going home

I'm on a one-week break before reporting at the new company. I still have no idea how the parking system works, where to get my monthly pass, when to sign up (should I even?) for the gym opposite the office, where to stay if my housemates quit the house... etc.

I don't want to think and worry about those just yet. A break's a break!

And I'm driving home tomorrow. Alone. Must remember to pack 4 hours worth of CDs. And food. After all, it's the first time I'm driving back to my parents', and I seriously have no idea about directions. Let's hope the roadsigns are clear enough. Clear as in not blocked by unkempt trees. Clear as in close proximity to one another and placed at every junction/traffic light. I don't wanna ram my car into someone's face just because that someone decides to pull something funny when I'm forced to stop and ask for directions.

Am effing tired because last night was closure night. Glad it went well, but boy am I bushed now. Brains still kicking and screaming for another round of intellectual pummelling from CSI Season 6 (I finally learned how to download stuff from the net!)... but... eyes... cannot... open...

chivas?

Oooer. I just passed up free tickets to Genting this weekend for some Chivas event. Somehow the phrase "free flow of booze whole night long amidst satin-clad hot chicks and suave hunks with half-unbuttoned shirts" doesn't really register anywhere within my comprehension range.

But I know some names who'll kick my ass (hard) for not giving them the tickets instead.

So I have my response ready already.

"My life is brilliant.
My love is pure."



Ya I think this entry is totally pointless too.

random posts

I know I still haven't put up pictures from Club Med Ria Bintan. I know I have to do it soon or the feelings and memories of the place will start slipping off like the straps of my spaghetti right now. But not now.

Now I want to plant my ass on the floor, kick my stubby legs and flail my flabby arms and whine. Because KoL is down for maintenance.

Ya I'm hopelessly addicted to Kingdom of Loathing. You Red Alert, FIFA and super graphical colourfully realistic visual gamers can laugh all you want. But I can play KoL whenever I'm stuck for ideas at work. Can you? Caaaaan you?

So I cleaned up my desktop. Been procrastinating but cannot anymore-lah, it's my last week (I think) at work. Boss hasn't said the word and he's abroad so I cannot uncross my fingers until Thursday. Found some interesting bits of pictures so I shall blog about these instead:

Couldn't resist taking a picture of this guy standing in front of me while queuing at the cashier in Isetan KLCC. I think it's his company tee. I hope the pun is intended. A company that innocently (and proudly) shouts the tagline "gentle touch, hard results" is so asking for it. I like it though. Totally bold!

I was so proud - I cooked lunch using the office microwave. The franks were black pepper flavoured. The baked beans were tomato flavoured. My ass cursed and suffered. Let's just say there was more than a load and I discovered an ass can do much more than just explode.

Oh and Sarah bought me a huge-ass box of mint chocolates from Langkawi. They were too sweet for my liking.

What. You expectin' something wittier?

jogoya

The reason for an identical facial expression in photographs 20 minutes apart is either (a) the food was so good throughout that I stoned in a dreamy, gluttony trance for 3 hours, or (b) the food sucked balls so consistently hard that I had to force myself to consistently smile the fake, enjoying-it smile.

In Jogoya's case, sadly, it was the latter.

They should place more literate, English-proficient staff before the entrance. This dude didn't even smile while shoo-ing me to queue at the registration counter (I made the grave mistake of walking straight up to the payment counter before registering but how would I know). I asked what I'm supposed to do first. He pointed again to the little queue-less counter at the side. I stood there totally lost until a Chinese guy in a better suit came and explained.

They should place more literate, English-proficient staff at the entrance. Not someone who shrieks "See receipt! Show me receipt!" while flagging customers two-steps onto the red carpet leading to the 30,000 square feet (so I was told) interior. If this is a semi-fastfood franchise, I'd understand and smile apologetically and speedily dig out the receipt from my already-cluttered handbag. But I just paid RM101.20 for dinner and my mood sank lower at the cheapness everything was oozing before I even set foot inside.

If this is your first time at Jogoya, I guarantee you'll be awestruck by the spaciousness of the set-up and the layout of the food. I got lost trying to find my way back to the table a coupla times. Ya I know I have no bloody cow sense of direction to start off with, but this place is huge.

Check out the dry ice for the smoky effect. Woo! Alas, the 2 workers featured here got into a scuffle. With real punches being thrown and shoving until another burlier worker had to stand in the middle and pry them apart. All these unfolded right in front of maybe 5 guests queuing for dimsum. Does wonder to one's appetite, this.

Bamboo clams, herbed snails, custard paos and ginseng soup. Only the custard pao tasted nice. But their raw food section was good! Oysters were the biggest I've ever sampled, and the salmon freshest. Other than that... errr...

Do not, I repeat, do not go for their king crab whatever extravaganza. There's this little special placard that says VIP members are entitled to king crab rolls, grilled king crab, curry king crab etc, and small fry customers like yours truly got all excited when I saw that I could actually order a soupy king crab do in some special fireproof, waterproof paper... and did. Oh my gee that was the foulest crab ever, royal descendent or not. Tasted like yesterday's VIP's leftovers now passed on to small fry customers to clean up.

Proceeded to sample desserts very quickly (what to do, main courses didn't excite me). The cakes and pastries were nothing to shout about, but

the lime & lemon sorbet and mango & passionfruit sorbet were heavenly with a capital H. I think they're from Movenpick. Said so on the container-lah. Yummylicious! The mushrooms were okay too (no, these are not dessert, it just arrived... very late). And the coconuts, oh the coconuts (mouth waters). I set myself a goal of emptying 20 coconuts (to make up for the RM50 I didn't/couldn't consume on food) but I could manage a meager 5 before giving up. The remorse shall follow me to my grave.

What's a Taiwanese franchise without Taiwan's very own mwah-chee? I fell in love with this sticky pepejal ever since my first Taiwan trip 4 years ago. Rock hard and whitish uncooked, jelly-ish and semi-transparent cooked, it's a larger version of our local Chinese tong-yuen (little glutinous rice balls one eats a month before Lunar New Year) without the sesame/peanut stuffing. A bit too sweet, this, but fine nevertheless.

Jasiminne the Penguin has much better pictures (and more positive comments) about Jogoya than I do. Go go.

birthday post

My sum of birthday celebrations had been wonderful this year. I had 3 cakes! A blackforest from dad, a cheesecake from Temptations (and being the good girl I am, I shared with my colleagues) and a tiny but delicious (have to say this or I'll be nagged till the cows come home) cappucino cake from Eryn.

At home
It still warms my heart listening to dad, mum and Ian singing Happy Birthday in perfect unison (although the clapping-while-singing era has passed) shyly. I love this tradition of our family. Year after year, blackforest after blackforest (dad proudly assumed it's still my favourite cake and I love him too much to tell him otherwise), shy Happy Birthday after Happy Birthday in not-too-loud voices... I don't want this to ever stop.

With the special someone or ex-someone
I've decided to just forget about the whole "is it right is it wrong" debate and just bask in the attention and loving while the moment lasts. How can you suddenly just stop loving someone anyways? Had pre-birthday dinner at Renaissance (realised I couldn't eat as much at a buffet like I used to... hurray!) and a cosy first-time jazz experience at Cotton Club. Then on my birthday we went to Rahsia (ptui!!!) which I really hated. The "renovate a rundown bungalow into a hopefully niche acquired taste expensive eatery" concept totally didn't appeal to me. Reminded me of just another Sitiawan house and it brought back the smell of this particular corridor in my kindergarten and the front yard of a neighbour's house when I accidentally kicked and broke his flower pot... *shudder* And us being the only patron wasn't exactly encouraging. To add oil to fire, I was aghast with the price of the food and beverages. I won't go there again!

With Sistahs

My favouritest, coziest, best-equipped home beside my parents'. I've always loved going to Angela's. Singapore might as well be non-existent in my vocab and geographical knowledge if it isn't for Angela's apartment. It's a real home.

Had a blast shopping, watching TV, shopping again, clubbing at MoS (this is worthy of another blog entry altogether), making vegetarian hotpot, failing a chocolate muffin session, and our MOST IMPORTANT RITUAL (must-do in every visit)...

...cooking bacon and eggs for breakfast. I love my dear, dear Sistahs!

With college mates
After a few birthdays in Chilli's, we have now officially switched to Italiannies! Although they don't have bottomless drinks (tomato is the way to go), their bottomless warm slices of bread with olive oil and vinegar can be quite addictive. I was quite disappointed that the guys couldn't make it (sigh, guys... got girlfriend already cannot expect too much outta them) but us girls had a good time anyways lamenting about how we're all 26 or 27, successful (somewhat) in career, have pleasant personalities... but are all boyfriend-less. Then we launched into a debate whether being courted by a lot of great guys or just one Mr Right is better. Typical single women's topic of the day/week/month/year/until we get hitched.

Are we all single because we're not skinny?

the wine company

My first RoM do. First afternoon wedding party. First anything associated with getting married that's not held in Dewan Orang Ramais, hotels, chinese restaurants or high school assembly halls.

The Wine Company is such a cosy, lovely place! Adore everything about it, from the dimly-lit interior to spacious patio. I was thinking, aaah, Jamie is so thoughtful to throw a little party for close friends at her solemnisation. In such a sweet little place! And nice deco! And good food with musical arrangements! See! Advertising people are delightfully different this way...

I was gushing with excitement when I proudly related (show off) this fellow advertising industry member's creativity to college mates working in Singapore.

"Aiyo, everyone in Singapore does this-lah. To them, RoM is a big event because they can finally buy a house after that. And by getting rid of close friends at this event they don't need to be invited again to the main wedding dinner thingy. And usually the dinner is maybe 2 years down the road. So any other lounge or coffee house would have party packages like the one you went to."

*poof*

rice burgers

Land of McD's rice burgers, here I come again!

That's right bitches. Tomorrow I shall be going to Singapore, where good Sistahs bake and bad Sistahs shake (you no bad, Eryn. Val bad). And I promise to happily lick the last bit of my home-baked too-sour lemon cheesecake this time, Nene. It'll be a bitchin' weekend.

I should've just shuddup yesterday. Why post about good things to come and the crap. My equally-insecure-as-the-owner handphone got upset and took "more good things to come" personally and my memory card went kaput.

Corrupted memory card.
Precious pictures, ringtones, video clips of my deceased gramma and the band...
All gone.

FUCK!

birthday

This year, my birthday is going to be special.
Because I quit my job, quit my house and quit my relationship.
Because the year ahead is filled with endless possibilities
and better things to come.

Because I have the privilege to be 27 with added vehemence and gusto.
01. 02. 03. 04. 05. 06.
Only happen once in a century, baby.

Tonight
I shall wait for the 1st hour, 2nd minute and 3rd second of my birthday.
And sleep... knowing the world is green with envy at my fortune.