4.30pm (HL, RC, boss, A and i) and 5.00pm (SP and bf, and R and wife), we had much time to kill. so what else? continue shopping lar! :P

3.00pm
got bored with the shops at the airport. so we went over to a foot reflexology shop and looked at their various services. R and wife were contemplating on getting a foot massage... but in the end thought better of it, lest the therapists injure their already injured legs! so we just hung around at the seats outside the shop, talking and laughing.

4.00pm
took off from kk! but unfortunately, our plane had to transit at labuan... so 30 min after taking off, we had to land again and everyone was told to disembark from the plane. man, is was so painful getting up and walking out of that plane! the transit was for 50 minutes. quite long, right? but by the time we got off the plane and walked down to waiting area, it's time to board again! so can imagine how slowly we walked! :D

7.40pm
arrived at KLIA and took the KLIA transit back. it's cheaper, but oh how i regretted it! should've taken the limo home... coz when i reached the bandar tasik selatan station, i realized (only too late) that the stations did not have escalators nor lifts! i had to WALK up and down the stairs myself! urgh!!! i think everyone at the station must've been looking at this girl with the big red backpack, walking down the stairs like some weirdo! :P

read also:
1) mount kinabalu challenge: day 3
2) mount kinabalu challenge: day 2
3) mount kinabalu challenge: day 1
4) bestest friend in the world!
5) mount kinabalu challenge: failed
6) updates and such...
7) mount kinabalu challenge

mount kinabalu challenge: day 3

2008-11-22T16:11:00.000+08:00

2.00am
morning call from SP. finally it's time to wake up! we jumped out of bed and got ready for our summit attempt. it's STILL raining outside... dang, we really came at a wrong time! we bundled ourselves in our winter jacket, gloves, caps and ponchos, and turned on our headlamps, and off we go!

see that gal at the far left in the yellow jacket and purple cap? that's yours truly lar! keke...

2.45am
it was really dark outside, and really cold. before we set off, our team leader, HL, told us that we need to walk in single file and to walk together until we reach the sayat-sayat checkpoint. i was placed at the 3rd position, behind J, who was behind our guide. at sayat-sayat, we would then decide if we want to/can proceed to the summit or to turn back.

so 11 of use set out, leaving one behind at gunting lagadan. one of my roommates, T, who suffered from altitude sickness, has decided to forgo the attempt to summit.

3.00am
after only abt 15 min of trekking in the dark, i was really short of breath. and because there were people following closely behind me, and also HL had asked us to just follow the line and not to overtake, i was very pressured to keep up with J and our guide, so as not to slow everyone down. but the air was really very thin that i couldn't breathe properly! i felt really faint and began to sweat cold sweat and see stars! so i stopped to catch my breath... and everyone else behind me had to stop too! imagine how stressed out i was! not wanting to keep everyone waiting and also not wanting to pass out when we got higher up, i decided that i'll turn back.

along the way down, i kept contemplating if i should turn around again and try another time... but by then, my teammates would have gone quite far ahead and also the thought of passing out at the cliff made me stick to my decision to give up the attempt. so i crawled back into my sleeping bag and continued my sleep when i got back to gunting lagadan.

3.30am
there came a knock on my room door... as it turned out, my boss also can't stand the thin air and has decided to turn back. he was walking really slowly that the guide (he's at the 2nd last position, with the guide behind him) said to him, "eh, kalau macam ni, takkan sempat nak sampailah" (at this pace, we would never make it in time). so he just turned back!

around 7.00am (did not look at the watch)
woke up to KC's voice. he was the first of my teammates to come back to gunting lagadan. he was talking so loudly, that i can hear his full accounts to my boss from my room, even with the door closed!

anyway, i learnt that KC and J were the first to reach Low's Peak, at abt 6am. and the weather up there was absolutely hellish! the wind was lashing at them like nobody's business and the rain was practically hitting their faces horizontally! some of those wearing disposable ponchos had pieces of their ponchos torn off by the rain and wind!

9.00am
by then, all my teammates were back at gunting lagadan and the 3 of us (T, boss and i) got the full story from everyone. all 9 of them managed to reach the summit, with 5 of them (KC, J, A, RC and SP's bf) advancing on to Low's Peak (the highest peak of mount kinabalu). the 3 of us listened in a mixture of awe, envy and relief at their stories - awe at their courage in facing the harshness of the situation, envy that they made it and relief that we were not subjected to the harsh weather and difficulties ourselves!

9.30am
we packed our bags and went down to laban rata for breakfast. again, the buffet line was not that fantastic. but we needed the energy, so no choice lor! have to eat what was dished out in front of us... but my appetite seemed to be better than the previous night, coz i took a 2nd helping of french toast! haha...

10.45am
time to descend! it's still raining, tho' more to drizzling. but still cold!

one final group photo before we leave this place... see the
thermometer there with the red dial? it shows 11.1 deg C!

the earlier leg of our descent. statistics has shown that most ppl fall down during the descent! so we had to be very careful with our footing, esp with the rocks so wet and slippery.

anyway, the trek down was more torturous compared to the trip up. it was really really difficult! because we're trekking down the whole time, it's very tiring and really put a strain on our knees. luckily N had advised me to bring along a pair of knee guard, so the impact was not that bad. but our legs still felt like jello at the end of the journey!

along the way, we begin to spread out... and after a while, i'm trekking alone again. the journey down seemed longer than up! i kept expecting to see the end of the trail at every corner, but was disappointed every time. and the rain got really heavy! at first, i tried to avoid the puddles so that i don't get my socks wet. but then the trail turned into a mini waterfall as the rain got heavier. so in the end, i just didn't care abt getting wet anymore. i just put my legs one in front of the other methodically, on the rocks, into puddles, down the man-made stairs as if in a trance.

i was so dejected and miserable, that crazy and silly thoughts began to play inside my head. "could there be some secret road up that they've been concealing from us, that they used for ambulances in cases of emergency?" "where would the helicopter land if they found me unconscious among the bushes?" "i wonder what will happen if i just crouch beneath this tree and simply refuse to budge?" "are there indigenous ppl on this mountain? are they peeking at me from behind their hiding place, laughing at me the whole time?" i think other than challenging ourselves physically, this climb is also a test to our mental endurance.

3.15pm
finally, i reached the timpohon gate! i'm the 3rd, after kc and my boss. the feeling? well, utter exhaustion and feeling like wanna die! every tiny movement spells P-A-I-N in capital letter! even when announcing my name and number to the guard at the gate (to be ticked off as arrived), i had to take a breath in between each syllable that came out!

and that's not the end yet! we still had to wait for the rest of the team... so we just sat around, feeling miserable and so exhausted! and because we've stopped moving, our bodies got really cold! even though in the shelter of the timpohon gate, we were reluctant to take off our ponchos, coz it acted as an insulation from the cold wind. but the ponchos were so wet and we were dying to get dry! so can imagine our dilemma...

4.00pm
HL arrived and called our agent to tell him to send a coach for us. by then, A, RC, R and wife have also arrived, so HL told the 7 of us to go on ahead to the kinabalu park where our lunch were waiting for us. actually the buffet lunch is from 12.oopm - 4.00pm, so she was worried they would not wait for us. so off we went, leaving HL to wait for the rest.

4.15pm
lunch! we were famished! but all of us attacked the soup first. ah, how good it felt to have something hot in our stomach! the buffet line here was much better than up in laban rata... but we didn't eat much, due to over-fatigue. all we wanted is to get warm and get dry!

5.00pm
HL and the rest of the team arrived at the balsam cafe at kinabalu park. by then, they have closed the buffet line, but i've asked them to pack up the food for the 5 of my teammates. so while they ate, the rest of us went to claim our backpacks from the potters' station and also our stored luggage at the concierge.

5.30pm
departed from kinabalu park to kk town... it's a 2 hour journey, and we slept all the way. i've not had the chance to change into dry clothes, so i had to shiver in the van for 2 whole hours, even with the air-cond turned off!

7.30pm
arrived at Marina Court, an apartment-style accommodation by the sea. we've booked 2 units, 6 to an apartment. after the basic guesthouse of Fairy Garden and the icky lodging of Gunting Lagadan, this is 5 star, baby! :)

and ooooh, my hot shower that night felt like heaven! i nearly didn't want to come out from the bathroom! hehehe...

8.45pm
as J's and T's flight was at 4am the next morning, they've decided not to join us for dinner, but to stay at the apartment to pack-up and rest. so the remaining 10 of us walked over to a seafood restaurant nearby, about 10 minutes' walk away. by now, we were beginning to feel the full effects of our adventure. normal walking were still ok, but when we need to sit down, get up from the sitting position, or lift our legs to step over a boulder, it's pure torture!

we deserved the freshest seafood after all our hard work!

11.00pm
after we've all had our fill, it's time to walk back to our apartment. some time before that, it had began to rain again, after a respite of about 2 hours +. when it's time to go, KC announced that he's wearing his last dry t-shirt and there's no way he's going to walk back in the rain (even though we had umbrellas). and a few of my teammates were also groaning at their aching legs... so A went out to negotiate with a taxi driver, who agreed to take us at RM2/person. so 5 of my teammates (RC, KC, A, and R and wife) squeezed into that taxi, leaving the other 5 of us to walk back in the rain. the taxi driver must be laughing in his heart the whole way... RM10 for a drive of less than 3 minutes!

11.15pm
no, we did not party or meet up to chit-chat after dinner. once we got back to our apartment, we just konked out from exhaustion.

read also:
1) mount kinabalu challenge: day 2
2) mount kinabalu challenge: day 1
3) bestest friend in the world!
4) mount kinabalu challenge: failed
5) updates and such...
6) mount kinabalu challenge

bento #20: the one shared with best pal

2008-11-21T13:33:00.000+08:00

when i came home from practice yesterday, M told me she ta-pao fried rice from ahimsa for today's bento and that 1/2 of it is mine! hehehe... so schweet! so that was how today's bento came about... sponsored by M! yummers!

vegetarian salted fish fried rice...
well, not really vegetarian lar, coz got eggs!

the new look

2008-11-20T19:30:00.000+08:00

well, 2 weekends ago, i went to cut my hair... so here's how i look now:

why cut hair??? well, the standard answer i gave everyone (esp ppl in my company) is, "aiya, cut cost lar. trying to save on shampoo!" this is due to the recent "proactive-measure-in-the-weakening-economic-climate" implemented by my company early this month, which truth be told, really pisses me off to undescribable levels!

anyway, i'm NOT gonna go into that. this post is abt my new hairstyle, ok? so... where were we? oh yeah, why wanna cut hair? hmm... good question. i guess the answer would be: "just for the sheer heck of it lar!"

mount kinabalu challenge: day 2

2008-11-07T11:06:00.000+08:00

*san, see, u dun have to wait until next year to read this post! hehehe...

6.30am
woke up bright and early, in excited anticipation to our trek ahead... too cold to bathe. i didn't even want to take off my jacket!

7.00am
breakfast at the guesthouse. i was still so groggy from sleep that when i was offered a choice of American Breakfast or Noodles, i said i wanted American Noodles! wakaka... everyone at the table was looking at me with a big question mark on their face for a second, especially the waitress!

8.00am
after breakfast, we were coached to the park headquarters (abt 15 min away from our guest house) to get ourselves organised. here, our extra luggages are stored (at RM10 per luggage), the backpacks we wanted the porters to carry up the mountain were weighed (at RM80 per 10kg) and also name tags (with our names, numbers and group) were handed out to everyone. on the coach also, the driver asked us if we wanted to buy the 'tongkat' (walking canes) from him. he said the tongkat is sold for RM5 at the Timpohon Gate, but he's offering it to us for RM3 only! and they don't even looked new. we're sure they have been used and discarded by climbers after they came down, so the driver just collected them and sold them again! renewable income! very enterprising hor?

name tag to be taken home as souvenir...

name, date and group number at the back...

yeah! got my dog-tag and all set to go! :)

8.45am
was coached to the timpohon gate (another 15 min from the park headquarters). actually there are 2 trails up. one is the timpohon trail and the other is the mesilau trail. the timpohon trail is the more common trail, less challenging and shorter. the mesilau trail is the less-travelled one, longer and more challenging, but with better scenery.

together we stand... everyone in high spirits, ready for the challenges ahead!

at the timpohon gate...

briefing by the guide at timpohon gate... but i'm bz taking photos! hehehe...

9.10am
after a short briefing and toilet breaks, we set off from the timpohon gate at an easy pace.

departing from timpohon gate (at the back). coming back,
climbing up these steps was the most torturous part!

can see me at the 2nd last position there? still early on of the ascend...
still pretty easy stroll, like our regular jungle trekking trips

9.38am
after abt 1/2 hour's trek, we came to pondok kandis at 1,981.7 meter a.s.l., the first of the 7 pondok (shelter) along the trail. so far so good...

everyone still looked quite fresh...

there are toilet facilities and water tanks at the shelters. the water are free, but untreated. so drink at ur own risk! we drank loads of those water, coz they were very fresh and cooling! hehehe... oh, and there were a lot of squirrels at the shelters, very fat ones too! once a human stopped at the shelters, these squirrels will appear. coz to them, human = food!

they're so tame, they'll even take food right out of our palms! dem cute...

9.57am
we were advised not to rest for too long at each shelter, because we need to keep our engines running. once our engines cool down, it'll take more energy to get it started up again. so mostly we rest for less than 5 minutes, just enough to drink some water and get ourselves reorganized (maybe need to take out sweater, or keep poncho etc).

after another 20 minutes' trek, we came to the 2nd shelter, pondok ubah at 2,081.4 meter... a little before reaching this shelter, it began to rain. so we all had to don our poncho and walk around like the yellow man from digi! hehe...

"i will follow youuuuu..." photo taken by SP from pondok ubah...

10.07am
we covered 1.5km (from a total of 6km ascending trek to laban rata) in 1 hour... good progress! along the way, lots of porters overtook us. some were carrying their clients' backpacks (a few backpacks to one person!), while some carried gas tanks, long wooden planks etc. they were really quick and sure-footed, and some of the porters were really young, around 13 years old!

a while rain, a while no rain... we were like doing fashion show,
keep putting on and removing our ponchos!

12.48pm
after abt 3 1/2 hours, we reached the 5th shelter, pondok layang-layang at 2,702m a.s.l., where we stopped to have our packed lunch. this packed lunch was part of our package deal, consisting of sandwiches, a piece of fried chicken, a hard-boiled egg, 2 pcs of spring rolls, an apple, a bottle of mineral water and a can of 100 plus. the whole packed lunch weighed abt 1kg! so we had the porter carry it up for us, at RM8/pack. i think that's even more expensive than the packed lunch itself! but nvm, better let them earn that bit of money, than lugging it up ourselves and regreting later! :P

lunching at pondok layang-layang. most of us can't finish our food,
maybe coz we were too tired, or too cold, or the food was too much.
or maybe all of the above!

after the layang-layang shelter, our trail became more
challenging... most of it are like this (or worse) all the way up!

the trek after lunch became more difficult and i was beginning to get out of breath. i think it's because the air was getting thinner and also the trail was getting more challenging, not to mention the rain was heavier, the wind stronger and the temperature colder. so from here on, my progress became slower and i needed to stop to catch my breath every 10 minutes or so...

i'm mostly walking by myself now, coz the faster ones are already ahead of me and the slower ones are far behind me. occasionally, i'll only glimpse one or two of my team members in front of me before they disappear at the bend. however, during the whole way up, we're always meeting other climbers on their way down. we would smile at each other and sometimes exchange a "good morning" or two. for the friendlier ones, they would encourage us to go on, telling us that we're very near the basecamp of laban rata and to not give up. for us, we'd enquire if they managed to summit and to congratulate those who made it.

2.45pm

colleague J at waras hut...

see this hut? "waras hut"? this is situated at the top of a particularly steep part of the trail, so we can only see the top of the zink roof when we reached the bottom of the stretch of the trail. imagine the happiness and relief we felt, thinking we've finally arrived at basecamp! but our happiness was short-lived, when we got close enough to read the sign... *sigh* and so, we trudged on dejectedly, questioning why did we put ourselves through such torture!

3.30pm
finally, i really arrived at the basecamp of laban rata, at 3,554m a.s.l. the first of my team members arrived there at 2.50pm, so i'm considered not too far behind lar. the warm interior of laban rata was really a warm welcome, from the 11.5 degrees C temperature outside. my shoes and socks were soaked through! luckily i wore shorts, so my clothes were fairly dry under my poncho.

since dinner will be served at 5pm at laban rata, we decided against going on to gunting lagadan, our resthouse for the night. so we just sat around to rest our feet and trying to get warm. some of my teammates couldn't wait for dinner, so they ordered maggie mee, fried rice, hot tea and some other food, just to get something hot down their stomach.

5.00pm
finally, dinner was served! just a simple buffet line... the food was not wonderful, but edible lar... and since we're cold and we really need to replenish our energies, so what the heck? just eat lar!

6.00pm
after dinner, it was still raining outside and the 10 of us still need to continue on our trek to our lodging place, gunting lagadan. the resthouse is cheaper compared to laban rata, but that's not the reason why we chose to stay there. it's because laban rata was full! if i had a choice, i'd rather pay more and stay at laban rata, coz their rooms have attached bathrooms and also internal heater!

anyway, the air was really thin even at basecamp, and even tho it's only 15 min away, it was really a difficult trek. i was so short of breath, i had to take one step at a time and stop occasionally to catch my breath.

gunting lagadan is really a very basic lodging place. its made of thin plywood and a zink for a roof, with rows of small rooms fitting 4 bunks, a kitchen and unisex bathrooms. the bathrooms were really icky, wet and with loads of bugs flying around! and not a single nail to hang your things! when i went in with all my clothes and bathing things, i just stood around inside the cubicle, looking around and thinking how on earth am i to take a shower here? after a minute, i decided that i'm not going to shower after all. so i just changed my under clothes, changed into a fresh set of clothes and proceed to 'dry clean' myself with a wet towel.

this is how our resthouse looked like... 4 bunks in a small room, with only a small gap in between the beds. there weren't any place to put our things, except for our shoes. so we need to sleep with our backpacks on our beds.

7.00pm
as we have to wake up at 2.00am for our summit attempt, we need to be in bed early to get some rest. but it was so cold (still raining outside!) and everything felt so damp! i was in my long johns, t-shirt, long pants and jacket, thick socks, sleeping inside my sleeping bag, with two layers of wool blanket on top of my sleeping bag, and STILL i'm freezing!

and i don't know if it's the altitude, the cold or the anxiousness of what lies ahead (maybe all 3!), but i kept waking up throughout the night and needing to pee! looks like it's gonna be a long night ahead...

read also:
1) mount kinabalu challenge: day 1
2) bestest friend in the world!
3) mount kinabalu challenge: failed
4) updates and such...
5) mount kinabalu challenge

mount kinabalu challenge: day 1

2008-11-05T12:58:00.000+08:00

opps, i did it again! leaving for a trip without sleeping at all the night before... *sigh* when will i ever learn?

got off work very late the night before departure, coz need to make sure all my work is settled and also need to leave lots of instructions to my intern during my absence. haha... u should see her desk that night! filled with post-it notes all over the place, on envelopes, water bottle, her pc screen, on top of her table... and follow-up instructions in e-mail too! that should keep her bz for the next few days... hehe...

neeways, got home late, took bath, waited for N to come to do her drop-off, do my laundry, settle some stuff... and not yet pack! started packing only at 2am! crazy... decided to bring only my backpack and a small 'casual backpack' for this trip. so need to pack sparingly.

by the time i finished packing, there's only abt 1 hour left for me to sleep before i need to wake up again and prepare to go to KLIA. so i decided not to sleep at all, becoz if i were to get only an hour's sleep, i would run the risk of oversleeping and not being able to wake up on time! so i continued to do the things i need to do, took my own sweet time to check and recheck my bags, going through my 'to-bring list' and even had time to cut my toe nails (a must! will explain y later).

at 5am, i went to take my bath and prepare for my trip. left the house at 5.45am and took a slow stroll to the lrt station (coz it's just so early!). but even at that early hours, there were already quite a number of people commuting to work... *haiz* that's city life for you!

anyway, switched to the KLIA Transit at Bandar Tasik Selatan. as i've already checked-in my departure flight the previous day (online), i only need to get to the airport at 8am for my 9am flight. so convenient of MAS to come up with this feature! anyway, i was making good time and was very relaxed. that is, until i discovered that i've forgotten my phone!!! argh! of all the things to forget!!! *sigh*

there were 8 of us on that 9am flight, and flight from KL to KK took abt 2.5 hrs... at KK town, met up with clg SP with her bf, who went to KK a few days earlier for their holiday, and also clg J with her friend, who took the 6am flight due to no more seats in the 9am flight. from KK international airport, clg HL (our organiser for this trip) had arranged for a van to bring us to the Kinabalu Park, 2 hrs from KK town.

before that, we dropped by at the KK Reliance office to have lunch with D. as there were 4 muslims in our group, D planned to bring us to a malay makan place around that area. But in the end, half of us decided we wanted chinese food, so we split up into 2 groups.

meatball noodles for lunch... no comments, as i dun take pork! :S

after lunch, we continued on our journey to the Kinabalu Park. on the way up, we were supposed to be able to view the peak along the way but that day was raining. so the peak was hidden behind a thick mist. reached there at abt 3.30pm and we were brought straight to the Kinabalu Park Headquarters to get ourselves registered.

in front of the map board at the Kinabalu Park Headquarters...

hmm... no wonder i couldn't reach the top... i was only pointing
at Sayat-Sayat! next time must stand on a chair to point to the peak!

9 colleagues and 3 friends...

after registering, our van took us to our guesthouse a little up the hill from the headquarters, the Fairy Garden Guesthouse. by then i was very very tired already... so right after i took the photo below, i konked out for 2 whole hours!

view from the balcony of our twin-sharing room,
already at 1800+ meter above sea level...

chilling out after dinner at the eating hall of Fairy Garden...

after dinner, HL did a short brief on our trek tomorrow, things to bring etc. after that we sat around to chat for awhile and then went back to our rooms. on the way, there were talks of a card game session, since it was still so early (8pm plus). but when we all got to our rooms, everyone just went to sleep! long day tomorrow...

read also:
1) bestest friend in the world!
2) mount kinabalu challenge: failed
3) updates and such...
4) mount kinabalu challenge

bestest friend in the world!

2008-10-31T09:09:00.000+08:00

2 days before my climbing trip, i called up N and whined to her that i've not started preparing for my trip yet! nothing at all! not even a list of things to bring! *panic*panic*

a few moments after i hang up the phone, i received an sms from N:
shampoo, comb, hair band, cap, facial cleanser, cream, lotion, tooth paste, tooth brush, lip balm, hand gloves, sweater, long johns, long pants, shorts, t-shirts, socks, shoes, slippers, lingerie, knee guard, head lamp, sleeping bag, plastic bag for dirty laundry, rain coat, elle blue bag pack, waist pouch, camera, mp3, charger, water bottle, power bar, isotonic drink, medicine, plaster, sweets to sooth your throat, leg warmers, umbrella, towel

then the night before my departure, N came over to drop these off:

winter coat, in a zip lock bag that allows us to let the air out so that it's really flat and won't take up so much luggage space (any specific name for such bags ar?)

a big ass head lamp for our midnight summit attempt,
taken from her mom's shop

pic via mms from N, as a preview
of how big ass the head lamp is!

N even went to her company's panel doctor to get me some medicine! medicine for diarrhoea, altitude sickness, fever, headache, dizziness and stomachache. also various sizes of plasters as well as a pack of strepsils! all these in another smaller zip lock bag.

am i one lucky gal or what?

read also:
1) mount kinabalu challenge: failed
2) updates and such...
3) mount kinabalu challenge

Terry Fox Run Kuala Lumpur 2008

2008-10-29T14:22:00.000+08:00

argh, was just reminded (by auntyjo) that the Terry Fox Run will be this sunday! dang! N and i were planning to go... but did not realize it'll be so soon after my climb. i'm still nursing my muscle aches, how lar wanna run? unless someone pushes me in the wheelchair lar!

and anyway, i'm scheduled home to m'ca this weekend, so...

but i'll still go buy the t-shirt lar... just to support the cause. called up the canadian high com just now and got to know that tomorrow will be their last day selling the t-shirts at the high com. after that, we'll need to be buy them at the run location (lake gardens) on the event day.

those in KL, go for it! you can run, walk, skate, skip, push your baby's stroller, walk your dog (can ar? not too sure abt this, due to halal-haram reasons, but check with the canadian high com @ 603 2718-3333!) or whatever way you wish to propel yourself forward. and it's free! no participation fee needed and it's a non-competitive event. funds are raised through donations and t-shirt sales (RM25 per piece - to be worn during the run), and the proceeds are used for cancer research. so make it a family outing! make it a special date with your special someone! walk hand-in-hand or arm-in-arm with your best friends! it's for a good cause, after all...

anyone interested can just show up at lake gardens (tmn tasik perdana) latest by 8.45am, to be flagged off at 9.00am.

more readings:
1) About Terry Fox
2) The Terry Fox Foundation

mount kinabalu challenge: failed!

2008-10-28T23:51:00.000+08:00

i'm back! and just to put it on record, i failed to make it to the summit!! boo-hoo! ok, details later. i'm beat from all the unpacking and washing of laundry the whole day today! (and walking like an old woman with a serious case of rheumatism!)

read also:
updates and such...
mount kinabalu challenge!

bento #19: the one with the half rice

2008-10-23T19:29:00.000+08:00

got home at abt 9pm yesterday. didn't know what to get for dinner, and it was raining. then remembered that M's parents were in town, and she called earlier to tell me that they're going to the vegetarian place. i quickly called her to see if they're still eating, and they were! so i had M ta-pao a vegetarian salted fish fried rice for me...

they were not home when i got home, so i decided to save time by taking my shower first. when i came out from the bathroom, it's already 10pm... and the food portion was so big! i don't want to be eating so much so late! so divided it into half and that's how my bento for today came about lar... :)

a thousand splendid suns: a blardy good read!

2008-10-23T15:13:00.000+08:00

this is a book i read a few weeks ago, but only found the time to blog abt now. i would say this is one of the BEST books i've read so far. khaled hosseini did it again... no, actually he didn't do it again, he did it better!

i just couldn't seem to put it down! being a slow reader, i normally take abt 2 weeks to finish a good book. and esp now that i don't take the train to work anymore and spend longer hours in the office, i've less time for my reading. but this book! i finished it in just 3-4 days!

it's really REALLY really good! for all the readers out there, and even non-readers, go grab yourselves a copy!

updates and such...

2008-10-23T13:49:00.000+08:00

*phew* the spa has finally been launched! so now i'm back to the office, but still need to do some follow-up work... with the press, sorting out the event photos, burning CDs, etc etc... on top of my usual work load.

yours truly with the guest usherettes for the launch night...

anyway... i've been doing a lot of post-dated posts lately, if you've not noticed already! i keep starting a post, but did not manage to finish it. or i just upload the photos i want for a post, then just save as drafts until i find the time to finish writing them.

don't seem to have much time for myself lately... and have been missing my orchestra practices! my cello is collecting dust in the corner! *sigh* really need to start attending practices more actively. i've no idea what's going on in my section as well as the rest of the group. YW was telling me that the orchestra is in a bit of mess now... gotta go get myself back into the pack!

on another note, i'll be off to conquer mount kinabalu this weekend! *shudder* i've not been training! just hope i make it back in one piece. flying off to KK tomorrow, starting the climb on sat, summit on sunday morning and back to kl on monday. so if you still dun hear from me by wed or thurs, please call emergency!

oh yeah, found out that my trip to borobudur, which was originaly planned to happen in the next 2 weeks, had to be canceled. so sad... :(

read also:
mount kinabalu challenge!

work work work!

2008-10-17T00:49:00.000+08:00

argh!!! i'm so burnt out! this past few weeks have been really crazy!

i'm in my room at the hotel now. it's past midnight, but i'm still working... burning the CDs for the press kits and checking all the press kit folders to make sure everything is ok.

boss said i can sleep in tomorrow... we only need to be at the resort at 8.30am, which is a good thing. have not been getting enough sleep lately. was working until quite late yesterday, and then had to rush over to sg. wang to collect something for the launch as well as get some last minute name cards printed for my bossboss. got home at abt 10.30pm, dead tired and have not even packed! and boss wanted to get down to the resort early to have breakfast with mr. t! having a morning person for a boss is really quite torturous sometimes! *sigh*

a long and tiring day today... bossbossboss is down at the resort and we finally had a meeting with the full team. so lots of confirmations and decisions done. tomorrow will be another long day, with last minute guest list confirmations, briefings, meetings and lots of running here and there! oh, not to mention the night arrivals of some of the guests...

ok, i know i'm not making any sense to anyone. *yawn* too tired to explain or go into detail on what's going on. just waiting for the last few pieces of CDs to be burnt and then will just crawl into bed.

good night!

siem reap: day 4

2008-10-16T23:16:00.000+08:00

ok, final installment of my siem reap trip...

8.00am
we're going home!

breakfast of chicken sandwich at the red piano = USD3

8.30am
as our flight is at 11.40am, we reckoned we still have some time to burn... so what else? more shopping lar!

last minute shopping at Artisan d'Angkor...

10.00am
ok, need to rush back to the guesthouse to pack up, as we've booked a tuk-tuk to come at 10.30am to bring us to the airport.

10.30am
argh! we've bought too many things! need to pack and unpack and pack again... so 10.30am came and went and we were still in our rooms trying to stuff all our things into our bags!

11.00am
of course the tuk-tuk driver did not wait for us! nothing else better to do ar? we ran out of the guesthouse, frantically looking for any available tuk-tuk to bring us.

11.30am
at the airport, finally! pray we did not miss the plane! ran in like 2 crazy women to the check-in counter...

12.00pm
flight delayed, thank god! *phew*

trying my best to finish up my water before boarding...

1.15pm
at last, announcement for us to board our flight...

going home... bye-bye, siem reap!

flight was quite empty... we even get an empty seat to put our carry-ons! keke...

N checking out news from home... from someone else's newspapers!

next stop: borobudur?

read also:
1) siem reap: day 3
2) siem reap: day 2
3) siem reap: day 1
4) weekend trips, mini holidays & vacations
5) snippets: siem reap trip
6) next stop: siem reap

bento #18: the one with all the shapes

2008-10-15T19:11:00.000+08:00

been dying to try out my onigiri moulds, and also went to buy L size eggs for my egg moulds... but STILL the eggs didn't fill up the moulds! argh!!! anyone know where can i get XL eggs? are eggs in japan really that large?

made an extra set for my intern... 3 pcs of onigiri, 2 pieces of McD chicken nuggets and 1 egg. a bit plain right? had wanted to include some baby carrots, but all my baby carrots had dried up from being in the fridge too long! :P

i think the onigiri turned out really well... so cute!

close-up of the bear-faced egg... this still looked ok, only the ears were a bit flat

but the rabbit really can't do lar. the ears were like chopped off! so ugly!

if you're wondering how come my onigiri looked reddish and
yellowish, here's why. beef and chicken flavoured furikake from isetan!

siem reap: day 3

2008-10-11T17:17:00.000+08:00

on day 3, we were not as eager to jump out of bed as on day 2, coz we were really feeling the tiredness in our bones. we had to negotiate on who to use the toilet first, so that the other can laze around in bed a while longer. i forgot who won, but i think it was me! hehehe...

11.00am
as we only booked the tuk-tuk driver for 2.00pm, we decided to take things easy for a bit and woke up slightly later. and seeing that it was already quite late, we decided to just grab a quick bite at our guesthouse's cafe.

this is my brunch: breakfast without sausages = USD1.50.
N's breakfast with sausages was USD2.00

after brunch, we still have some time to kill before another visit to the wat.
so we decided to run over to the old market place for more shopping! woo-hoo! :P

walking around the psar chaa, or 'old market'...

2.00pm
went down to the entrance of our guesthouse to meet our tuk-tuk driver. but before we climbed onto the tuk-tuk, N managed to snap the below pic. this has been puzzling us since day 1... one motorbike with licence plate and another without. when we asked the tuk-tuk driver (Aleang) abt this, he replied in his limited english that it's not a requirement. but why did some bike owners pay for a licence if it's not required? hmm...

with or without, both are fine...

on the way to the wat complex, we had Aleang do a detour to the post office, where we sent off some postcards and bought some stamps and cambodian coins (which by the way, is not in use anymore. now even their smallest denomination is in paper)

sticking stamps onto my postcards...

then when we hopped back onto our tuk-tuk, we were trying to find out from Aleang abt the kind of entertainment the cambodians have... and asked abt the kind of movies they watch. so aleang turned into this one of only 2 cinemas in siem reap to show us... most movies are local productions, with only a few rare foreign movies once in a blue moon.

this cinema looked like those that i used to go
with my parents when i was in early primary school!

first site of the day is Ta Phrom, the site made famous by Tomb Raider. well, i've not seen the movie, but moving around this place, i can just imagine the mummy emerging from its sarcophagus. yeah, it's THAT eerie!

the famous giant tree roots of Ta Phrom! at some parts,
the roots are literally lifting the stone structures off the ground

N caught me doing this! question: guess what was i doing?

answer: trying to take a photo of this tall tree lar! :P

considering these ruins are so old and crumbling, there were little measures taken to ensure the safety of the visitors. just a 'danger' sign and that's it!

enter at ur own risk, dun say we din warn u!

met this cute little local girl at one of the sites... her mother was at the entrance of the site peddling something (i forgot what. postcards or something) and she was just sitting on one of the stones doing her colouring...

when i gave her chocolates, she pointed at the battery-operated fan hanging at my neck, said something and squealed with delight.

showing her how it works...

then on my way out, i gave the little girl another piece of
chocolate and she sweetly presented me with one of her drawings!

at another site, there were a bunch of kids peddling these bangles... but no, we did not buy any even tho' they pestered us to. feeling bad that we didn't buy anything from them, we decided to give them chocolates too. these kids were a bit older, around 10-12 years old, and they can speak a bit of english. when they saw how cute our chocolates were, one girl, after getting one chocolate from me, boldly came up to me again and actually bargained with me for more!

holding out one bangle, she said, "lady, u give me one more, i give you free."

5.30pm
finally, we came to our final site, the icon of cambodia! after Aleang dropped us off, we were just walking along this path when suddenly we get the first glimpse of the angkor wat between the trees... it had a sort of a magical feel to it, as if we've stumbled upon a castle in fairyland!

at the east gallery, before stepping into the angkor wat compound.
we're to make our way to the west gallery where Aleang will be waiting for us.

with no budget to hire a guide, we had to rely on guidebooks to shed light on the myriad of stories depicted by the bas-reliefs on the walls... sometimes, we'll cheat a bit and hang around a tour group and try to catch the explanations of their tour guide... hehe...

6.00pm

after a while, it started to rain. luckily we read up
enough to know to bring along disposable ponchos!

getting ready to go up to the higher spire...

6.30pm
it was still raining pretty heavily after our tour of the higher spire... and because the steps are narrow and slippery, everyone had to line-up to go down in single file. actually there were many staircases, but only one with handholds.

waiting for our turn to go down...

clinging on for dear life on the way down!

anyone who's been to siem reap would rave abt the majestic angkor wat
bathed in the golden glow of sunset... but i only saw a wet and gloomy angkor wat! *sigh*

ok, enough cam-whoring... get me out of the rain pls!

8.00pm
wet and hungry, we told Aleang to bring us to the nearest makan place... but along the way, we got worried that he'll bring us to some makan stall that's famous with the locals, coz we're still very cautious abt 'food hygine'. the worst thing to happen is to fall sick when u're traveling! but Aleang knew better and brought us to a thai restaurant just off the main road. i had fried rice and N had kueh-tew that looked a lot like our 'wah-tan-hor'.

but their mango kerabu was delish!

8.30pm

we saw earlier in the map that u can pick up at any shop in siem reap, there's a free cello performance, Beatocello in Concert, every friday and saturday at the Jayavarman VII Hospital and were very curious and eager to go see what it's all about

Dr. Beat in action...

turned out, it's a solo concert by Dr. Beat Richner, a cello playing swiss pediatrician who dedicated his life to helping the children of cambodia. his 'concert' is actually to entice tourists over to hear him talk abt the children of cambodia and his hospital. we were also shown a preview of his up-coming video on the passive genocide of the cambodian children and his fight for their wellbeing.

this doc is truly an inspiring figure. his hospital was built for the children, and treatments and medications are given out free. without any fundings from the cambodian gov nor any ngo's, his concerts are just one of his many ways to keep the hospital running.

concert poster at the front of the building

after the concert, souvenirs were sold at the front lobby
as a fund-raiser. so i bought this t for USD10

12.00am
back at the guesthouse and done bathing... and since this will be our last night in siem reap, let's take a look at the shopping we've done so far!

mostly souvenirs and gifts...

N doing an inventory of the stuff she bought!

siem reap: day 2

2008-10-10T23:31:00.000+08:00

i was looking back at some of my posts, and realized that i've only posted day 1 from my siem reap trip more than 1 year ago! kakaka... so here goes day 2. hopefully can still remember the details.

6.00am

despite waking up so early, the sky outside had already discarded its dawn cloak and the sun was already shining brightly. it felt more like 8am than 6am! we excitedly jumped out of bed and prepared for a full day of adventure with some serious wat (temples) to see!!

7.45am

breakfast bright and early at the Boosters Cafe...

see, the streets were still empty!

my menu choice, Tropica Muesli = USD3.00

N's breakfast: Sausages & Eggs (comes with a basket of buns) = USD3.25

8.30am

arrived at the main gate of the angkor ruins complex...

3-day entry pass = USD40 per pax

ok lar... i won't bore everyone with descriptions of all the different wat we saw... to tell you the truth, i myself also forgot the names of the wat and the story behind them! now when i look thru all the pics, they're just one stone wat after another! need to refer to our guide books only i'll remember... :P

but from what we saw, we can tell that these amazing structures will not last long. thousands and millions of tourists come here each year, and yet the cambodian gov is doing little to preserve them. all the preservation efforts we saw when we were there were by foreign associations or organizations. and it's sad to see many parts in most of the structures crumbling or lying in ruins... at the rate they're going, it could all be gone from the face of the earth in a little less than 20 years!

the Baphuon site is being restored by the French gov

Baphuon is so dilapidated that they cordoned off the whole structure

old and new... the parts that were restored

were easily recognizable from the original

11.00am

taking a rest in one of the many huts

with fresh coconuts... 2 coconuts = USD0.50

N with our tuk-tuk driver, Saman

2.30pm

the sun is really out for the kill!

we went to see a few more wat... until our legs

couldn't take it anymore and were screaming in protest!

btw, that's N at the top of the steep and narrow stairs...

3.30pm

initially we had wanted to spend the whole day seeing the wat, but our bodies thot otherwise. we were beat! so we decided to just see the more famous sites and forego the smaller ones.

on the way back to town, N's guidebook fell from the tuk-tuk. here,

she's running back to the tuk-tuk after retrieving her book! keke...

N, nearly reaching the tuk-tuk, sempat lagi take pic of me.

see, even Saman can't tahan us and is laughing at us! :P

in my previous post, i posted a pic of their roadside petrol station...

that was in the rural area lar. in town,

they do have modern and proper petrol stations.

4.00pm

finally we reached the old market place, bid Saman goodbye and went to look for food! have not had anything since breakfast!

craving for some 'normal' food... something we're familiar with!

so decided to try out this italian place...

my choice, creamy fettucine with shrimp = USD3.20

+ can of coke = USD0.75

N's lunch, fish fillet in yogurt = USD4.20 + coke = USD0.75

5.30pm

well, even tho' we were dead tired, but how can we just go back to our guesthouse to rest, right? we need to make full use of our time here mar! so we enquired ard for a tuk-tuk to bring us to the silk farm.

worker boiling the cocoons and extracting the silk strands...

silk dyed in different colour, some

using natural dyes from tree barks, leaves, flowers etc.

workers spinning silk...

half of the cocoons at the farm were left to mature and the pupae

to turn into butterflies for the production of more silk worms!

silk worm... no, that's NOT my hand! nor N's, for that matter...

6.30pm

the silk farm is kinda far... took us abt 45min on the tuk-tuk to get back to the old market place. on the way...

rush hour cambodian style! this sepia version

made the place looked very rustic hor?

the roads were very pot-holed and filled with water, that we don't really know how deep the holes were until one of the tuk-tuk wheels went into it. more than a few times, we were worried our tuk-tuk would overturn!

along the way, we saw many interesting things... one was a family of three on a motorbike. the dad was at the wheel, the mom behind and the child terkepit in the middle. the interesting part was, the kid had his/her head in bandages and the mom was holding on to an IV drip pole, with the tube attached to the kid!

this is how pigs are transfered in cambodia!

7.00pm

moving around the town of siem reap, we noticed a lot of korean establishments around, esp korean restaurants. both of us being korean food lovers, we can't help but salivate at the thot of bibeembab! keke...

yums... so happy to be eating korean food!

long wait......

finally! their bibeembab is quite nice lar... only thing is that they substitute some of the vege with local vege, and it was kinda weird

8.00pm

when we got back to our guesthouse, we discovered that there was a power failure in the area... no lights, no water heater, no air-cond... so we decided to go out again, to the old market place. the whole place was running on generators...

and we met N's friend! imagine, of all the places to meet ur friends...

we shopped and walked ard for another hour or two before calling it a day.

read also:
siem reap: day 1
weekend trips, mini holidays & vacations
snippets: siem reap trip
next stop: siem reap

bento #17: discounted sushi again!

2008-10-09T19:15:00.000+08:00

went to suria with M yesterday, so bought these sushi... they were supposed to be my lunch for today, but had to go out to do something. so had lunch with my boss instead, and the sushi was left for dinner...

california maki from isetan...

then the dear housemate M bought this for me! so this became my tea... yummers!

strawberry tart from sun moulin... *drools*

bento #16: the one with the vegetarian fried rice

2008-10-06T19:22:00.000+08:00

went to a vegetarian outlet in endah parade for dinner with the food-poisoned M yesterday... had herbal noodle soup... yummer! but no, that's not what we had for bento today. instead, we decided to share a pack of yong-chow fried rice for today's bento...

this is my latest purchase... insulated furoshiki... cute huh?

bottom tier: vegetarian fried rice; top tier: rolled-up meatloaf
(with the picks M bought for me from daiso, singapore), crabsticks and
some pickled green chili in soy sauce; small container: sliced yellow kiwi

august rush: a painfully beautiful movie

2008-10-06T10:45:00.000+08:00

actually i saw this movie a couple of months back and fell in love with it. it was a borrowed pirated copy of yw's and have been looking to buy my own copy in all the shops since... but seems like it's not such a popular movie, coz even pasar malam dun sell it!

then saw it in speedy video last week, so i bought it immediately. and watched it again last night... can't get enough if it!

the movie practically oozes with romance in a fairy tale fantasy kinda way, so it's not so logical in real life. but it's really painfully beautiful. and the music! the mix of rock and roll and classical music is simply amazing!

go get a copy of august rush and watch it! and pls support original... it's only RM16.90 in speedy video!

"i believe in music the way some people believe in fairy tales"

read also:
1) mama mia! fever!
2) spring waltz

brand new bento box gift

2008-10-04T10:59:00.000+08:00

of late, housemate P has been quite interested in housemate M and my endless chatters on bento... so last week, in the spirit of good housemate-ship and with hopes of converting yet another bento enthusiast, i went and bought for her these 4 basic bento gears...

a 2-tier bento box in the colour of P's choice, a set of utensils,
a pair of bento box band and 1 sheet of insulated bento furoshiki

so far, it's still sitting in a pile on the dining room table, where i left them after taking this pic... hopefully it'll be put to good use when P comes back from her raya break!

mamma mia! fever!

2008-10-03T09:23:00.001+08:00

*yawn* where has the raya holidays gone to??? *sigh* back to the grindstone...

anyway, still giddy over mama mia! from wed movie outing with some friends! oh, love it love it love it! even tho' abba is not from my generation, but their songs are sorta like my 'childhood songs', coz it's what my parents listened to when i was young, so they're very familiar to me.

and, their songs are so evergreen, they never really go out of style. u can still hear them on the radio, and NOT only in the 'oldies' channels, mind u!

well, actually the story line of this movie is quite simple... some parts are a bit lame... but i really enjoyed the songs, even the bollywood-style dancing! haha... my friends and i were practically singing along to the songs, and i'd have jumped up from my seat to jive along if it weren't for the fact that i was in a cinema full of ppl and also that i'm no dancing queen! ;P

oh, and pierce brosnan is so SO so yummy! i practically swooned when he first appeared on the screen, and was drooling the whole show thru! hehehe... but when he started singing, i went like, "eh?" i think he should just stick to acting and leave the singing to others lar.

all in all, we totally enjoyed the show... ok, "we" as in the 3 gals in our group. the rest of the 8 guys thot it were kinda boring. i think maybe it's because the movie is a chick-flick (is it?) and also, they're all chinese-ed, who did not grow up with these songs.

anyway, i'm definitely gonna catch the musical when they come to kl in dec! having missed broadway's 'beauty & the beast' in june/july, i thot i won't be going for any this year. but woo-hoo! one more musical to my collection, making it a pathetic total of 5 (not including the disney on ice)! hehe...

read also:
1) phantom, finally!
2) i'm going!
3) The Sound of Music
4) Disney on Ice - Princess Classics
5) the phantom strikes!

of earless bunny and tailless fish...

2008-09-27T23:04:00.000+08:00

been meaning to blog abt this... but kept putting it off, coz the photos i took with my phone were blurred and M only bluetoothed hers to me today...

actually a few weeks back, i placed an order thru e-bay for some egg molds, which i regretted immediately after clicking 'buy', coz i did not read properly and realized only too late that the postage charges is the same as the item price, USD6.99, which is ridiculous coz when the actual package arrived, the postage was only HK$9.5, which converted to only RM4.75, which is only about USD1.36! then i suffered another regret coz bento pet sold it for cheaper during the bento party! :'(

ok, i digressed. this post is about my experiment with my egg molds and NOT to rant abt the exhorbitant price of items sold on ebay. anyway, here's how the egg molds looked like (photo taken from ebay). it's exactly those sold by bento pet!!! ok ok, no more ranting abt it... hehe...

when the package arrived, despite feeling cheated, i was still very excited abt it. so i got M to test it out with me, coz there are 4 molds and how can a gal finish off 4 eggs by herself, right?

we only had small eggs in our fridge, but we went ahead to test it out anyway... which resulted in loud shrieks of prolonged laughter, coz the eggs were too small to fill up the whole mold and came out looking like this! -->

my earless bunny and tailless fish!

M's earless bear-bear and tyreless car!

introducing...

2008-09-26T11:25:00.000+08:00

ta-dah! M's very own blog --> my memory lane

she's a newbie at blogging, so support-support a bit, ya! ;)

bento #15: the one with last night's dinner

2008-09-25T23:21:00.000+08:00

housemates M, P and i called for delivery service yesterday... nando's! and M and i planned on what to order, so that we can save some for today's bento... i think this bento-ing has helped us to actually stop and think and plan our meals.

today's lunch: shredded chicken, sausage & mediterranean rice.
a bit dry, coz the kiam-siap nando's only sent 3 miserable packets
of peri sauce... 1 packet for each set. where got enough???
everyone should get at least 3 packets each! %@#%@&#&$^#*(*&

*strumming fingers, waiting for M's blog to go live...*

Read also:
bento #12: the one with everything squeezed into it
bento #5: discounted sushi and nando's leftover
bento #4: steamboat leftover

bento #14: the one with the experimental porridge

2008-09-22T12:44:00.000+08:00

since trying the herbal porridge at a cafe called 'sweet bean', i've been wanting to try cooking my own herbal porridge. but for someone whose idea of "cooking" is basically just pouring hot water into the mee cup, i've no freaking idea what to put into my porridge! so i've been putting off cooking this porridge week after week...

then yesterday, while i was on my way home from my climb at batu caves, i was just thinking of what to do abt dinner when i suddenly had this craving for herbal porridge. for a second, i toyed with the idea of dropping by 'sweet bean' to ta-pao, but remembered that i forgot to bring my wallet. then i thought, "what the heck, why not just go home and cook it urself?!"

on arriving home, i din even think, but was very gung-ho abt it... just dumped in everything i feel would make a herbal porridge taste... erm... herbal porridgy. hehe...

anyway, my guage was slightly off the mark and i ended up with a pot full of herbal porridge! i made housemate P have it for dinner as well, but there were still half a pot left.. just nice for 2 bentos for today --> mine and housemate M's! kekeke...

oh, i used an old food container today... a thermos set i bought few years back from jusco, also during the mega sales. i got the blue set while N got the black set. but forgot how much we bought it for lar... i think i've only used it 2-3 times, mostly to ta-pao nasi lemak from the train station on my way to work last time. the makcik thought it's from Tupperware!

ultimate insulation... keeps home-cooked meals
hotter, fresher, longer until it's time to eat

fits snugly, with a pocket on top of the cover
and another one underneath for utensils and serviettes and such...

it's a 3-piece set...

main container: herbal porridge; 1st side container: pickled 'za-chai' aka 'szechuan chai';
2nd side container, in colourful angel-shapped silicone cups bought from bento party:
2 types of japanese pickles and 'fu-yi' aka fermented bean curd

and here's M's porridge bento... she wanna tumpang her bento photo here (M, next time kenot tumpang ar... go get ur own blog! if not, i'll charge rental! keke...)

'black masculine bento box' bought from mini 100 yen shop at the bento party.
top tier with lid contains the herbal porridge;
bottom tier, in identical square silicone cups (from daiso, singapore) are 'szechuan chai'
and 'chai-xin' aka pickled lettuce, and also some fried eggs at the side.
digression: this set was dubbed 'masculine bento box' by us coz originally,
it was meant for M to pack food for her Mr. DD. it's 'masculine' coz it's black
and not cute or colourful like other bento boxes... but unfortunately it had remained
in her Osram bag from the bento party up until now! hehehe...
so i persuaded her to take it out and use it for the porridge! :P

stargal's chin-chai herbal porridge:
1) rice (of course)
2) crab sticks
3) kei-zhi (wolfberries)
4) red dates
5) a few slices of 'pao sam' (some sort of ginseng-like roots)
6) chinese mushrooms
7) some sort of nut (dunno what it's called) normally used in soup and such

cooking method:
cut up the crab sticks and mushrooms, wash everything and dump everything into the rice cooker. cook with a lot of water.

special note:
need to cook longer, coz the nuts did not cook properly.

*pray the housemates did not get food-poisoning!*

Read also:
bento #11: the one slapped together in 2 minutes
bento #8: the one with the yellow vege
bento #6: sushi breakfast & home-cooked lunch...
bento #4: steamboat leftover

bento #13: the one with the kao-zhi

2008-09-18T10:03:00.000+08:00

was too bz to post this yesterday... my breakfast bento ta-pao from pasar malam the night before.

the mini container at the side is my latest purchase from 100 yen shop. comes in 4 identical pieces, perfect for sauces and such!

I Feel Okay Tag!

2008-09-16T17:08:00.000+08:00

my quote: (money) - "Money is not everything... BUT it's definitely something!"
~ stargal (something i blurted out once while talking to the brother, and loved it since!)

Feel okay? Well you should be! You’ll definitely be okay if you’re going to be a part of this meme, be okay if you are about to have a chance to increase your Technorati and Google Pagerank!

1. Make others feel good: share your favorite, self made, or any quotes as you pass on this meme with the image below.

2. Make sure to come back – HERE - (ifeelokay.com) to get the master list and leave a comment that you’ve made yourself a part of this meme. This would ensure that you’ve been added to masters list.

3. Your favorites, self made, or any quotes that you shared are collected and will be linked back to your site as its source, this would give you much benefit. Put a category before your quote. (ex. Inspirational, happiness, love, sweet, time, motivational, friendship, and others), much better if you relate the quote on your blog. Ex. Fashion Blog - quotes about beauty; Personal Blog - quotes about success, life, inspirational and many more. It’s your choice.

4. Only one quote and category per blog please, make sure to tag as many bloggers possible. Please update your contributor's list more often. May we achieve thousands of quotes from different bloggers around the world. Let the fun begin. Be a part of a great collection of quotes from different bloggers around the world!!!

(1) BeautyTips
(2) EmjeiSays
(3) Techmobiz
(4) BlackNickel
(5) ifeelokay
(6) iAM-MAi
(7) NeuroPatch
(8) Express4Free
(9) Club101
(10) Earn4aLiving
(11) Solo-Flight
(12) My Touch of Heaven
(13) BigMoneyList
(14) Momhood Moments
(15) Business Mars
(16) Within Small Bites
(17) Onabentofrenzy
(18) Emily's Buzy World
(19) Pieces of Me
(20) Your blog here! :)

View the complete list of Quotes by bloggers around the world -- HERE
* End copy here

biow , u've been tag!

The Commonly Confused Words Test...

2008-09-16T10:13:00.000+08:00

saw this quiz at auntyjo's... so just gave it a try lar...

Your result for The Commonly Confused Words Test...

English Genius

You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 87% Expert!

You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!

Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it!

For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.

Compared to other takers

54/100 You scored 100% on Beginner, higher than 54% of your peers.
34/100 You scored 100% on Intermediate, higher than 34% of your peers.
84/100 You scored 100% on Advanced, higher than 84% of your peers.
57/100 You scored 87% on Expert, higher than 57% of your peers.

Take The Commonly Confused Words Test at HelloQuizzy

on a good day...

2008-09-15T17:57:00.000+08:00

this is how my work station looks like...

don't try to imagine how it looks like on a bad day!

bento #12: the one with everything squeezed into it

2008-09-15T14:10:00.000+08:00

ok, i cheated. remember bento #11? well, i din really finish it... just the bottom tier (jam and butter) for breakfast. then i totally forgot abt it and happily tagged along when the bosses asked me for lunch. when i realized it, i thot, "ok, can still have it for breakfast the next day". but suddenly i found out that my initial plan of just going for a day meeting at the resort was stretched to a 3D2N trip! argh!!! had to do last minute cancellations to all my plans...

anyway, i went home to m'ca after my official business at the resort and got back to KL only yesterday. a quick check in the fridge found my ham & cheese sandwiches still sitting obediently in the bento box. took a sniff at it... hmm... no foul smell yet.

so this morning, went to take another sniff at it and still no foul smell... should i take the risk? ah well, what the heck! so my breakfast this morning was that!

then nearing lunch time, was craving for korean kimbab *slurp!* so ran down for my weekly korean fix... hehehe... i had the kimbab + japchae set. kimbab is just like sushi roll, only thing is that kimbab's ingredients are all marinated, so we can just eat it as it is, without any shoyu (soy sauce). japchae is korean grass noodles, or more commonly known as 'tang-hoon'.

anyway, when my order came, i realized it's a lill too much for one person. i'd be a pig to finish it all at one go! so in the spirit of dieting and portion control, i ate 1/2 of everything (except the kimchi. can't get enough of those!) and had them ta-pao the rest for me... but too bad i did not bring my bento box, so had to come back with a polystyrene food container and a plastic bag (sorry, auntyjo!).

this is how my dinner bento looks like... wish i had brought my bottom tier, so that can separate the kimbab from the japchae, but too bad lor.

bento partAy!!

2008-09-10T21:26:00.000+08:00

as mentioned, last saturday was the bento party. dragged mon and san along, even tho' they're not bloggers. hehehe...

well, the 3 of us were late. the registration was to be at 11.45am, but due to some delays - mon came home at 10.45am and ABSOLUTELY HAD to take a shower, and then i need to check my car lubricant oil after being reminded for the umpteenth time by the dad - we got there at 12.00noon. aiya... raining mar! hehe...

anyway, after registration, we were delighted to receive a BIG and BULKY goodie bag each! so happy... we grabbed a seat each and proceeded to rummage thru the goodie bag excitedly, like kids under the christmas tree on christmas morning, until it suddenly dawned on me that yikes! how we'd look in front of all the other participants?! i made a pass to the gals... ok, it went more like: "eh pls lar. dun act so sua-ku ok? behave...", at which all 3 of us quickly stuffed back everything into the bag, settled down demurely (or at least tried to!) at the table and proceeded to check out the rest of the participants.

actually i was quite relieved at the crowd that day... initially, i was worried the gals would blame me for bringing them to an 'aunty meet' and boring the daylights out of them! luckily the list consisted of a mix of gals and young mommies. oh, and 1 or 2 aunties lah! :P

auntyjo of Emily's Busy World! opened the party with an intro on how she started her bento frenzy... then she passed the floor to Pat of Bento Pet for a short presentation on bento and all the works related to bento. after that, each participant did a self-intro. in Pat's pre-party e-mail to us, we were supposed to introduce ourselves and our blogs in not more than 10 words... but on that day, all these were thrown out the window and we just went on and on talking about ourselves! ok, not really... but it was definitely more than 10 words! haha...

short presentation by Pat, with auntyjo looking on...

listening so attentively...

after all the talking, it's food time! but before we can eat, we need to arrange our bento boxes (that came in our goodie bags) with the food for a little competition. what??? cannot eat yet??? gosh, i was so hungry by then that i had a mind of foregoing the whole competition and gobble up my food while standing at the buffet line waiting for the person in front to get going! mon and san, u were THAT person in front of me... now u know how slow u 2 are lar har! choosing and changing ur minds abt the kawaii cupcakes for like 100 times! :P but luckily i remembered our vows to try not be so sampat and sua-ku at this party, so i swallowed down my hunger and went to arrange my bento box.

well, i'd say the bento box arrangement was quite fun lar. esp when u're sitting next to first-time bento-er san and the kelakar mon! i even found san telling a piece of her chicken kara age, which was too big to be stuffed into her box: "it's ok, dun worry har". wakakaka...

when we're done, each of our bento box got a 2 seconds of fame in the limelight... or rather, in the flashlight, on a nice japanese lacquer tray, having its picture taken by Pat's #1. after that, i quickly went back to my seat and what else? makan lar! but mon and san were too excited to eat their bento. they continued taking pictures after getting back to their seats, arranging and rearranging their bento, this angle and that lighting... *sigh... tak kuasa aku! but i still made mon take a pic of my cute cupcake lar... hehe...

mon's bento...

san's bento...

sue's ben... opps! already on the way into the stomach! hehehe...

mon: eh, sue! y u so fast eat already? u don't wanna take photos first meh?
me: mai cha wah (hokkien: dun disturb me)! i'm super hungry u know!

cute cupcakes! courtesy of su yin of The Journal of a Girl who Loves to Cook

after that, we went to attack onsen's private room, which has been converted into a mini 100 yen shop! no kidding! there were a great many bento gears for sale, which we dun normally see in the 100 yen shops. what else? the shopaholic in us went to work lar!

towers upon towers of bento gears!

other than 100 yen, there were other bento accessories available for sale, sourced by Pat. needless to say everyone went away with a headache of how to store their additional bento containers, or maybe for some, how best to explain the absolutely-need-to-buy bento box to the hubby, even tho' there's already one (or a few) exactly the same at home, only in a different colour! :P

contents of the goodie bag...

stuff i bought from the mini 100 yen shop... a round bento box (the traditional bento box shape), bento box strap (comes in 2s), tiny containers for condiments and such (comes in 3s of different colours) and onigiri shaper

more stuff bought, from Pat: onigiri shaper (comes in 2s - why i need so many shapers ar?), silicone cups (so much cuter than the ones i bought from isetan!) and soy sauce bottles (comes in 6s - been searching for this for so long!)

ok, let's have some happy smiley faces to end this long, long post!

san with her first ever bento! good job!

mon seems pretty happy with of her masterpiece too... nice!

and here's me, with my cute cupcake, bento half devoured...

3posen at onsen!

hop on over to bento pet's and auntyjo's for more reports and pics of the bento party, as well as more links to the blogs of the rest of the participants. there's one pic of me introducing myself and one of my bento (my number's 12) somewhere!

bento #11: the one slapped together in 2 minutes

2008-09-09T11:59:00.000+08:00

ok, not really 2 minutes, but u know what i mean...

have not been having bread for such a long time, so i thot i'll buy a loaf to make sandwiches... and that's my bento breakfast and lunch for today.

this new bento box is from the goodie bag i got at the bento party last sat. ok, ok, will post abt the bento party soon... promise!

lower tier houses jam and butter sandwiches, upper tier holds ham and cheese sandwiches. all cut into small triangles to trick the mind into believing that i've had LOTS of sandwiches... and also (hopefully) look a little more fancy than plain simple sandwiches!

-----------
in case anyone's wondering, will be out of town for the rest of the week on official duties, and then balik-ing kampung for a weekend of mid-autumn fest celebration with the family.

bento #10: the one with the schweet note!

2008-09-08T15:35:00.000+08:00

woke up to a note sticking on my door, saying there's a bento waiting for me on the dining table outside... upon checking, here's what i found...

note reads:
"Yah... yah... yah... Bring me to work!!!
I'm delicious... must eat.
--> Please eat me!!"

ok everyone, on the count of 3! 1... 2... 3! aawwww........

thanks M for the sponge cake breakfast! plus the schweet note! no, should be 2 notes - one on the door and one on the bento! what better way to dispel monday blues, right? ;P

bento #9: the one packed by someone else!

2008-08-28T11:54:00.000+08:00

a 'love-hearted bento' in it's true sense! u see, i personally think that only a rice box packed for us by someone else can qualify for the term 'love-hearted bento' (ai4-xin1 pien1-tang4). it's because of the love and care someone puts into packing up the bento that such bentos are given this name in the first place.

this is my unexpected 'love-hearted bento' dinner, packed by N! fish meat with the bones picked out on the left and cauliflower, celery, carrots & prawns mixed on the right, with rice in the middle. i added on some of my usual pickles and washed it all down with one of my all-time fav drinks, self-bancuh ribena (self-bancuh to ensure it's not too sweet!).

bento #8: the one with the yellow vege

2008-08-22T13:53:00.000+08:00

have not been bento-ing lately... coz been coming home late and been so tired! housemate M was commenting that my broccoli will be turning yellow if i dun cook it soon... so since today is the last working day of the week, and i know i'll be too lazy to cook during the weekends, i made myself put together a bento for today's lunch.

nothing much... just boiled the broccoli and baby carrots. had to discard half of the broccoli that was too yellow. and i didn't know for how long i should boil the two vege... so just agak-agak lar. turned out ok, i think.

boiled vege with my usual pickles... but i forgot to
splash some soy sauce on the vege, so lucky i have the pickles!

something a happening this sept!

2008-08-21T16:30:00.000+08:00

woo hoo... party for bento kaki! keke... hopefully i'll be able to schedule my MATTA Fair duty around this! *cross fingers* dragging housemate M along... hop over to Bento Pet's for more info.

update (8.48am, 22 aug 08): managed to persuade good friend S to go too! who else wanna join?

a hitchhiker's guide to...

2008-08-15T10:27:00.000+08:00

somehow, this memory suddenly popped into my head while on the way to work this morning...

during our uni days, few of us had any mode of transportation save our own two legs as the reliability of our uni bus service and the public transport leaves a lot to be desired. and our faculty was so far away from our college! most days, we'd walk back to our college after classes and even with all the short-cuts, it still took us about 20 - 30 min! no wonder we were all so slim then! hehe...

however, on some days, especially in the evening and we were all so tired out from a whole day of classes, some of us would stand at the side of the main road in front of our faculty to hitchhike! we'd just put on our 'first year muka kesian' face and stick our thumbs out at any passing car... hehehe... and abt 98% of the time, we'd get a ride either back to our college or to the main complex just opposite our college.

and it was kinda fun, actually! of course, we always do it in groups. never alone. and i think what we were doing was relatively safe coz after all, most of the ppl driving inside the campus would be students and lecturers. as our faculty is situated on the road on which at the end of it is the engineering faculty, we get lots of engineering seniors picking us up. heheh... :P and if the timing was right, we'd even get repeated hitchhikees (is there even such a word?)!

sometimes, we'd strike up a conversation with the driver and it was pretty interesting for both hitchhiker and hitchhikee. i think the reason most of them actually stopped for us was they seldom see ppl doing such things, both in and out of campus, and it kinda amused them. hehe...

well, there's that. just a short reminiscence to some of the things we did in our uni days...

* no bento today! craving for korean bibeembab! :P