LucidDr3amer's Xanga

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:51:50 GMT

Wedding season had begun..

And this year seems to be chock a block.. for me at least

A sign of the times? ( maybe a whole load of biological clocks just going BRIIINNNGGGG! at the same time )

Weddings every weekend the entire month of October and all for close friends. To be fair, Amanda has taken up 2 of those weekends for her wedding-vaganza but it's ok... Michelle and I are bridesmaids and Gerry is the matron of honour and we're plenty chuffed to be included in her happy time . Not to mention its a great excuse to buy a new pair of shoes

Without further ado...

Wedding No.1 Ed and Wendy

Venue: Genting International Convention Centre- Saturday, 4 October 2008

A slow lesuirely drive up to Genting at noon. See how nice and empty the roads are cos lot's of people are still away for Raya. Fluffy white clouds fill the sky too... Rain later in the day?

We stopped for lunch at Gohtong Jaya with Pete's colleagues. Food at Sin Kie Restaurant is always yummers...no pics so too bad... but the roast pork belly is a must order there

We checked into the complimentary rooms in First World Hotel at about 3 p.m. I tried to rest in the room to recover from a very late night at Amanda's the night before. Pete and some others visited the casino and Phoebe came up at 4 p.m.

Dinner was meant to start at 7.30 p.m. but as with all Chinese weddings, there was a delay. The ballroom was gorgeous with pretty, twinkly lights and flowers everywhere

I was fascinated with this flower display that lined the aisle/walkway into the centre of the ballroom. Octagonal glass containers with pretty pink roses suspended from pink wrapped tealight holders and a floating glass globe of sorts on top all sitting on gauzy white fabric. Very eye catching and quite enchanting

(Ed, Marcus, Sue Lynn)

Ed the groom finally found some time to come and say hi and chat with us 3/4 of the way thru dinner. Love his suit. Very, very him, altho you can't really see the details from the pic

Ed, Me, Marcus, Phoebe

I normally make Marcus and Sue Lynn pose and take a snap when I see them. Sue Lynn calls it "layaning Cyn" when they humour me. Its a nice shot tho... dontcha think?

Phoebe and Me

I've known Aaron since I was 15 and he now works with Pete and Ed. It really is a tiny world

We got bored once dessert was served so Phoebe and I moved to join Pete and his colleagues at the end table while Sue Lynn and Marcus headed back to KL

Then off to Safari...a 5-escalator, almost got lost in gigantic Genting, walk to the main hotel for the after party...

A super boozy after party with a bunch of well dressed wedding guests and lot's of leftover bottles of Chivas from the wedding dinner

Vodka limes, Singapore Slings ( and I think Phoebe had some B52's, flaming for some strange reason )

Then finally a giggly group walk back to our rooms and lights out till the next day

Congratulations Ed and Wendy. We all wish you much joy and happiness always

And another wedding for me next week...

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 11:53:24 GMT

Selamat Hari Raya Everyone

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 11:45:33 GMT

Food glorious food!

It's nice to have friends who enjoy food... whether office friends or otherwise...

Weekday lunchtimes are when we need to be a bit more resourceful cos we are limited to the lunch hour (and a half most times. we steal a bit of extra time here and there)

Of course there are perennial favourites and each of us has out own. My lunch mates are normally Shell and Bubbles Amanda altho its been more of me and Shell the past couple of months cos Bubs is on long sabbatical moving house and preparing for her wedding mid Oct

Anyways... I can't resist taking pics of the food most times cos we're super hungry by the time is arrives and it just looks to very, very yummy, it deserves to be recorded for posterity. Too bad my photography skills leave a lot to be desired and I have zero anything in photoshop... oh well...

Some Penang Restaurant in 1-Utama

Shell and I were actually looking for another place that served dim sum but couldn't find it so we settled on this place. It's the new part of the old wing, where it connects to One World Hotel

My Nyonya combo plate. Curry chicken, Assam Prawn and Ju Hu Char

The Fruit Rojak we shared

The sambal hae bee that came with Shell's milky white, santan laden curry mee

Michelle's curry mee after it had been liberally doctored with the said sambal hae bee. Quite tasty was her verdict

Tseng's Chicken Rice @ Solaris Mont Kiara

Ok, it's not exactly in Solaris... it's nearby.. quite close to the Cold Storage there. It's Amanda's new favourite place for lunch ( and a lot of times dinner too). It's owned and run by Chef Lee, a Cordon Bleu, Michelin starred chef and it sells chicken rice cooked western style to juicy, yummy perfection. A lot of times he cooks up specials for dinner for friends so Amanda's sampled his lamb shank, chocolate cake and a lot of other items I can't quite remember

Shell and I popped over to meet Amanda one work afternoon and the chicken rice was very yummy indeed...

The unassuming shopfront

The menu

Chicken rice for 3 with lashings of lovely garlicky, gingery chili and fragrant chickeny, yellow rice

Kai Lan with oyster sauce and fried shallots

Big, bouncy fishballs

Fried Sui Kow stuffed with veggies, meat and prawns

Khuntai Restaurant somewhere in Gasing

No clue how to direct anyone here but it's near where my friend Nani used to live... sorta in the vincinity of Fraser Tower. There used to be a famous banana leaf shack there ( where we all heard the infamous "that's not your father" line from TJ a while back. But that was another story )

Anyway, we went there for Sharon's birthday lunch. Corrie, Shell and I after a meeting and Sharon, Steph and Helen from the office. It's a very basic restaurant but very authentic and delicous thai food

Prawn with asparagus and some green veggie thing, Sharon's elbows on the table

Lovely, lovely green curry chicken loaded with eggplant and long beans and just cooked chicken slices

Honey fried baby squid and a seaweed omelette in the background

The piece de resistance; hot, tangy, delicious thai steamed fish

Almost as good as the fish I had in Bangkok

Chuai Hing in 1-Utama

Shell and I finally got to satisfy her dim sum craving a couple of weeks after the Penang restaurant lunch session. We decided to try Chuai Heng, which used to be called the Six Happiness Restaurant. They were having a promotion where it was 50% off the standard dimsum for dine in customers

Salad prawns, butternut with vermicelli ( we didn't know what it was so we ordered to try. It's sweetish and I still can;t make out what it is ) and some sesame, lotus paste ball thing

Fried radish cake with bean sprouts, pickled vege and egg. Shell's fave

Pork porridge

Happy us!

Our dimsum selection; pork ribs, sui mai, har kau, char siew pau, HK Chee Cheong Fun and a prawn and fu chol role. A lot of times we forget Amanda's not eating with us and end up ordering too much food. This is one of those times

Bubba Gump- The Curve

A belated birthday lunch treat for Steph and Shell from Corrie

Steph and her smoothie

My mango sparkling something or other. Can't quite remember the name

Shell's new specs.... blings on the arm

A tower of onion rings plus 2 dipping sauces

Garlic bread to dip

Corrie ordered a burger

A boneless version of buffalo wings. A little too tangy and not chickeny enough for my taste

Cobb salad. This was really good actually

1/2 pound of shrimp; cajun and garlic mixed flavours

Happy Belated Birthday Steph and Shell!

Basil Thai with Amanda

Bangsar Village. Old standby for Thai food cravings. They have pretty good noodles and dishes

Pandan Chicken, Som tam, pad thai and tomyam soup

Som tam... my fave papaya salad

Fire pot tomyam

Johnny's steamboat 1 Utama

Comfort food on a Monday for Shell and Me

Waiting for the soup to boil. Imaptient Shell already chucked in some cabbage

The different steamboat items that were part of the set plus a few extras we ordered. The green stuff is my favourite spinach noodles

Lovely prawns. I painted one of these for my High School art exam

Steamboat is serious business for Shell

Soupy, yummy goodness. Perfect for fighting Monday blues

More yummy food another day. Living in Malaysia really rocks sometimes

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:39:19 GMT

I've got 23 sandfly bites

Big, angry, red and itchy-painful, all over my legs ( just the legs, thank goodness )

Yup, I counted them cos I couldn't believe how many there were and how I got eaten by those wee evil creatures

This is prolly the first time I've gotten this badly bitten. the last time was maybe 4-5 bites and that's it

I'm getting a little ahead of myself however, since there aren't any sandflys that I know of in KL...

A couple of us tagged along with Marvin to Tioman over the weekend. He was headed there for work and diving so we just hopped into his car for a quick getaway. I wanted to dive one more time before the monsoon hit the islands in October and Pohgs and Phoebe just wanted some R&R on the beach

We stayed at Panuba, one ferry stop before Kampung Salang, which is where I normally stay cos Marv needed to get some work done around that area

There's only one resort on Panuba, called Panuba Inn and the Bali Hai Divers. It's pretty quiet and there are hardly any local holidaymakers there. It's good for families and great for divers cos Bali Hai has their own, fairly large boat so you can actually visit further off dive sites. I did 4 dives, Tiger Rock, Labas ( which has some nice swim thrus) and 2 other dive sites who's names escape me at the moment

There isn't much of a beach but there are fish to feed and snorkel among off the jetty. Rooms are fairly basic but large and clean. The one we got had the works, aircon, heater, TV and tea/coffee making stuff. Only problem was that we could only get RTM 1 and 2 transmission in room ( translation, nothing to watch anyway)

There was 1 restaurant with very basic food and Astro in the restaurant. Only problem was that it is the fasting month so the restaurant closed from 4-7.30 p.m. everyday and closed meant a total shut down, including the mini mart and internet access.

Luckily enough, Phoebe and Pohgs just wanted to chill out, read and sunbathe so no biggie. Marv and I went diving for a couple of days and he had to get a couple of days work done as well so overall it was pretty chilled out for us gals ( and stressful for Marvin I think cos he not only had work and refresher dives to do, he was down with a cough and sore throat too)

About 4 a.m in Marvin's car. Open highway and a row of streetlights

Pohgs at Mersing Jetty around 7a.m. We're waiting for the first ferry out to Tioman

The little cat that kept us company. Funny that Pohgs is a cat hater but cats love her to bits

Just in case the ferry man forgets where to drop us off

Our bags and gear

Tired, sleepy and sick Marvin on the ferry. A little shut eye at last, after driving all night

Pohgs and Me bleary eyed after all night in the car

Pohgs new way of covering up eye bags

The first glimpse of the water from Panuba jetty made up for the long journey

Pohgs and Phoebe on the Panuba jetty

Little Doraemon waiting for the bags to unload?

Panuba Inn at the end of the jetty

Our "home" for the next 4 days

View from our balcony

Pohgs and her Archie comics

Tired Marvin

The girls knock out in the afternoon

Sunset approaching

Marvin's "moon" dips behind the clouds

This is what the restaurant calls a banana shake

Sleepy Pohgs

Tinkering with his gadgets

Slightly tanned Phoebe

Me trying to avoid a tan with SPF50 sunblock

An afternoon on the boat

Panuba from 2 KM off the beach

Marvin and the technicians at work

Stormclouds coming in

Salang beach for R&R on a Monday. This is where the sandflies attacked me en masse. There were small gobs of tar on some stretches of the beach too so it's deteriorated since my last visit

Baby monkey came to visit our room on the last day. He had a collar on and our neighbours were feeding him papaya from the breakfast buffet

Bali Hai Divers

Waiting for the ferry to take us back to the mainland

More diving when the seasons change again in April. Next month is the month of weddings so there'll be different pics again

Later

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:32:33 GMT

The one that I miss the most

Of all the myriad of farewells, goodbyes and see you again soons of the past couple of months is Henry....

Perhaps I'm too much a creature of habit... I tend to go to a lot of the same places and have my comfort zone that consists of a sometimes rotating circle of good friends. Rotation aside, there's been a constant in my life for the past many years ( how many I tend to forget until I actually calculate...it's in the double digits I'm sure)

We don't see each other all the time but once every couple of weeks is the norm. He's a dive buddy, food buddy, drink and party buddy, holiday buddy, booksale buddy, sometime handyman, agony aun, Christmas party leftover insurance, DBKL and generally a really good friend (oh and he has super powers too. If you meet him, ask him what they are )

Now I've gone from seeing him once a week or every couple of weeks to noth seeing him for over a month...

And I prolly won't see him till Chinese New Year next year...

*sigh*

To quote Yen Loong... good friends are becoming once a year friends...

Such is life...

and I'm going diving in Tioman without him this weekend

more missing

But...he's getting paid pot loads of moolah in Abu Dhabi... (even if the office and accomodations look as barren as the desert. )

It's not permanent (unless he moves to Germany in the near future)

So yes... Henry I miss you loads.... hope we gave you a good send off and see you again really soon

Farewell party at H&H

The upstairs bar setup after dinner at the poolside

Halina's fruit work of art (and there were 4 plates of it I think). The mangoes were my fave

Girls... Wan Chin, Sue Mue, Hal, Me, Pohgs and Jacqui

Kitchen clean up crew stealing leftover KFC

Hal and Jen

Hal and Me with Jacquie's hand made hats

Henry in pretty crochet lace, Hal, Pete and Jacquie the Hatmaker

Me, Henry and Hal

To quote Henry " Little drunk Doraemon sitting in the corner"

Henry, Marv and Me

Phoebe arrived really late and slightly tipsy so she napped on the finally empty couch (and the rest of us played poker and drank sangria)

Sleepy eyed around 5 a.m. on Henry's balcony

The traditional last supper is normally seafood. This time at Lala Chong in Subang

Soojin@ Cikgu Lim and Me

Lovie and JitSeng managed to get a babysitter for Nicholas

Henry and Hal

Grumpy Sen Nee and the other Cynthia

The stars of the night... fish crabs, mantis prawns, butter prawns, clams, vegetables ( there was ostritch too I think)

Hope CNY gets here soon

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 10:01:47 GMT

You should try this... it's totally hilarious...

http://yearbookyourself.com

Upload a front angle shot of yourselff and see how you'd look in old school American yearbook style pics. It ranges from the 50's to 2000 and it's a hoot!

It's not been a very busy day in the office so that's what we've been doing for the past couple of hours...some have it on their Facebook profiles

Have a look, it's really funny...

circa 1952. Looks scarily like the old studio photos of my grandmum actually. Then again, everyone had the same permed do back then... and pearls

A little later, 1958 actually. Looks like an old school air uniform. At least the hair is a little less stiff

This is a 1960 look. I love this one. The cat's eye glasses are womderful . Looks like my Mum's old pics when she first started working. Yep, you guessed it, she was a school teacher. Maybe I should go get me a pair of those specs

My hair can actually look as big and mushroom as this on a bad hair day (san's straightening that is...). It's actually circa 1966

Channelling Cher. This is a 1974 one... a year before I was born

The Farrah Fawcett flip doesn't seem to work for me. a 1976 look

This one is my fave of the lot. The 70's afro.

I look like Blair from the Facts of Life. But of course, it's a pic from 1984

Miami Vice? I don't really know but check out the shoulder pads... 1986

Leftover from the 80's hair bands perhaps... circa 1990

The famous and then very popular maggi mee perm from 1994. I think one of my friends had hair like that

Circa year 2000, digital perm type do with bangs.... don't think I can take this look either

Go try it, I guarantee you'll die laughing

Happy Tuesday everyone

Friday, September 05, 2008

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 08:25:46 GMT

I promised to layan Sue Lynn forever and ever...

in and email that is...

A facebook email ...

Why?

Cos she insisted we play with hats and feather boas during the TIC launch in Apartment

Then she made sure we took some pictures

They were cute pictures. I have a glossy print out of one stuck on my bulletin board

It looks kinda like this

Happy, fun colours and cute hats...

and what do you know?

We won something... I didn't even know there was stuff to be won...but we did... a Make Up Store makeup course voucher for 3.

There were other winners and some for Estee Lauder too. You can check it out here

so cool

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:35:01 GMT

Farewell No. 3 Andrea

Last Friday at Sid's Pub... we got together to toast Andrea and wish her good health while she recuperates from her chronic back problems

The office is getting quieter and quieter. Most are still here are bogged down by work and stress or year end dollars, cents and targets so it's not been fun the last few weeks

But we all got together for a happy night of beer, whiskey, laughs and the last chance to hear Andrea's full blown, foul mouthed gangster glory

We'll miss you loads babe... lunch and drinks after are a must, once your recuperation is on it's way

Lovely pics courtesy of Shirren our photographer of the night and Davina, the owner of the camera and Lovely Lola and her camera

Andrea and Aaron

Diana BOO- tiful and Nickylicious

Aaron and Julie

Annie Boo and Tina

Shirren focussing

Me, Tien the Intern and Aaron channelling Gene Simmons

Shirren and Beryl chilling outside

Tien the Intern, Davina and Naz

Me and Shell and Bubs. We miss you babe!

Relative peace and quiet outside

Havoc inside and I think Lola is trying to get someone to drink

Pouty Primus and Julie

Didi finally switched from beer to whiskey

Dawn's pretty smile and half of Aaron's face

Lola Kiss Me...

Michelle Kiss Me too...

Kevin sesat-ed somewhere along the way... Got the brief wrong

Nicky got it right

Primus, Julie, Davina and part of Naz

Me and Davina.. don't we all agree she has a come-f*%&-me face?

Beryl's cider bottle

Shirren and Me standing under the blower at the front door... It was hot .. Shirren's hair seems to have maintained waaay better than mine tho. Time for a haircut

Hugs and Luurrve...

Smile!

Bye Bye Andrea. See you again soon and get well soon

MWAH!

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 03:08:26 GMT

Happy August Nights- Pt 2

First off, congratualtions Hal... you've graduated!

To celebrate... we ended up in 21, again...

Well not exactly...we were meant to go out anyway, that Saturday. Marvin and I planned on 21 the night before in Wabi and Hal's grad was just an extra reason to celebrate

It was a late start actually, cos Marv picked me up from an apartment warming in Sentral (which already involved me having a bit of wine and whiskey plus feeding a lot of people potent "quasi Illusions" made with orange juice instead of pineapple and with extra shots of dark rum added to the cocktail shaker for good measure )

Most of us got to 21 close to midnight and joined Kenny and some other Grey folks at their table ( Kenny was celebrating his birthday)

We were mostly girls with Marv, Alfred and Calvin making up the male side of the equation ( Yen didn't count cos he and Eelin stayed for less than an hour before heading for home)

Pohgs arrived with Hal, Dee and Elena a little before 1 a.m and the night turned out to be a girls night of sorts...with what else... goofing and cam whoring

Dee, Phoebe, Pohgs and Hal

RAWWR! Monster on the loose... it must be the long islands

Pohgs, Phoebe, Hal and Me goofing for the camera

Alfred caught off guard, and Calvin

Pohgs (pink after a couple of drinks), Me (with squinty eyes after drinking since dinnertime), Elena and Dee (who still look sorta ok)

The boys and the girls. Dee, Alfred, Calvin, Marv, Elena, Phoebe and Hal

Sleepy time... it's getting late

Let's see where else we can find to hang out at in the coming weeks

Any suggestions?

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:58:31 GMT

Happy August Nights-Pt 1

A late post on Sue Lynn's birthday (cos I had to wait for her pics )

We took my little pixie out for an early birthday night a couple of Saturdays ago. Girls night to start with and a free for all drinks session after ( even though Sue Lynn said no drunkeness...on her birthday? No way... )

I actually made us reservations for dinner at Nero Vivo a week earlier but the restaurant screwed up royally (and weren't very friendly or helpful either, so scratch that off my list for come back visits) so we decided to have dinner at 21 instead so we could just toddle upstairs for drinks after

Food was pretty good, even for slightly fussier diners and a bottle of red wine rounded off things very nicely indeed

We each chose a starter to share

Pohgs wanted the minestrone

Mushroom soup is always a favourite

Duck spring rolls with plum sauce and a goat's cheese salad both were deemed yummy. I especially liked the salad, but that's cos I like goats cheese

Main courses next

I had the duck confit with lychee reduction (I think that was the description). It was really lovely. Just the right balance of flavours and textures.

Phoebe had the black cod. Also very good with crispy skin and prefectly done, melt in the mouth flesh

Sue Lynn's mushroom risotto. Tasted very good, texture of the rice was slightly undercooked...

Pohgs had the special of the day, with grated parmesan on the side. It was shell pasta with lamb meatballs. Also quite nice but a bit heavy

Dessert to share cos of stuffed tummies. Pavlova with berries and sherbert. This was delicious. Perfectly light, crispy and the sweetness balanced by the tart berries. Stand in for a birthday cake

And here we are. Pohgs, Phoebe, Me and Sue Lynn

On to the rest of the night in the bar upstairs

Strawberry long islands are delicious and make us slightly goofy. Cheryl, me and Phoebe

A flaming is obligatory for any birthday, especially when there are no candles to blow out

Sue Lynn isn't looking forward to it at all

Here we go

That's it, down the hatch

Not so bad right?

And that pretty much set the tone for the rest of the night. Girls being goofy and having fun, and the guys joining us later

Cheryl's giant red ring

I switched to my usual whiskey

Pretty girls in bright happy colours...

Cheryl and me before we had too many drinks

Ricco and Marcus arrived later

Ricco, Cheryl and Marcus Loo Loo

Kawaii? Signature pose...

Birthday kiss for Sue Lynn

Gin Tonic vs Whiskey Green Tea

Christine, Sue Lynn and Cheryl

I dunno about this shot

Mwah!!

Love...

Marcus and the girls

Magic fingers...

More fingers...

Blurred out...

One of the few decent pics of Marcus and me

Look , flying pig!

Bangs by Ricco altho mine need a trim badly

PoLi and Cheryl

Smooch back to Cheryl

Fingers again

Marcus is Superman!

RAWRR!

fingers, fingers, fingers.... and a wide eyed Yasu who joined us

Hope you had a great time Sue Lynn. We all did...Love lot's!