Nearly The End

I have been a pig…again. These pass couple of days…sigh…let’s say that the festivities are getting the better of me and my waist line. Lunch was supposed to be oysters, oysters and then more at Genji, PJ Hilton. But that plan was blown to smitterins when we learned how popular that lunch buffet was and that it is always best to make reservations! Plan B took a while to conceive…it never struck us that we would be denied a place…but we decided that since we had Japanese on our minds, then the next place to head to was Sri Hartamas…Sugimoto. Alas, it was not meant to be…Japanese food that is. Sugimoto’s was closed for lunch and we ended up eating burgers at Jarrod & Rawlins. Not a bad place for food at all…but was no match for Jappie food.

PJ Hilton. Really cool train railway set with little towns realistically arranged around it.

Dutch Village

Errmm, can't quite make this one out.

I was totally knackered by the time I dropped Manju off at her mechanics that I just managed to get myself home before collapsing on the living room couch. When I woke up, it was dark outside and I had barely enough time to have a shower before picking Ratha and heading towards our dinner destination. Damansara Village Restaurant (or something like that la…wasn’t really paying attention). It is a fresh seafood steamboat joint. Talk about fresh…the prawns were still alive when served to us and it was really eerie seeing them splash about in the steamboat before…well…you get the idea. The soup was okay…not that excellent (they unfortunately did not have tom yam soup…a major minus with me)…but I liked it because (as they claimed) there was no added MSG. Another cool thing about the place was the minute menagerie maintained in the restaurant itself. I nearly got the shock of my life on the way to the toilet as I came face to face with two gigantic iguanas (please remember my fear of lizards and these were BIG ASS ones!!!). I just had to get Lauren (Ratha refused to budge from the table...ha ha) and my camera. As I was taking pictures of the iguanas, one of the workers approached me and asked whether I wanted to hold one of the iguanas while he took a picture of me and said iguana. Yeah right, like that was ever going to happen! I would eat the iguana but I would NEVER hold one…even if it was dead. Eeeeek! Anyway, I politely smiled and said no. He left. Phew…because the next cage contained a black snake. There is also a giant tortoise, bunnies, birds, a pair of turkey (they managed to survive the Christmas season) and something in a hollow coconut shell that we could not clearly identify.

Loved the fishballs.

Lauren and the iguanas. I think that she would have been game enough to hold those huge critters. I think...

Met a member of the Alleycats at Starbucks...a Chinese one at that too!

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After all that (and mind you, we were STUFFED…akin to really fat teddy bears), it was time for coffee. Starbucks. Ratha left her Starbucks sticker card in her car (which was at that very moment in the basement of her condominium…so too bad) and so I decided to start my very own collection. 18 stickers and a Starbucks Planner was mine to own. And what luck! Amelia walks in to meet a bunch of her university mates and she managed to score more stickers for my card. Yay! So now, I have 6 more beverage stickers and 1 pastry one to go…and that planner is a done deal. Oh…I, of course had my Java Chip Frappe…yummy…the counter fella managed to ‘persuade’ me to get a Venti with his, ‘Just add one more dollar…can get a bigger cup’ sales pitch. By the way, it always works with me. More coffee…more happiness. All in all, it was a good day of catching up and yakking….and also of course of eating. Like I said, I have been such a pig!
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My Starbucks card

White Water Rafting: Selangor River, Kuala Kubu Bahru

I am bitten by the river bug. The thrill of the rapids, the beauty of the surrounding trees, colourful and wonderfully patterned butterflies fluttering, dragonflies buzzing in groups, waterfalls in the least expected places. The best of all…the silence of nature as one float lazily down the river. Bliss…to be able to get away from the city…the fumes…and the noise of man made machines.

That morning saw me getting up early to play cabbie. After picking up Manju, Jenna and B, I handed the driving to Christie who drove us to Lionel’s house and our adventure started….immediately…with us losing sight of Lionel’s car (within 2 minutes of the start of the journey…Christie was apparently following the wrong car right from the start). It was good for us that B knew the way.

Bai (our head guide) was already at the Kuala Kubu Baru Post Office by the time we got there. We were the last to arrive (rather embarrassing since I am the organizer). The others were already chomping away on their breakfast in the near by coffee shops. So, after this and that and a char siew pau (my coffee had to be ta-pau-ed), we were off to the river.

After an extensive briefing from Bai (who turned out to be a pretty funny fella) and splitting ourselves up into four groups, we donned our safety equipment (which smelt really, really bad...and which Chew Cheong Tat...once again...wore his helmet backwards) and climbed into the rafts. Lionel, B, Manju, Su Yin and myself ended up with Bai as our guide.

No turning back...literally...because since we are not salmons, we lack to ability and the drive to swim upstream to lay our eggs. Please don't ask me where that analogy came from...I am hungry...and as usual...craving for salmon sashimi. If I had an oyster analogy...that would have been in here.

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Bai~our head guide...whom I suspect (judging by this photo) has a secret desire to be a super model.
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My raft members.
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More action. It's really addictive. The anticipation and wanting more of that 'feeling' that you get as the raft prepares to lunge downwards.

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Us once again. Look at the smiles on our faces. All natural...no posing.

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A brief stop at a waterfall (it's really cold and really strong...heavy...whatever...you get the idea).

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That's me...swimming...away from a shark (Andrew Poi).

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At the calm parts of the river, our guides allowed us to float carelessly while the current carried us towards the end.

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Nature. No descriptions needed.

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Overall, it was really good fun though I was a little disappointed that the rapids were not as ‘exciting’ as I expected them to be. The setback of having expectations. I found out that we did not really know our left from our right (ha ha ha…took us a few seconds to think before we could obey Bai’s commands). A few rapids threatened to throw us off (Chew Cheong Tat got flung off a couple of times) but it was not until the very last one that Manju, Su Yin and myself succumbed to the river. I remember it in slow motion…the raft going down a series of rather steep rocks…our side of the raft plunging downwards, Lionel and B sliding towards us…their side of the raft rising up, screaming…and then…silence. I knew I had plunged into the river and so did Manju and Su Yin, but I did not know where they were. Because of my contact lenses, I could not open my eyes. I remember kicking towards the surface…upwards…where the oxygen is. But instead of open air, my hands met the rubbery bottom of the raft. Drat! The raft was right above me. I don’t know how I managed to maintain my presence of mind but I did…and thankfully my claustrophobic demons stayed at bay. I scrambled towards the end of the raft and managed to find my way up. Air had never tasted as sweet as I gulped down breath after breath.

Have I had enough of white water rafting? Definitely not! I am already itching for the next trip. Padas river anyone? Okay…so Sabah is a little far to go to. How about Slim River then, folks? Give me a call. It can be arranged. This is your team leader…it’s been a pleasure…over and out.

2007..Sob...Sob...Bye...Bye

As the year draws to an end...I find myself falling into what I call my 'contemplative' moods where I retrospectively glance at the excerpts of my life in 2007. The memories then gets me very melancholic...but it's not a sad depressive melancholy...rather a wistful 'oh I can't believe how the year has swept pass me' that leaves me staring blankly into space for a moment. So if you see me around with glazed eyes...that's me in deep thought...BUT if it's really early in the morning...then it's probably me pre-caffeinated which means: LEAVE ME ALONE!

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I am attempting to compile my list of: 2007 ~ The Leech's List of Irksome-ness & Absolute Delights. I do this every year and distribute to some very close friends...but have never posted it up in a blog before. Hmmmm, must be careful to censore some things...rats and all...unfortunately. Sigh. Anyhow...my target of course is by the end of the year. Ha ha. I will prevail! Or rather...my procrastinative nature will NOT prevail.

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This year, instead of hand making my Christmas cards (in previous years, I used to draw and colour my cards using colour pencils...each card unique a.k.a no repetitions) because it is just too time consuming (and a lot of hard work!) I am printing them out with personal messages in each one. This year...my favourite Christmas quote comes (surprisingly) from Dr Seuss:

And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.
~ Dr. Seuss

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I think that I like things that rhyme. Anyway, it's post call (or nearly...half a day more to go). It has been a pleasant week so far...I have a good houseman tagged to me...always a good thing. The makan in Bibas went well...though I did not top my personal best of 36 oysters...I stopped at 23...actually, they ran out of oysters (can you believe that!!!) and so I was forced to stop. Pictures will be posted up...soon. And oh...apologies to all those I enticed to Bibas with my decription of the grilled cod fish that melts in your mouth...the cod fish was no where to be seen. In it's place was another sort of fish that...yes agreed...was not half as good. Anyway, I hope that you guys had a good time there.

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And as I end this particular blog, I wish one and all a MERRY CHRISTMAS. May His light shine upon you all the days of your lives.

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"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us."

My DG's Christmas Lunch Slash Gift Exchange

Our DG had a Christmas lunch at Marco's Pizza after church today. The following pictures...you will notice...are not of food...rather, they are of people who ate all the food...hence no pictures of food. No, I am not stating the obvious. The food was served in slow spurts and as each pizza was set on the table, the hoard of hungry post church goers attacked with such gusto that by the time this humble photographer whipped out her SONY digital camera all she had to snap were sad empty plates with remnants of tomato sauce and thin strands of discarded cheese.

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Our DG took up about half the restaurant. We started by 'singing' grace and then proceeded to fellowship a.k.a bellowing at each other at the top of our voices. It was like a Hakka community.

Uncle Swee Ming...NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! The food is on the way...really!

Uncle Swee Ming strikes again. Boy, he must be pretty hungry. I'll miss ya Ah Suan.

The 'kiddy' table.

"Hhhmmm, I wonder whether that black wringling thing in my ice lemon tea is edible?"

Eating Out: Prince Hotel Kuala Lumpur

One fine Saturday...an appointment for a pigging out session. I have to confess...I nearly cancelled out on the Pois and Ah Chew. It was two days before the Aseptic Dispensing Course (which went quite by the way)...and well, I was a little stressed out. But was could be more scintilating than an evening of good (well...yet to be determined at that point) food and stimulating conversation with really good friends. So to #^*+* with work...makan here I come! But before I go into the nitty and gritty, my verdict for this particular buffet: it somewhat gets the LEECHES SEAL OF APPROVAL.

The oysters...the oysters...I started with the oysters! Actually, I kind of start with oysters at every buffet that I go to. I just love them. Okay you guys...stop with the disgusted faces. I really lurve them. Sometimes, I get really bad cravings for raw oysters. That cold texture...the mix of lemon and Tabasco sauce. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy...the cravings are starting again. BUT...the reason why the buffet just got a 'somewhat' out of me was that I wasn't too happy at how the oysters were served. They were not layed out on a bed of ice and so was warm and did not taste all that fresh.

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Next, I attacked the sashimi bar...or what Andrew calls, "Value For Money Section." Hhhmmm, yum yum. I could live on raw oysters and sashimi and tom yam...but I reckon that my already not too great cholesterol level would put up some sort of resistance to that diet...so alas...maybe once a month.

More sashimi. Triple yummers. Sashimi and lots of wasabi.

Then came time for the cheeses and what better cheese to start with than the blue veined cheese. Oooohhh...the smell...the taste...

The cheesy pyramids. Look at its golden sheer. Slurp.

There was a chocolate fountain there too. Now, some of you would know that I would not normally go near local chocolates because...well...they are just not chocola-tey enough. But this chocolate fondue...oh...yummers...I surprised myself by liking it. It is not too sweet and had sufficient amounts of chocolate in it. Me like.

Cheers mate! This is how we drink our cuppa in jolly ole England.

A slice of cheesecake, a chocolate cookie and a marshmallow covered with chocolate. In other words: DESSERT!

After all that food, we had to take a short walk-a-bout. Right in the centre of the foyer was this christmas tree with weird lights on top. It looked like an UFO christmas tree.

After all that food, I was amazed that Chew Cheong Tat could still stomach more. Tsk tsk...the decorations did not excape his 'wrath'.

Some of the decorations that managed to evade Chew.

This is how Chew looks while attempting to take photos for his blog. Penuh konsentrasi wei!

And my last picture...more decor at the hotel. Reminds me of the decorations in the Korean hotel I went to two years ago...or was it three years? Hhhmmm....

Anyhooo...the next pigging out session...BIBAS @ Mandarin Oriental. Watch out for more pictures (I suspect will be of more oysters and sashimi). So till then...I gotta get back to the Simpsons...I realise that I can't blog and watch tv at the same time.

I Am Legend

After a dinner of crabs, Jess and myself headed over to One Utama for a movie. Our cuz Chris had purchased tickets earlier. I Am Legend...staring Will Smith. Being such a busy bee...and also having to evasively manouvre around a certain back stabbing rodent...I did not time to read through the latest movie reviews. Boy, if only I had...I would definitely NOT have agreed to watch the movie.

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Okay...so the movie started with the discovery of a man made virus that had could completely cure all cancers...a 100% cure rate...complete remission...no recurrence. Sounds pretty happy so far huh? Yeah...whatever. Fast forward three years...an empty New York...overgrown trees...abandoned cars and homes. The plot slowly unfolds. The virus had gotten out of hand. It mutated the 'cured' cancer victims and transformed them into Darkseekers...some sort of nocturnal mutants that fed on the remaining healthy humans who had natural immunity against the virus. It all went downhill for me after the first 30 minutes. I was underneath my jacket for about 30% of the movie...petrified. The darkseekers looked like Voldermort (think Harry Potter). I seriously don't know how this movie got a U rating.

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Anyway, the movie ends with Dr Robert Neville (Smith) finding the antibody against the virus and then heroically (the word exist in my library, okay?!) sacrificing himself by way of blowing himself (and the kazillion freaky mutants) up. THE END.

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Okay...so...I admit...I am the biggest chicken when it comes to scary movies. This heart just can't take it anymore. From now on, it's dramas, mysteries, romantic comedies and all 'feel good' movies for yours truly.

Part Two: The Rat Strikes (Yet Again!) & More Stories...

Sigh. There are so many things that I want to blog about...so many instances when something idiotic, funny or just plain exasperating happens and my mind starts to think in my 'blogging' mode which goes something like this: "Dear blog...the road this morning was exceptionally clear. I just LOVE the school holidays. Seriously...not a car in sight. But as I got on to the LDP, things started to become suspiciously suspicious. For starters, the bright orange cones that are normally arranged on the fly over in front of One Utama were missing. They normally don't place the cones up on weekends...or public holidays. Then it struck me. Sultan of Selangor's birthday and I started cursing (nothing foul...don't worry). Oh...I wasn't cursing the Sultan...it was more the fact that I had to get up early to work while the rest of Selangor slumbers away. An injustice that stings us folks working in a plot of land that sits on the border of PJ and KL (the hospital building is sooo definitely IN PJ) and unfortunately have a KL address." But many a time I don't get to a computer fast enough and the thought floats into the land of 'I Mean To Do It Later But In Reality Will Most Probably Not'.

Anyway...I have still yet to blog about Linkin Park and Crown Prince because I have yet to post the pictures up. And oh do I have some brilliant pictures!

And The Rat! The Rat! Remember The Rat I blogged about? The disgusting filthy rat with mean beady pasty eyes and sharp jagged claws with an unhealthy habit of grabbing things to stuff into its forever chewing jaws. Well in this episode...it rears ist ugly and fat head again. Stab stab stab. Snitch snitch snitch. The Colony suffers because of this one really bad apple. But let's go back in time. A time that finds a proud expecting couple waiting so patiently for the arrival of what was to be the latest addition to their small family of three. They had such grand plans...such big hopes. Unfortunately for them, what came was a howling mean looking ugly shrivelly thing. The Parents got a shock of their lives. Why? What have we done wrong? Why?!!! But like most things in life...we just don't know.

The Rat grew and grew and grew into a disgustingly obese bully. So it was no wonder that The Rat had very little friends in school. You'd think that there must be some good in The Rat for these 'friends' to stick around. Maybe there is...but The Rat's behaviour made it literally impossible to know for sure. The Parents tried to instill good values...morals...but to no avail. But like all good parents...they did not stop trying...though it was soon apparent that their effort, tears and heartache were all in vain. The Rat did not change.

Back to present time. As each day passed by, The Rat was filled with more envy...envy at the successes and even happiness of the others in the Colony. It never occurred to The Rat to be happy for the Colony. It certainly never occurred to The Rat that it could be happy too. Old habits die hard. So instead of building up the Colony, it took upon itself the task of tearing it down. In order to glorify itself, The Rat had to destroy everything around it. If it could not be happy, then the Colony MUST NOT be either.

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PS: Part three will be written and posted when you (and I for that matter) least expect it...but judging by the way things are heating up in The Colony...it may be sooner than you and I think.

What A Relief!

The course is over! IT IS OVER!!! And now, I can sleep. I can close my eyes and not have this part at the back of head continuously processing whether everything is on time, planned and executed. I can watch tv again...and that's exactly what I am doing now...right now. Grey's Anatomy...the latest season that isn't even on Astro yet...one of the few tv series that I still follow...now that House sucks and Gilmore Girls is over.

(2 hours later)

Still watching Grey's. I am up from episode 4 to 8 and that's all I have for now. Boo hoo. Will have to wait for the rest to be %&^*$...he...he...if you get my drift. Just arrived (welll...not just...about 5 episodes ago) from Kuala Lipis. Needed to get away after last week. Drove up yesterday in the wee hours of the morning. I can't concentrate. Episode eight is proving to be a little too exciting for multi tasking.

Tomorrow...the rat race begins...once again.

6th Aseptic Dispensing Course

Oh me...oh my...I have been such a pig and am paying for it now. Last night...Prince Hotel...buffet dinner...oysterssssssss and sashimi (yum...my inner self has to be Japanese...I am sure of it)...and the chocolate fountain. Bliss. Yes, it was bliss at first...then came the suffering. Have not had sooo much in a long time. You could have rolled me all the way back home (or down 5 floors of the Prince hotel car park...it just kept going round and round and round and then more...had to step on me brakes a fair bit...what with Chew adding to the momentum...E=mc2...increased mass (Chew Cheong Tat)=increased momentum!). Even now...I am not in the least bit hungry...my stomach still feels full.

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But enough of that. Will blog more when I have transfered my pictures from the camera. Have not been blogging much because of the above course that I am organising. Boy...it's a lot of work. Hence me being at the hospital today. The caterers and the photostate people are coming in at 3pm. And so...I bid thee adieu for the time being. I still have to 'beautify' my talks. And type out the workshop notes. And arrange the workshop materials. And check my calculation notes. And....