Happy New Year !

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year 2009. May the year be filled with joy, laughters, successes and everything good ;)

Mama Mia! Musical

It was my first musical and definitely no regrets in having to pay such expensive ticket for it. It's every penny worth it. I got myself a pretty good seat. Fourth row from the orchestra. Of course, if given a choice the best seats would be another 4 rows behind where I'm seated.

Not complaining since my ticket cost me about RM 300++ after a 20% discount for early birds. The show starts at 3pm sharp. Late comers will have to wait till a few songs later before they are let in.

Just a little bit of recap of the storyline, it's about a girl who's getting married and wanting to know who her real father is and also to give her away for the wedding. This musical is full of laughters and of course, the ever famous Abba songs. I'm sure everyone is bound to either sing along with the cast members or hum along the songs, just like me. I sing along to almost all the songs. Not singing out loud of course. I do not wanna disturb others from enjoying the movie and certainly don't wanna be disturbed too.

I grew up listening to Abba, Beatles, The Carpenters, etc so basically I know the lyrics by heart. Oldies but the goodies! Thanks to my parents and till now, I'm still a fan of oldies.

Towards the end, some of the audiences actually stand up and dance along to their singing. I almost did hehe And till today, I still have those songs in my head and can't stop playing it on my pc or humming to the tune. I'm just loving it. I guess this is the beginning of my many musicals to come.

I have a dream, a song to sing .....

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas day. Wishing everyone a merry christmas!! ... This year I did not have any big celebration, no partying or clubbing. Just a dinner with my bf at this restaurant which he saw in one of those or rather a few food blogs.

We decided to give this restaurant a try since the rating seems to be quite good and it's nearby his place too. This restaurant's name is Fusion Haven. They served fusion foods obviously. From the photos of the food, it does look appealing and yummy too. The food are served ala French style, like when dining in fine dine restaurants. Portions are small and it's meticulously decorated. Nice to see and I definitely feel like eating it just by looking at the photos hehe

We asked the waiter over to get him to recommend us their signature dishes in each category ie the appetizer and snacks, main course, soups, etc. We ended up with most of their signature dishes. A mango salad, a smoked duck and cream of mushroom for my bf (the waiter told us that it is not can soup and it's freshly prepared), I ordered a pan fried dory tower, a unagi rice for my bf's mom and a snack of unagi roll. The food came as per the photo, not disappointing at all, a plus point for them :)

The unagi rice is nice according to my bf's mom. The smoked duck was a wee bit too salty for my liking. My pan fried dory wasn't at all nice to me, the fried dory is kinda cold and chewy to me, quite disappointing dish for me. The unagi roll is worth trying though. The soup came last and it came with a pastry on top of it ala Dome's signature soup pie. The pastry is crispy and delicious but the soup is very disappointing. One spoon of it and I know the waiter kinda lied cos I can taste that it is from a can soup. I do think they added extra mushrooms and maybe some other herbs to make the soup taste nicer. But sadly, me and my bf still agreed that the soup is still make of 70% can soup. Overall it's not a pricey place to go for dinner, our dinner came to about RM100. Cozy ambiance but with loud echo which make conversation hard. Not exactly a place I would wanna frequent though. Oh, and sorry no photos of the these food as I'm not a professional food blogger and we were too hungry to remember about photo taking hehe

That's my Christmas dinner. Next thing I know I actually had a Christmas dinner waiting for me at my aunt's. I guess there's a miscommunication between me and my aunt cos I thought the dinner is on Christmas day instead of the eve. I ended up joining them later on. My parents too. We reached there quite late. Really embarrassing as everyone is waiting for us. Nevertheless, I do enjoy my hours there playing with the dog and my little nephew and not forgetting the good food there. How can I not be fat with all these good food coming along during these festive seasons????? hehehe

Happy DongZhi

Yesterday it's the DongZhi Festival. Most of us are back to hometown to be reunited with our families for a reunion dinner. Myself included. This year, instead of mom cooking up a storm for the four of us, we decided to celebrate it together with my uncles and aunties and their families.

We went for a brunch at Chuai Heng, Ampang Waterfront as they are having a promotion for dim sum. Per basket is only 2.88++ or 3.88++. Very cheap. Earlier on, I booked a table for 10, turns out there's a total of 13 of us sitting at the round table, happily ordering our dim sum and chatting away. Their dim sum is steamed whenever u ordered it and not those type where a lady pushing a cart full of dim sum selections for you to choose. The food is fresh and delicious. We finished each and every plates/baskets of dim sum. They even served us each a bowl of 'tong yuen' to celebrate DongZhi.The bill came to about RM 200+ only. Really cheap. Maybe cos most of my uncles and aunties are already senior citizen and they can't eat much but still it's cheap :)

For dinner, the whole gang went to one of my aunt's place. She's cooked up some dinner and most importantly my favourite hakka dish, the braised pork with sea cucumber and fu chuk :) I practically finished 1 bowl of the braised pork without eating much rice hehe.

Some said you have to eat the number of 'tong yuen' according to your age and also there's a saying, once you eat the 'tong yuen' you are a year older, which is which? I don't know but I know I had my share of 'tong yuen' and am definitely growing older a year :)

Homemade masks - tried and tested :)

Women, no matter how old they are, they all wanna be beautiful and look young. And just for that particular reason, we can spend thousands of ringgit in skin cares or cosmetics just to make ourselves beautiful :)

Myself included. Used to spend a lot on my skin cares as I am a firm believer of healthy skin speaks louder than a beautiful face with make up. So, beside the usual skin care regime, I diligently do my homework at home aka self facial with masks that I bought from pharmacies or supermarket.

Lately, I surf the net for homemade mask. I've heard a lot about the benefits of homemade mask before but have never tried any, so yesterday, I decided to give it a try.

I chose a banana and egg white mask. The ingredients are simple and easily found in a normal household. According to the net, this mask nourishes our skin, tighten our skin and have anti aging effects. The main ingredients are :

1 ripe banana (has moistening and soothing effects)
1 egg white (tighten and refine pores for firmer skin)
1 teaspoon of honey (helps in absorbing and retaining moisture)
3 spoonfuls of oatmeal (absorb and removes skin dirts, oil & impurities & is a natural skin cleanser)

Methods :

1. Peel off the banana and cut it into sections. Use a clean fork, smashed the banana on a flat surface.
2. Put the smashed banana into a bowl. Crack the egg for the egg white. Mix the egg white into the smashed banana.
3. Put in the honey and mix well.
4. Lastly, pour in the oatmeal and mix evenly.
5. Using a brush, apply the mask over your face. Start with a thin layer and then proceed with another layer of mask. Leave it for 20 minutes or longer if you like. Rinse it off with warm water and pat dry face. There should be leftover mask, keep it in the fridge and use it once everyday for 3 days for a better result. The mask should have a 2-3 days shelf life depending on how fresh the banana is :)

Verdict :
Day 01
After applying the mask on my face, I do look very silly. The mask smell nice with oatmeal. When I'm waiting for the mask to dry, it does feel that it's working it's wonder in firming my skin. After rinsing off, I do feel my face smoother and according to my mom, a bit fairer. Tonight I'm gonna try it again with the leftover. Looking forward to a fairer, smoother and firmer skin when I finish off the mask. Will update. :)

Indeed there's a lot of leftovers, I managed to finish the mask in 4 days ie for 4 nights I have been doing this mask. I do feel that my skin is smoother and firmer. My skin look healthier. The only downside of this mask is when you wash it off. It's hard to wash off the mask after it has dried. It kinda stick to your skin that's why the warm water helps. Try it out and see for yourself.

Hurt and Wounded ...

A very bad day for me yesterday. It was raining with heavy thunder storm. I allowed my dog into the house as whenever there's a thunder storm he tend to make a big fuss about it, howling and barking and scratching. But even when he is in the house, he's on his leash. And to make him less anxious I gave him his bone to chew on. To distract him from the heavy thunder storm. He was chewing nicely and even fall asleep half way through chewing his bone.

I didn't bother him till later. When I go near him and wanted to pet him. That's when he bite my hand. Yes, he bite my hand really hard and as I was struggling to let go, he bite more. He thought I wanna take away his bone. I took the cane and cane him as hard as I can with my other hand. Between the 'battle' I did not realize that he bite me that much. Eventually he let go. I thought it was just a small bite, then only I realize that I was actually bleeding when I saw droplets of blood on the floor. 2 of my fingers were quite badly bitten. There's a little swell on my hand, like a lump. One of my finger felt number and swollen. There's also a quite deep bite mark in between the thumb and the second finger. Luckily it have not reach my vein or else I think I'm gonna be crippled. I wash my hand with cold water, cleaning the blood and wound. Had to put a wool on it to stop the bleeding. Immediately I went up and took a cream to put on it. Wanted to bandage it but Steve came at this time. He was shocked to see my condition.

Was not that bad, just a very dark and furious and about to cry face on me :P He took over the job to bandage me. He clean my wound with alcohol swabs as I don't have dettol. It's not painful as he said or I thought it should be. Maybe cos I have already wash it earlier. He dab on some antiseptic (yellow liquid) on the wool and cleanse my wound again. Then he bandage it. This pic show how does my hand look like yesterday. I am like handicapped girl. Nope, I did not go see doctor immediately last night. I went to the doctor today and she said I should get a jab within 24 hours of the bite. Luckily it's still within 24 hours. Got my jab and medicine now. And I'm no more on bandage as doctor said it's best to let dog bite/scratch wound in the open and not cover it in bandage. Luckily my finger less swollen today and I can move my fingers as previous but still there is a numbness and painfulness in it. Have to handle my hand with care. And I still managed to type this blog out so I guess my fingers are on it's way to recovery :)

2 Bad News

Just received 2 bad news today. It makes my heart shiver a little. No tears come running down but the mind keep on asking a lot of questions. How did it happened? Why did it happened? Will it happened to me? etc.

First bad news, get to know that a child who wasn't even born yet can't survived the pregnancy. Indeed very sad for the parents of this child. The gender of this child has not been detected yet. I still remember a while ago as I was talking to the soon to be mummy, she's so excited and happy about the coming child. Telling me the child in her tummy is kicking her and being naughty. Looks like it's all gonna be a memory to her. Yes, a very sad memory. One that she might not wanna remember. First time being mother and father and now they have to terminate the pregnancy due to defect in the baby which is non curable. It is going to be their hardest decision ever make. Indeed very heart wrenching. I am shocked too when I received this news. I know she might be reading this too and I hope she don't mind me blogging out this news. Hope everything will turn out fine for both of you. May the power of peace of mind be with you both.

Second bad news received. A friend of mine had pass away last Sat. She was admitted to the hospital due to swollen legs. Doctor said it was water retention and gave her some medicine. When I visited her, she look alright to me. The same old girl I know. The cheerful and happy girl. I wonder what happened to her. We were the same type of people. Outsider who don't know might wanna call us the vampires or the blood suckers. We only turn vampires once a month and check in ourselves for some fresh blood. Although we hardly see each other but we understand how each of us felt whenever we face similar problems. It sort of comfortable to have someone understand what we had to go through. The pain, the side effects, the consequences and the future that behold for us. It is very sad to know someone of my age and with similar difficulties has gone away. It somehow trigger more questions in my mind.

As I have always said, live is short, enjoy and live it to the fullest. Hopefully I can and I will.

An encouter ....

Today, while I was having my dinner with my parents at a nearby shop, came a woman asking us for money. The woman dress in clean clothes, had tidy clean hair (or so I think, from what I can see) and does not at all look handicap to me. She walk near our table speaking softly but still can be heard by all of us for money. We ignore her. The shop owner shouted at her asking her not to disturb her customers. The beggar, yes, that's what I would call her, walk slowly round our table and came over my side of the table and again begging for money. My dad said no to her and again the shop owner shouted at her warning her not to disturb her customers or else she would tell all her customers not to give her money.

All these while in my head I was thinking, why would this woman beg for money? I mean she's not handicap and she look perfectly in her sane mind. She had tidy and clean clothes and hair. So, to me, she can find a job and work for money instead of begging for money. What in her mind that make her do so?

Honestly speaking, I don't pity these kinda people. Not that I'm heartless, to me she can earn her living. Find a job as a restaurant helper or dish washer or what ever that can give her money rather than begging. Maybe to her begging is the most easiest way to earn money. If there's 10 tables in that shop and per table give her RM 1, wow, just 1 round of collection she can gain RM 10. That's a decent meal with a drink. Seems easy earning right? But on the other hand, can U do what she did? To beg in public and be as thick skin as her? Not everyone can do so. But with the current economy situation I think a lot of people might be desperate enough to beg.

From the religion book that I have read, being a beggar like her, u will be punished too in the after life. Punishment will be in the form of using copper/iron knives to scrape of the skin of the beggar's face cos the beggar did not use the correct path to earn money and are very thick skinned.

Journeys To The Underworld (Part II)

I have finally finished reading this book. Yea, I took quite a long time to do so. After reading this book, I realize what we often see or heard is actually true and it's happening.

The last I wrote is about the Third Tribunal. In each tribunal, there's quite a number of prisons in them just like what we have on Earth. In this tribunal, there's a copper/iron knife face scraping prison where sinful souls are punished by scraping off their face's skin. Yes, sound torturing indeed. This is a prison for those who do not understand the meaning of modesty, righteousness and courtesy. Next will be the Prison of Hanging Up Side Down. In here, the soul will be hung up side down by the feet which the soles are pierced by hooks attached to steel wires. This is to punish souls who had upset moral obligations, ruined social structure and defied the human duties and relationship.

The Fourth Tribunal is ruled by Wu Guan Wang and he's in charged of 16 small prisons which carry out different punishment. One of them is the Prison of Forced Drinking of Medicine. It's for those who when they are alive, they imitate drugs and medicine without following the proper way to do it and at the aim of making bulk money and not for the health of those who ate it. Next is the Prison of Boiling Water where souls hands are up raised and nailed to the wooden framework and are being splashed with boiling water to their hands. This is punishment for thieves, robbers and swindlers. Mouth Piercing Prison, the name says it all. It's a place where souls are pinned to pillars and are being mouth pierced with steel sharp skewers. This is to punish those who don't use our mouth to speak out proper and decent words. Next it's the Severing of Sinews and Extracting of Hand Bone Prison. In here souls are sever the sinews of the hands and strip of the flesh with pointed and sharp knives. The flesh are then feed to 'iron dogs' in Hades. Prison of Poisonous Bees are for people who spoil the good name of temples and places of worship. In here they are being stung by tiger head bees and there's no way to avoid it as the bee has it's own spirit and will only sting sinful souls.

I think it's better for those of you who's interested in the book to read it yourself. Shall not blog anymore about it. My friend had borrowed the book from me and hope she enjoy reading it.

Yet Another Weird Dream

Yet another bizarre dream I had last night. I only remember this certain part and I have no idea how I could dreamt such dream.

This time I dreamt I'm pregnant. It's a twin. A baby boy and a baby girl! Yes, I can see it clearly with the ultrasound photo or x-ray photo in my dream. The next thing I know, I was being led all around in search of a doctor. I don't know why but HE brought me to doctor. Don't seem to me like I'm in a rush but yet I feel like I have to walk from one end of the mall to the other end, up or down the lift, rush into the car or was it a bus, I really can't remember. Eventually I was awaken by my dogs morning session barking.

Weird right? Wonder what can this dream mean? Or maybe lately there's 4 or more friends of mine who had just recently gave birth. But non of them gave birth to a twin. Anyway, just another weird dream of mine.

Weekends

Usually weekends are the days that we all look forward to. Why? Cos it's the day we don't have to work. I don't know about you but I have a five days week policy so my Saturdays and Sundays are free for myself!

Weekends usually past by very fast. Like they say, good times always end without you realizing it. I guess to me, weekends are my good times. It's the time when I can spend time with my loved ones and also can just laze around my house doing nothing. It is also on weekends that we manage to catch up on movies or may be have a movie marathon :) or go shopping. That's what I do on weekends with my bf. At times when we are so lazy, we can just laze around either his or my house the whole day. Call us lazy bums but hey, it's the days when we don't have to work. Else what is there to do on weekends? House chores? Yes, I do that but not on my weekends. As my family had a cleaner lady over once a week so most of the washing, sweeping, ironing is done by her.

Weekends can seem to be boring too. So I'm also wondering what other things can I do during my weekends beside sleeping and lazing at home :)

5th Trip to Bangkok

Well, the title speak for itself. Recently I just came back from Bangkok aka my annual shopping trip despite the recent riot and protest happening in Bangkok. Before my flight, my friends, my cousins, and my parents were nagging me about me going to Bangkok as the news had just shown a few death in the recent protest. So I check up with a friend of mine who know someone in the Thai Tourism Board about the condition in Bangkok. Apparently shopping areas are hardly affected by the riot. Only the government house areas are affected. So we decided to brave out this journey despite the numerous warning from friends and relatives ;P A day before my flight is due, we got an sms from Air Asia saying that the flight is gonna be delayed but my friend somehow mis-heard the information and told me that it was cancelled. For awhile there's a tiny bit of disappointment in me cos I so wanted to go Bangkok and so I called up another gf of mine to get the whole picture of the story. Apparently it was a false alarm, the flight was in fact delayed not cancelled. Phew.... We took the last flight to Bangkok and since it was delayed, our touch down time was delayed too. I reach Bangkok about 1 am M'sia time and 12 am Bangkok time. It was a tiring trip for me maybe cos my biological clock was telling me it's my bedtime as it is 1 am M'sia time. By the time we reach the hotel, it's already about 3 am in the morning and we are all drop dead tired and totally knock out. I don't even bother to have a close look at my hotel room. The hotel we stayed in is a themed hotel, every room has got different theme. Mine was one of the Japanese wave themed. Overall the hotel room is not bad as it cost us only RM 130, it's only meant for us to sleep in and bath in cos most of the time we will be out shopping or sightseeing.

Day One : We woke up early so we can have plenty of time to shop as we are going to Cha Tu Chak the weekend market. The hotel provided us with breakfast thus everyone stuff themselves full with a heavy breakfast so we have enough energy to walk in the weekend market. It is a hot and sunny day and by the time we meet up for lunch or tea we are all burn and sweaty and of course happy with our shopping. That is only the 1st half of our shopping itinery! 2nd half is to the famous MBK shopping complex to continue our shopping! Reason we choose MBK is because we wanna be in a shopping complex with air cond as all of us are all sweaty and smelly haha. Once we are in MBK, the first place we head to is Swensen :) Surprisingly Swensen in Thai is darn cheap. Me and Steve had a chocolate fondue with ice cream for RM 14.90 only. After Swensen, everyone is recharged and continue our mission to shop :) Last stop before heading back to hotel to refresh is Burger King for a pork burger. In Thai, it's all about pork burgers haha For dinner, our friend aka the half Thai boy hehe brought us to Chinatown for a very cheap and delicious seafood dinner. We had raw oysters, fish, prawn, vege, crab, mussels, fried rice and tom yum seafood soup and drinks for only about RM 282 plus. Darn cheap. Average per person is about RM 47. Cheap right??? Sorry ah no photo for this dinner as everyone is too hungry to remember about photo. Once the food arrived we just dig in and within 5 minutes the food is gone so I have only the mess we left behind after our delicious meal hehe :p

Day Two : Second day for shopping would be the whole sale area aka Pratunam. By this day, my little thigh are swollen and my feet is very painful. Still, we continue our mission :) The guys, well only Steve and Scott, went to the food court to have their beer session while waiting for us to shop. I guess they are tired of waiting for us ladies the shopaholics hehe. We were in Platinum Mall and I find things here are consider expensive compared last year when I went there. I could not get much in Platinum thus I bring Junie to another area, which I always go during my past years of shopping in Bangkok. I guess prices drop once u go out from the shopping complex. I can get 3 short pants for RM 10 outside of the shopping mall and mind you, it's quite nice design. Junie is satisfied with the shorts. We even bought some dresses for RM 10 per piece. Although the material is not really that good but I think for RM 10 it's worth it. By the time we went back to the food court to meet up the boys they are already going on their 7th bottles of beer. Beer in Bangkok are cheap doesn't matter it's imported or not. Later that night we went to Suan Lum Bazaar for dinner and shopping again. We had a 3 litre beer tower of Paulaner for only RM 90 which I consider darn cheap compared in KL. Well, can't compare actually cos there's not much Paulaner in KL.

Day Three : By this day, everyone is almost broke from shopping. Yes, that's how surprising it is. Lucky this day it's a sightseeing day so I guess not much money will be spent except for entrance fees, food and transportations. We had a laid back morning before going to the Grand Palace. Sadly we can't go in when we reach there as they have some festival/praying session going on inside thus the staff advised us to go other places before coming back by lunch time. 6 of us grab 2 tuk tuk and off we go to another temple which apparently only open once a year and we were lucky cos that day it is open door day. For some of them, taking the tuk tuk is a once in a lifetime experience. Why? Cos the tuk tuk that we took are kinda racing on the heavy traffic roads. Yes, the driver to my tuk tuk is like driving the F1 only it's on the main roads of Bangkok. All of us are saying NO to tuk tuk now hehe. To go into Grand Palace, one have to dress decently ie the skirt or pants must be longer then knee length and the top have to have sleeve or cover your shoulder or else you will be force to rent their pareo before they allowed you to enter the Grand Palace. As this is my 2nd time to the Grand Palace, we are all well aware of this and everyone dress up accordingly before going to Grand Palace. After the Grand Palace we went back to the hotel to bath and change our clothes before going to another place. In the evening we went to Erawan Shrine for praying purposes. Later on our friend brought us to a nice place for dinner again. It's by the Chao Praya River side. This time we managed to snap photos of our food before it is gobbled up by us hehe. After dinner we went for a drinking session in Khao San Road. This is an interesting place full of mat sallehs and the things that they sell here are mostly hand made and only in limited quantity. Too bad I was very tired out that night plus it is raining thus I don't have much mood to continue shopping. I head back to the hotel once I finished my drink to pack my luggage.

Day Four : Last day in Bangkok, it's a free and easy day. The 2 shopping king and queen continued their mission and the rest of us went sightseeing. This time we went to Wat Pho which is one of the largest temple in Thai and also with a huge reclining Buddha statue in it. It is a very large compound inside this temple. After Wat Pho we went to a temple nearby our hotel before going off for our last lunch in Bangkok as we are going back to KL in the evening flight. Me and Steve managed to find a little restaurant/pub/bistro nearby our hotel for our lunch. It is actually in Patpong area. It serve good Thai food at affordable prices. Yes, it's authentic Thai food. We stuffed ourselves full before heading back to hotel to freshen up before going to the airport. Guess what, this trip I am not the shopping queen. All my friends thought it is gonna be ME but surprise surprise, it is NOT me. Overall it is a fun filled trip for everyone. We had a great time in Bangkok shopping and I'm sure everyone would love to go there once more hehehe :) Next year perhaps ?

Mama Mia

Over the Raya holiday, I went for Mama Mia the movie in Pavilion. It's a sort of musical movie inspired by Abba songs. I'm not sure about the guys but to me (I think most of the girls) would like this movie. It's about a girl getting married and she wanted her father to give her hand away in her wedding. She found her mom's old diary and know that there's 3 possible guys who could be her father. So she invited 3 guys without her mom's knowledge to her wedding. It was a very cheerful movie and mind you, you most probably will be bound to sing along with the movie. All the songs are Abba's gold hits and I'm sure most of us are familiar with their songs. If u don't no worries cos subtitles of the songs are provided. In my case, I grow up listening to a lot of oldies like Abba. While watching the movie, I'm so tempted to sing along but knowing that my singing is gonnna disturb my fellow neighbors I decided not to sing out loud or sing along. But the girl next to me doesn't seem to agree with me. She's went on and sing along with the movie. Not that it's a wrong thing to do but it can be kinda disturbing. Luckily the movie can drown her voice else I would have to ask her to keep quiet. Hehe. Because of the movie, I bought myself the dvd although I've watched it in the cinema. Yes, my plan is to have a sing along when I play my dvd. Hehe. And now I suddenly become Abba song fanatic. I'm downloading almost all the songs in that movie and been listening to it ever since. Call me crazy but that's me. ;) Oh, lastly it's recommended for everyone to watch this movie and I'm planning to go watch the Mama Mia play in Istana Budaya this December too :) Even my bf had watched this movie twice; one in a private premier preview and 2nd time with me. His verdict : the movie makes him wanna dump all the works in Malaysia and go back pack and lead a care free life like in the movie :) See for yourself and enjoy the movie.

Journeys to the Under World (Part 1)

Generally, in most religions, we are taught to do good deeds to people or else we will be punish for all our sins done during our lives on Earth. I'm not exactly a very religious person so I'm not here to preach or teach anyone about anything relating to religions. For myself, I'm a Buddhist and Buddhism believes that there's heaven and hell and even the 'underworld' where sinners will be published. For those who frequent temples will know that temples provide a lot of books about Buddhism but most of it are in Chinese which prevent people like me who are non Chinese educated to read and understand Buddhism further．

Yesterday when I was in a temple, I saw at a corner there's a lot of books about Buddhism but all of them are in Chinese except for one. The title of the book look appealing to me and since it's the only English book there I borrowed the book. The title of the book is 'Journeys to the Under-World'.

The book was originally in Chinese and was the result of the deity 'Jigong' bringing the soul of Mr. Yang Sheng, a leading planchette handler of Sheng Xian Tang, Taiwan, to visit Hades on instructions of the Jade Emperor with intention of helping and saving human beings. The visits were completed in 62 journeys and were generally made in the night time.

According to the book, there's a total of 10 Tribunals in Hades and each tribunal have several sub division. I just complete reading Journey No. 16 which is to the Third Tribunal 'The Prison of Scooped Eyes'. I'm not going into details about this book but I just wanna highlight a few things mention in this book. And for those of you who wanna read up this book can borrowed it from any Buddhist temple.

The First Tribunal is where the soul goes to when they dies and this is also the place where the soul is registered and being investigate of his good and bad deeds during his life. If the soul is found to have done more bad deeds than good, he is then sent to the Second Tribunal to be trial.

On Mr. Yang Sheng Journey No. 6, he visited the 'Magic Mirror Pavillion'. After the soul had reported in the First Tribunal, he will be brought to this Magic Mirror Pavillion. The mirror will reflect what each and every evil deed the soul had done during his life on Earth. Later on, Mr. Yang Sheng tour 'Wang Si Cheng' (city of those who died unnatural deaths). This is the place where souls of those who have met with accidental death are sent to. In the first room in this place, Mr. Yang Sheng saw a lot of small crying babies covered in blood and upon asking the General of the place, he's told that these are the babies of those who had been aborted. The body of these babies are formed and thus they have souls. According to the book, when a baby is aborted, the baby's soul will of course have resentment and will wait until the parents die so the baby can confront them to account for the abortion. Please be a responsible parents and don't abort as the baby will be waiting for you in the other world.

Next is the Second Tribunal, which in fact is the real Tribunal for punishing souls. In every Tribunal there is a special pulpit for preaching and discourse to the souls to rehabilitate them. In this Second Tribunal, Mr. Yang Sheng visited the Odour Pool in Hades. Inside the pool he saw male and female, young and old, mixing up with strips of dung and urine.These were the souls of human beings when on Earth they are prostitutes, pimps who cheated girls, smugglers, those who used placenta of new born babies, swindlers and cheats, womanizers, gangsters, deliberate bankrupts, bribery officials and unscrupulous building contractors. These people when alive had evil hearts and therefore when they are sent to Hades, they have to smell and wobble in the excrete in this pool. It kinda give me a nausea feeling even imagining human beings in such pool of excrete not to mention to be in it. This serve a very strong reminder for everyone to not have any evil hearts or thoughts.

Next is the Hades of the Hungry Ghosts. This is the place where people when alive they are rich, spent lavishly, ate well and had no pity on the poor, needy and deserving. So when they die, they will be in here in a beautiful suit/dress and will only have one meal of vegetable broth a week. Sad isn't it? Thus it teaches us not to waste food and even though we are filthy rich, never forget the poor and needy. I will always remember not to waste my food from now and will be very thankful for the food that I managed to have.

In Journey No. 13, Mr. Yang Sheng tour 'Naihe Qiao' and Hades of Dancing. In 'Naihe Qiao' he saw a continually swaying and rocking bridge from which souls are falling to the bottom below and crying non stop. Below this bridge there are thousands of various snakes which will bite the souls once they fall. This is where people who alive have evil hearts and cheated people's money, cheated women, were instigators, cause people to quarrel and fights, took delight cheating others etc will ended up in... being bitten by poisonous snakes. When he goes to Hades of Dancing, he saw males and females all dancing in a pale hall. These are the souls of dance hostesses and dance patrons when they are alive. The floor of the hall is made of red hot iron plate and so when stepped on, the souls will burn their feet and cry aloud. These are the souls who dance for enjoyment and bodily pleasure and even to earn money or took up prostitution. Those who dance for the sake of health and exercise will not be sent here. After reading this chapter, I'm beginning to think twice of going to clubs or pubs.

Hades of Coldness, it's a place where souls are left in coldness with a very minimal clothing. Those who will be sent here are those who cheat people who entrust their property to them for safe keeping, procurers and pimps who demand large sum of money for the release of prostitutions etc from their bondage, people who are too showy, who spend recklessly and lavishly, those who prefer to spend on more expensive dresses just to show that they have a lot of money rather than to help the poor and needy and those females who take pleasure to go about scantily dressed thus exposing their bodies. Yet another reminder for me to do more good deeds.

Third Tribunal, The Prison of Scooped Eyes. In here souls will have both their eyes scooped out and left with blood oozing from the eye sockets and crying loudly. Soldiers of Hades will use a iron fork to scoop the eyes until the eye balls fell off. Then the eye balls are retrieved and fitted back into the eye sockets and wash with magic water; which will have the effect of reviving the soul from fainting.The scooping process will be carried out 3 times daily on each soul. People who always look down/despise others especially the poor and less educated, guys who love to peep, watch and read obscene books or movies, etc, people who cheated in examinations will eventually be punished here. Come to think of it, human these days be it guys or girls have most probably done most of the above mentioned sins. Sigh.

I've only read till here and am still reading the book. Will update once I have finish the book.

Is it safe in KL?

I find that these days in KL there are increasing numbers of snatch thieves. Maybe it did not happen to you before but ask around your friends, chances are quite a few of them had been snatched before or had heard of similar stories or have even seen it before but did not do anything to help. Yet another typical Kuala Lumpurian attitude, the mind your own business attitude. It's sad to know that there are people with such kinda attitude.

Just yesterday my friend, CY's hp was snatched from her hand while she's calling me. We were supposed to meet up for dinner in Sentul. Her god bro send her to the restaurant, as she's getting out of the car she tried to call me to ask where exactly is my location and that is when her hp got snatched. Yes, snatched from her very own hand. The call she made went through and I did pick up her call and keep saying 'hello, hello' and no one answer me back. At the same time, I heard from the phone and saw a guy on a bike sped off very loudly. At that moment I still did not know her phone got snatched until my friend call her other phone. That's when she told us her phone got snatched. The guy who snatched her phone practically scratch her face to hurt her in order to snatch the hp. That's how desperate these people are. All this happened in few meters away from the restaurant which have a lot of customers but in the darker area.

According to CY, there's a guy standing in front of her but did not do anything to help her. She said she did gave out a scream but I guess it's too noisy there that we did not heard it. She got a scratch mark from the thief on her eye. Right below her eye. She was very shocked from the incident. She did not sleep well last night. She's still shocked from the incident. Her first time being snatched thief victim. Who isn't? When I got snatched I was as shocked as she is if not worse cos my whole bag was snatched. I lost everything from my wallet to my car key and my new clothes!

But this serve as a lesson to us especially the girls. Avoiding talking on your hp while walking alone cos it make us easy prey. Don't put your hp, car keys etc on the table. Never leave our bags on an empty chair beside us no matter sitting in the restaurant or outside of the restaurant.
You think it won't happen to you just because you are in a upper class area? Think twice cos I was snatched in a upper class area. No matter where we go, we must be alert with our surrounding especially people who look suspicious. Even when I am driving back home alone at night I tend to be extremely careful. Never know when someone is tailing you home to rob you.

Sound pretty unsafe in KL? I'm not too sure either. But I try to avoid certain areas and be extra more careful especially at night when I'm alone.

Happy Mid Autumn Festival 2008

It's the Mid Autumn Festival or Mooncake Festival as many may call it. It falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar chinese calendar. To most chinese, we will go back to our hometowns to have reunion dinner and mooncake while 'moon bathing' with our respective families.

Same goes to my family except this year mom is working thus no celebration. But an aunt was kind enough to invite the family over to have lunch with them.

Nevertheless me and my bf decided to take things into our own hands. Not anything bad but we cook up a pot of treasure for the whole family (both side of the families). Previously when I went to KK in March, I had bought some sea cucumbers and abalone for our families and finally today we decided to cook everything in a pot :)

Chicken abalone soup with mushroom and sea cucumbers

Ingredients
1 kampung chicken
1 pack of abalone which I bought from KK (it consist of 10-11pcs)
3 big pieces of sea cucumber (which I bought from KK too- frozen)(soak it in water to soften it)
15-20 pieces of mushrooms (soaked overnight and sliced half)
a few slices of 'dong kwai'
a handful of red dates and 'kei chi'

1. Firstly we must clean the abalones. It's quite small in size. Not as big as those we eat in 'Ah Yat Abalone' of course. Apparently it's very hard to clean these abalones. U need a 'abalone scrub' to scrub it to remove the dirt sticking on the abalone. Those which I bought are wet abalones and not dried abalones. It's very hard to scrub away those dirt. If it can't be remove, trim off those dirty edges. Or u can try using baking soda to clean it. I did not try that.

2. Next, clean the kampung chicken. This is my first time cleaning a whole chicken. Although the seller already chop and remove the skin but there's still a lot of fats and internal organs of the chicken that need to be removed. It's a bit yucky when u stuff your hand into the chicken to remove all the internal organs. It feels slimy and stinky. Set it aside after cleaning the chicken.

3. Once the abalones are clean, stuff it into the chicken together with the mushrooms and the chinese herbs as well ('dong kwai', red dates, 'kei chi')

4. Put a pot of water to boil. Take out the sea cucumbers which are soften and sliced it. Set it in the fridge as it won't be needed till later.

5. Add in the left over of the abalones, mushrooms and herbs which can't be all stuffed into the chicken into the pot. Add in the stuffed chicken as well. Close the lid and let it boil in medium heat.

6. Once boiled, turn down the heat and let it boil in low heat for three and half hours. Add in the sliced sea cucumber during the last 45 mins as it will 'melt' in the soup. I guess the quality of the sea cucumber is not that good either. Add salt to taste when the soup is done.

Yes, it's that simple only. BUT, it's a lot of works to do especially on the preparation part. It was my first time handling abalones. Even my mom don't know how to cook it. So, this time I'm learning from Chef Steve hehehe

Verdict : The abalones is not as nice as those we had in restaurants. Can't complain much as we are only amateurs and I can't afford those big juicy abalones (these are cheap abalones RM 50 for a pack only). The whole pot of soup is very 'sin tim' (cantonese word as in 'hoi sin' that 'sin') The chicken is so soft and tender that the meat practically falls out from the bone. The sea cucumber almost 'melted' all in the soup. The abalones had shrunk to even smaller size. It is very chewy and not much taste. It's unlike those restaurant's where it is cooked for a few hours before it is served. For those who don't like the chewy tasteless abalone, sliced the abalones and cook a separate sauce to go with it. It taste better that way :)

I'm quite satisfied with today's pot of soup. I had too much of it till I can't eat anymore mooncake. But I did had some mooncake at Steve's place last night. The 2 of us enjoying our lil 'moon bathing' in his place while having mooncake and chinese tea. The traditional chinese tea with all the small pots and lil cups etc. He's the expert in 'kung fu' chinese tea. Explaining the art of making 2 small cups of nice aromatic chinese tea.
With different sizes of the tea cups, the tea actually taste different. The long tall cup of tea have a smoother taste while the round cup bring a thick taste. It's a very unique art of drinking tea which I don't know until now :)

Before I go to bed, wishing everyone a Happy Mid Autumn Festival!

Hassle of Getting A Car Number Plate

To those who know and have bought cars before will know the hassle of getting a 'good' car number plate. Unless of course, u don't need any special numbers thus, less hassle. This is my second time going to JPJ to buy my car number plate. The first was with my ex and it wasn't that hard. Maybe it is due to he bought common number.

If u log on to JPJ website,the numbers are categorized into premier value number which are those single digit numbers, interesting numbers such as 11, 333, 8888 etc and popular numbers such as 1000, 2772, 7788 etc. But the number which I wanted to buy is not in either one of these category. Usually, when u buy a new car, the sales person will help u handle all this hassle. I guess I was unlucky to have a not so competent sales person. Initially he told me he could help me to get the number I want for RM 300++ then it become RM 400++ then it turn out to be RM 500-600 cos he ask a runner to help him buy that number! I was very pissed off with his ever increasing price tag for the number and so I decided to get the number from JPJ myself.

Early Tue morning, I wake up as early as 7am and prepared myself to go JPJ. Luckily it's nearby my house. I reach there 7.30am and already there are a few people queing for the relatives departments to open up! Since I was there with my dad, I asked him to go join the Q upstair as that's the place where we are suppose to go for application for number plate, while I wait for the forms counter to be open. The form counter open 5 mins earlier than the other department. I grab a form and quickly fill it up and join my dad in the Q. By the time I reach the staircase, the Q is already until ground floor. Am so glad that dad's place was the 4th but sadly by the time the Q reach me, the lady told me that the new number is not open for sale yet. Thus no waiting numbers for me and I have to wait indefinitely.

I waited for an hour plus before the lady say we can Q up again for the number. By this hour a lot of people already Q-ing and long line have been formed. I did sort of jump Q cause the few of us are the early bird bunch and it's pretty unfair for us to have waited so long and to join the Q again. Lucky the lady recognize us and gave us the number or else I would not have be able to get what I want.

I'm the 5th person. Not too bad. A very good chance to get the number that I want. I reach the counter, pass the forms to the lady and tell her the number which I want. The number is still available and it only cost me RM 340 plus RM 10 service charge. At this time I panic, cause dad went out for breakfast and I don't have enough money for it. I only have about RM 150 in my purse and the lady in the counter said I have to pay her and no waiting or pre book number. I called my dad and he's quite far from the place. In the meantime, I have to do what I had to do.

To borrow money from strangers!!! Yes, it is embarrassing but if I don't buy the number now I would not have got it. I asked the uncle at the next counter but he seem very angry with the JPJ lady and say 'don't know' and left. Lucky at the time, the lady serving me is also handling another issue with another customer thus I get to pro-long the time while waiting for my dad. Eventually there's this guy (which I think is a runner) who's familiar with the lady came ask her something and so I grab the chance and asked him to borrow me some cash to secure the number. I assured him that I won't run away and I will wait with him for my dad to reach. Lucky me, he's very kind and he did borrow me RM 170 for me to buy the number cause at that time I only have RM 180. Dad came in just in time to pay the lady and I don't have to borrow the guy's money after all. Phew! what a situation.

Finally mission accomplish and number secured but the hassle of getting it..... really not so worth it but think of saving at least RM 200 to pay a runner to buy the number, brings a smile to myself :)

Illegal or Legal Car Jockey Service

I'm sure those who goes out clubbing will know of these so called 'car jockey' people. Was wondering if they actually have the license to operate as a car jockey and to actually park your cars at normal roadside with white or yellow line or even a proper out door parking lot??

This is what happened to me last fri night in Solaris, Mont Kiara. And yes, I'm darn pissed off by these car jockey. First of all, they did not put a proper sign or whatever to block that area to tell public it's ONLY meant for car jockey. Secondly, it's a roadside with white line so meaning I can issued summons by DBKL. Fyi, that area is under DBKL jurisdiction.

That night after dinner, I'm supposed to go a friend's club to celebrate my friend's birthday party. Those who know that area should know that everyone park on the roadside and some even park by the main roadside. It's quite a secluded area so it's not a busy main road. When I reach there I'm so happy to spot a roadside parking which is empty and near to the club I wanna go. After finally finish parking my car, come a guy knocking at my window. He told me that it is a jockey parking and that I have to pay RM10 and give him my car key. I told him that this is a roadside with yellow line (that time I didn't realised it is actually a white line) and that I can be issued summon by DBKL and if he is gonna pay for my summon or not? He smiled and kept on arguing that it is a jockey parking and that I have to pay and give him my car keys. I told him once again that it's a public roadside and asked him why I should even give him my car key when I parked my car there myself!!! Isn't it RIDICULOUS?? It's a public roadside. It's public area.

Then I asked for his operating license as a car jockey service. He said he don't know and that he is only a worker there and all those bullshit. Obviously they don't have a operating license or else he would have shown it to me. I told him I rather get summon than paying them. I'm really pissed off by them cos not only they can't provide me with a operating license, they want to even charged me RM 10 for parking myself and want to take my car keys!! I so wanted to just get off my car and walk away but I fear for my car safety. Not advisable for me to mess with these people as u never know if they will do any harm to my car or not. I was driving alone that night. So after arguing for 15 mins, I relented and drive away. Again I spot another roadside parking and again same thing happened. I'm darn pissed off. I really am. I give up and I have no choice but to park at the main roadside. When I was walking toward my friend's club, I tried to took pictures of these guys collecting money from public who park there and also too picture of that place. I told myself I am definitely gonna write or call up DBKL to make a big complain on this.

After that night, I regretted moving out from the roadside parking. Why? Cos I should have just got off the car and walk away telling them that if anything gonna happened to me or my car, I'm gonna lodge a police report against them and I should even take the picture of the guy. This is what I regretted. Nevertheless I am going to DBKL tomorrow and make a big complain about this people. Until I got the truth from DBKL, the next time I'm there I will know what to do.

DIY hairstyle

Got myself a new toy lately. A Philips Saloncurl Ceramic aka a hair curler. The ladies will know what it is.

I have always curious about these curlers whether do they really work and is it hard to DIY the nice hairstyles as per the pictures on the box. These curlers are not cheap. The cheapest I think is about RM100 or so. Knowing myself very well, I won't spent such money on such thing. I rather spent it on a good meal or clothes or shoes. That's me.

Anyway, since I have accumulated a certain amount of Bonus Link points (thanks to my petrol usage) and there's nothing much to be exchanged with my oh so little points, I finally decided to exchange it with a hair curler so I can save cost on my saloon trips ;)

The box arrived just in time cos I was in one of those 'quite free' moment. Immediately I try out the new machine. Quickly going through the little manual book and I'm all ready for some curling actions. Insert the plug to the main socket and turn the machine on. Waited for about 3 mins and the indicator says I can start curling. Tested it out on a small lock of hair and the result is good. I decided to do the curl for the whole head. It's not as easy as I thought. I have to part my hair into 2 sides with a hair clip. Start doing from the side of the head and working backward to the back of my head. When it come to those hair which is at the back of your head, it's hard. But I still managed, I think. After finishing my left side hair, the result looks satisfying to me. So I continue with the balance of the hair.

After about half an hour I'm done with curling my hair. And I am very satisfied with my own works. The curls are sexy. Too bad I don't have anywhere to go tonight. Sent a photo of myself with the new look to my cousin for some comment and she said it's nice. As if I have done it in a hair saloon. I'm posting the photo here so maybe someone can give me some comment?

What does this mean?

Last night I had another weird dream. As everyone knows, I've been having a lot of weird dreams lately whenever I sleep but last night's dream is still very fresh in my mind now.

I dreamt I was pregnant and went into labour. I don't know how the scenario start but all I remember is I was walking around with a big tummy and suddenly I need to give birth. Scary indeed. Worse thing is, I had to give birth in somewhere which is not a hospital. And a close friend or relative help me with the giving birth. I remembered she told me to 'push' and then they start pulling what seems to be the umbilical cord out from me. Yuck! The next minute I remembered a lot of shouts for 'push' and then the baby is out. It's a baby girl. A very beautiful baby girl. It is indeed a scary scenario with me going into labour without doctors and nurses and not even in a hospital but somehow seeing the newborn baby bring a very warm feeling. Funny thing is, the experience of going into labour in my dream seems so real that it's unbelievable.

The dream is still bits and pieces to me now. After the giving birth scenario, I saw myself in my old house. Weird cos I no longer stay there. My parents were there. Dad was playing with the baby. I remember seeing the baby girl's face for the first time. She's indeed very beautiful. Big eyes. Fair skin. Quite a lot of hair for a baby. She is wrap with a white towel. She is quite big a size for a newborn.

Another scenario came in, a wedding. Not mine. But an uncle of mine. Nothing much unusual about the wedding. The usual round of waiting for the dinner to start and all the yum seng follow by all the guest going home. Still, I don't know why I have to dream about it. But I did saw a grand uncle of mine holding the baby.

It is indeed very weird. Don't even know why I had such dreams. As I'm writing this blog, memory of this dream is slowly fading away. Except the baby's face which remain in my mind.
Wonder what does this dream mean?

Setting Examples?

Was driving back the other day along Jalan Ampang, a quick glance on my side mirror I saw a motorbike with a man in white shirt and pants holding a the bike handle with his right hand while his left hand is holding something. As he ride nearer, his left hand is apparently holding a handphone. Sms-ing to be exact. A traffic police officer to be exact. A thought came to my mind, aren't drivers (be it a motorbike or car driver) not allowed to sms when you are driving? I know there is a hefty fine for those who got caught sms-ing while driving. Wonder if he will be fined too??
Yeah, I should have took the picture and sent it to The Star newspaper and won a RM 50 prize but I'm just too slow in catching him in the act!

Another incident happened last night when I was driving back home. I was stuck in a traffic jam along the beginning of Jalan Tun Razak just after Sungai Besi, then I saw a police car driving past me on my left hand side and suddenly stop by the road side with the 2 hazzle lights on. As everyone knows, Jalan Tun Razak near that stretch is a super busy road and is always jam up whether day or night. I thought may be the police car wanted to stop a private car cos coincidentally a car drove into the lane in front of the shops and stopped. But no cos a policeman actually came down and walk towards the shop which is a bank. I thought may be he wanna sign the log book of the bank but no, he's actually there to use the atm machine.

Weird as in, they are the enforcement officers but yet they are the ones who never practice what our government preached. Using a phone while driving is wrong in the first scenario and I should think policeman or not, he should be fined just like anyone of us. Going to an atm machine is not a fault but stopping on a very busy road and causing more jam is something not thoughtful for a policeman. The radio stations always asked us to do our part for our community ie not to use handphone while driving, not to be a creative parker etc but isn't it ironic that the law enforcers are not setting a good examples?

Weird Dream

Had another weird dream last night.

Was in a some sort of resort kinda place except it's a very small place and the place is kinda breezy and cooling. There were a bunch of us, girls and boys. A pregnant friend of mine was in there too with her big tummy. Can't remember how we ended up in that place. It looks like a room to me. I think we were stuck there or maybe not. Or maybe we were resting.

In the dream, everyone was very concern about the pregnant lady. She's after all with a big tummy and in a t-shirt and a short. Can't remember the whole dream but bits and parcels of the dream. Eventually there's this guy and his partner suggested we continue our journey. I think we were in some kinda hike or adventure journey.

The last part of the dream is everyone is with a backpack and one by one we got out of the room and walk. Don't know to where. It's a sloping road. The road is in good condition but not a tar road. More like a cement like kinda road. The one you will find in basement carpark except we are not in basement. Both sides of the road is like jungle or so I thought. I remember before we got out of the room, everyone is asking whether the pregnant lady wear enough clothes or not cos it seems like outside is colder. Oh yeah, outside is misty too. The pregnant lady said she's ok and put on a jacket and carry her backpack and walk out with us. I don't remember how, but suddenly we were all caught in a very heavy downpour. The water coming down from the sloping road is like a waterfall making it harder for us to continue walking. And that is when I am awaken by my neighbour's on going renovation.

Indeed a very weird dream. Any definition?

Simple Dinner

Another tiring day for me.

Just finish cooking and eating my dinner. These days I tend to cook a lot. Am in the mood to cook today. After all, I'm tired of eating outside.

I did some simple Chinese dishes today. 2 dishes and 1 soup. A pig stomach soup which I've boiled since morning. Mom got 2 pig stomach cleaned and frozen in the fridge and since she's not free to cook, I shall take over and be the part time chef ;)

For the dish, I prepared a tofu with minced pork and oyster mushroom and a steam sotong.

For tofu, I first fry the chopped garlic till golden before putting in the minced pork. Add seasoning (a little bit of pepper, soy sauce and oyster sauce will do). Stir fried it till it's almost cook. Throw in the oyster mushroom and stir a bit. Let it simmer. Add a little bit of water for some extra gravy (which I love) Lastly, put in the tofu and stir a bit. It's ready for serving.

The sotong is the simpler dish. Cut the sotong and place it in a steam-able plate. Place some shredded ginger and chili on top of it. Mix the seasoning and pour it over the sotong. Steam for 5 minutes and it's ready to eat.

Simple yet delicious, yum yum.
Forget to take some photos of it. Was too hungry just now to even remember about photos hehe.

verdict : I had 2 bowls of rice which is quite rare for me, knowing that I only take half bowl or 1 tablespoon of rice hehehe

Home Made Macaroni Soup

Due to the recent fuel price hike, I tend to cook at home a lot these days. Gotta find ways to cut cost and save some money else all my traveling plans will go down the drain.

Since I'm still not fully recover so I decided to make myself a macaroni soup with whatever ingredients that I can find in my fridge hehe

Dig through my fridge and I found some frozen fish balls and minced pork and ikan bilis cube essense. And there's also the left over prawns from my birthday dinner last Sun. Enough for a pot of macaroni soup for one .. or more hehe

First of all, I de-frost the fish balls and minced pork. Soak them (together with the container) in water. Put on a pot of water to cook my macaroni. Once water is boiled, put in macaroni, add a little bit oil and salt. Stir the macaroni once in awhile to make sure they don't stick together (that's is the purpose of the oil). Once it's cook to my preference, drain the macaroni and set it aside.

On the other hand, put another pot of water to boil. When it's boiled, throw in the ikan bilis cube and stir till it dissolve. Oh, my minced pork has not fully de-froze so I throw it into the microwave for a minute. Once it's fully de-froze, put a little bit of pepper and soy sauce to the minced pork and mix it. Then shape the minced pork into small portion and put into the pot together with the fish ball. Lastly, put in the left over prawns and let it boil. That is the soup for macaroni.

There, my lunch is ready. I gotta say, it's really nice. I had 2 bowls of it! And it's all done in less than 20mins.

Verdict: Am fully satisfied with my lunch ;)

Lost Cheque (re-post)

Yet another angry situation I faced.

Recently I setup a company account with a C*** Bank and guess what, for the first ever time that I bank in my cheque for clearance and until today it's has not been cleared. Two days after I bank-in the cheque, I check my current account and found no clearance on the cheque which I had bank-in. Okay, maybe it has not been cleared. But after another 2 days, my cheque is still NOT cleared! Can't be, I told myself. Called up the bank to check and they can not even find where my cheque is. Met up with the bank's branch manager and he said he will help me to check it out. But still nothing came back. I have check with my client and there is no problem with his cheque. Don't think my client would risk being penalized for a bounce cheque. He is a businessman afterall.

I complained to Bank Negara and even went to meet up Bank Negara people. They told me that they are in the process of changing the 'clearing cheque' system or what ever it is. Apparently all the other banks have no complication going through this change BUT the only one bank which has problem is ... yes, that's the bank which I have open my company account with. Sigh. Bank Negara said to give them some time to sort things out. Fine, I relented and wait.

Come today, which is one week already, I have yet to receive ANY news from the Bank regarding my cheque. It is so disappointing and frustrating NOT to mention worrying cause it's quite an amount. Even if the amount is as little as RM 50, I don't think there is a reason for me to go through this, right?

So, I have decided to write in to the bank and request for a explanation regarding my 'lost' cheque. At the same time, I am wondering if I can seek legal advice on any actions which I can take against the bank and compensation on my part? Such trouble for me to go through and not forgetting wasting of my precious time. Time which I can use to get a few more projects in.

What is meant by sense of securities? (re-post)

Was discussing this topic with a friend so I thought it would be an interesting subject to blog.

What is meant by sense of securities?

Most girls will usually ask the guys (esp bf/hubby) for sense of securities (I'm sure u guys have heard of it plenty of times) but what is meant by sense of securities? It's perfectly normal for girls or guys these days to relate sense of securities with material sense ie whether he got all 5Cs, whether he can buy u expensive clothes or food, treat u to holidays with all expenses paid, etc etc

But did anyone ever thought beside the material wise can the sense of securities comes from the guy giving u his full trust? his full protection in what ever circumstances? his full attention to your every needs? his time? his faith in you? etc (things that u can't buy with money)

I was once slammed by this question and like most girls I said the material things but then I was asked again, "what about sense of securities in term of non material wise?" so that got me thinking for quite awhile

What do u think ?

Sleepless in ............. (re-post)

It's been a while since I last had a good night sleep. By means of good night sleeps; a deep sleep without having any sort of dreams. This situation have been for almost a month now and I have yet to find a good solution to my deep sleep. Though I did had one night of deep sleep after a drinking session with my friends. But that is not gonna cure me cos if I continue to use alcohol to knock myself out eventually I will be dependant to it and become an alcoholic. Not a good idea. Wanted to try sleeping pills, don't think it's a good idea too.

The sleeps that I had lately is full of dreams (not sweet dreams) but weird dreams. Most of the dreams I don't remember, some of it I have vivid memories. One dream that I remember is that it happened to my bf and he has got some kinda infection on his leg. When I woke up I ask him if there is any insect bite on his leg or what so ever but he said non. Eventually a few days later he does have an infection, only at a different place of his body and less severe compare to what I have dreamt. De ja vu? No idea.

On occasion, I might have insomnia whereby I can't sleep at night even though my body and eyes are tired. I will stay awake till 2-3am before dozing off and will be hyperactive the next day. Eventually I will be super tired the day after and will doze off as soon as I lay my head on the pillow only to have all the dreams again. Yet another sleepless night. It happened again last night, I can't sleep till about 3-4am (can't remember) and eventually doze off only to be awaken by my alarm at 9am cos I have to go do marketing this morning. Sigh, now I am like a zombie, trying to get myself tired out and so I have a good night sleep. Hopefully. But what makes me like this?? Any idea?

Friends told me it might due to work stress and problems in my life which I don't realised but my sub-conscious is somehow thinking about it even when I am asleep. I have been thinking, what problems and stress do I have? Problems and stress at works is pretty normal these days looking at how competitive and tough my industry is. I don't think I have problems with my personal life. Everything is still like a bed of roses with my bf (agree Mr. Tan?) and it's perfectly calm at home with no issues at all. Monetary problems; not really a big problem as I have been controlling my budget so I get to have a big vacation end of the year which everyone knows. The only thing that I can think of that makes me sleepless will be my work. But then again, I'm managing it all right and everything so far seems to be alright. Maybe I worried too much. Over worried? What is happening to me?

Experience climbing Mount Kinabalu (re-post)

I've booked the air tickets a year ago to go KK for mount climbing. As the day draw nearer, the feeling of going up the mount makes me scare cos i did not fully train myself. Only manage to jog and walk hill for a week and that's all. The day i fly to KK. Surprisingly i cant sleep the night before, dunno if it's cos im too excited or cos im too scared that i might not bring enough for this trip. My backpack is already super heavy and full and yet i did not bring 7 days clothes. Wonder what is taking all the space??? Finally slept at 2am and when my sleep is at the deepest my alarm went off and ive gotta get up n get ready to go. 10mins after i woke up i receive my friend's call saying they will be picking me up in 15mins. Panic cos i still blur blur and not yet fully packed!!
A quick 15mins later, im in the car and on my way to airport. But before that we drop by at Sepang F1 Circuit early Fri morning. We reach airport with enough time for us to grab a Mc D breakfast and after that off we go on board. While waiting for the flight to take off, come the captain of the airplane announcing a slight problem with the brake system of the plan and need a 20 mins time to check and rectify it. So yeah, we got delayed abt half hr before taking off. Half way in the middle of the sky suddenly i thought of my lil keys for my lock which I've used to lock my backpack. I cant recall where i keep those tiny lil keys!!!!! gosh, was I anxious through out the journey but i manage to keep it out of my mind by reading. When i reach KK airport i ransack my sling bag over and over again to find the lil keys but they are no where to be found. Panic attack round 2! How am i suppose to get all my stuffs out fr my backpack!!?!!?!?!? I even asked my friend to double check my only sling bag which i took on board but yet the keys cant be found. No choice, gotta find locksmith or a big plyer to cut the lock.
All the way to KK park, my mind is thinking on how to get the lock open and where did my lil keys goes. gosh, im so blur. Luckily someone in my group has got a handy plyer and he eventually become my saviour. He helped me cut the mini lock so i can access my clothes or else Im gonna be very pityful hehehe. And I became the ms. forgetful in the group :P Everyone rest early that night ( I did, at least) but cant sleep too well. Dont know if it's because of the chalet which give me a spooky feeling or it's all in my head but somehow i manage to doze off only to be awake later in the wee hour for toilet going. Due to the spooky feeling in me, I tried very hard to withstand the urge but somehow I just need to release myself and I make a quick dash into the toilet, all the time I say my prayers in my mind. I guess it help calm me down and help me doze off too. Got a few more hrs sleep before everyone is awake for our hike up mount kinabalu.

Majority of us chosen to use the Mesilau trail during our voting session and in the end everyone goes for Mesilau trail as there's more flora to be seen. True enough. After a group picture, everyone is set to start our hike. We started at 9.30am. As we go along, some stop for a break some continue walking. The group starts to break into smaller groups. I eventually walk with 2 of my friends. My 'partner' has left me and walk with other friends hehe. When we saw the 1KM sign, we were so happy and excited and took pictures. Then continue hiking, 2KM sign came in. Took pictures again. All along the way, there's a lot of nice huge rainforest trees. It's an offence to pick or even pluck from the tree. If caught, will be penalise RM 50k. Come 3KM sign, yaay! we managed 3KM so far. Every stop we took we ate up all of lunch boxes and whatever energy bars that we brought along as it's heavy on our shoulder. Indeed this is a more to greeneries trail where we saw 2 waterfalls and alot of nice bonzai as we go further up the mountain.

I don't know when I started to walk alone (probably 5KM as shown in pic) It's always either I walk ahead of my friends or behind them but eventually I managed to catch up. This time I was walking behind them and I totally lost them. My friends were carrying my bag which contain all the food and drinking water etc. It didnt bother me the fact that I'm walking alone cos I have my MP3 player stuck to my ears and I just take my own pace to walk the trail myself. When I reach 1 of the stops, one of the potter whom we saw earlier pass me a bottle of water, telling me that my friends left it for me. Lucky me cos before I lost them I manage to chuck 2 energy bars into my pocket so I can fend hunger attack. The more I walk the harder it is. The trail has become rockier and harder to walk. It's no more walking trail. It's all rock where sometime u might need to climb a little. Finally I saw where the 2 trails meet, I know it wont be long before I reach Laban Rata. So I'm more determine to continue my hike even though Im super tired and my legs arent mine anymore. When I saw the 6KM sign, Im excited cos it's means Im only 2KM or so away only. But my legs doesnt felt that way. My legs is not obeying my command and worse still the skies is getting dark and it is also raining at the moment. Imagine me in my long sleeve top with my wool sweater and a rain coat cum wind breaker walking alone, my hands are numb and freezing. I got no choice but to continue my hike. The thing that worry me a lot is the darkness as I dont have my lights with me. It's in the bag. So, I hurried up and try to catch up a few Singaporean guys who's slightly ahead of me. Even though I'm breathless and tired, I just mustered enough voice to call out for them to wait for me. Luckily they heard my call and willing to wait for me, thus we walk together. One of the guys actually had cramps thus he's also having difficulty walking. Together we move in a group of 4. They are really a nice bunch cos they keep on giving me encouragement and letting me take my time to rest even though it's getting darker and darker.

Boy, was I sad when I saw the sign 4.5KM cos I remember I already walk pass the 6KM sign. Eventually the 4.5KM sign is for people who uses the other trail. At 5.5KM, one of my guide who also serve as my potter (a person who help us to take our bags up to Laban Rata for a fee; my bag is 8kg) saw me and am surprised to find me there. He is also another nice guy cos he held my arm and keeps on pulling me and helping me all the way up. As my hand is freezing and turn numb, one of the Singaporean guys gave me his hand gloves to keep my hands warm. I really am very thankful for his kindness. Thank you, Lee Tong.

When I finally saw the light of a hut like place I'm so happy and try all my best to reach there only to be disappointed cos that is merely a guard house or some sort. The restaurant/cafe where I am suppose to go is another 200-300m up. The feeling at that time is like, I wanna kill people cos I am so freaking tired. No choice but to hike up to where all my friends are with the help of my guide. I reached there at 8pm and everyone is clapping their hands to give me encouragement for reaching there safely. I almost colapsed not cos of hunger but cos of tiredness especially my legs. No strenght and it's soooooo cold outside. All my friends who saw me quickly help me sit down and bring me hot water to warm my hands which has turn white and is totally numb. I cant even feel what I touch. I am not the last to reach, there's another 6 person who have not arrived. While I have my dinner, everyone went back to the dorm to sleep cos we need to be up by 2am for our climb to the peak. I was alone again having my dinner and when I saw the Singapore guys I join them again for dinner. At 9pm, 1 of the guide told me to go back and rest and not wait for the rest as my dorm is another 200m up from the cafe. I almost wanna faint when I heard the news. Another 200m up??? Sigh. No choice but to pack my stuffs and hike up and this time I saw my friends who are late. 4 of them finally reached at 9pm. Together we went up to our dorm. The dorm look very run down to me. As I have not been a backpacker thus Ive no idea how bad a dorm can be. This is one dorm which I would not wanna stay in again. The saddest thing is, by 9pm the water heater is turn off. I had to take my shower in cold icy water. Did not really shower, just wipe with wet cloth. Washing my face with icy water is really an experience. It's so darn cold that it kinda have a needle poking feeling when the water hit your face. Quickly I wash up and brush up my teeth and head to my bed. I wore a long john, a long sleeve top with long sleeve bottom, a sweater, a hand gloves, a knit wear head hat and socks and slide myself into the sleeping bag before covering myself with another 2 blankets. That's how cold it is.

I did not get to the peak. Sad. Did not sleep well that night and had backache, neck ache and headache. Had to put on counter pain before continuing to sleep. Woke up the next morning feeling somewhat fresh and a little regret for not going up the peak. After all the hardship I've been through to reach Laban Rata. Sigh.

Everyone took some pictures of the peak (since we did not manage to reach there my as well capture some picture for memories sake) before going for our breakfast. Everyone is still talking about how each of us manage to hike up previous night and catching up on the last 6 person who came in late. After breakfast, everyone continue our journey down the mountain. This time we are using another trail to go down. The Timpohon Trail. It's has got a lot of steps and it is like walking down the stairs. Look easier than done. Walking down the steps is not as easy as like walking down the staircase as some of the steps are wide apart and slippery and our legs is not helping either as some of us are having joint pain. Still we brave the steps down eager to reach the bottom to go to our hotel for a nice rest. Stepping down is so much faster and easier. Some of them actually run all the way which hopping down the steps. And he is one of them who went up the peak. Yes, they manage to catch up with us who start our descending journey first. Half way through, my knee joint starts to feel pain. Like they said, don't think it's pain and continue walking. That is exactly what I did. I'm the 6th person to reach the Gate. Boy, am I so relieved that I don't have to endure what I have been through the other night. Took me about 4hrs to reach the Gate. Had a group picture with all our tired faces but everyone show the thumb sign indicating that it is indeed a good climb!

When the last person finally arrived, we took our stuffs and went into the van which will bring us into town. That's when I realised I lost my handphone! My 2 month old handphone. Sigh. Darn unlucky me. Went back to the place to search but no luck and I think someone took it already. So again, I'm the ms unlucky after the first bad luck. Sigh. Luckily nothing else went missing or any misfortune happened on me throughout the week I was there. Managed to have fun water rafting and island hoping in KK. And oh yeah!, loads of beer session for us, every night non fail. Overall, it is not too bad a trip. Came back KL in one piece and skinnier (that's what everyone said abt me) and tanned.