Recap

Been a while since i last blogged...

well, i was sorta kinda "busy" ... =)

After coming back from Australia in June.. spend quite some time recuperating from the stressful exams..

The re-occurring thought of not passing any of the courses n not graduating was just plain crazy, went bonkers over it.

The thought of failing has never occurred to me in my 18-year 'career' as a student, hence you could imagine the magnitude of stress i had. Then again, what's life without stress?

anyhow, with all the stress i had...
I was contented with anything as long it's a "pass" and above =)

Well, all that is done & dusted as my previous entry have shown..so yeah,



bye bye to studies for now =)



Came back, rested, lepak-ed, and performed in what could be my last in performance with the Penang Symphony Orchestra



It was a pleasant performance although I was clearly disappointed with deteriorating playing..

I still had the fingers for technical stuff but just not the tone...

But hey, I was out of the orchestra scene for almost four years..can't complain much =)



On top of that, i manage to learn a lot from this performance not just as a performer but also as a person.
It was satisfying in the end. *winks

Prior to my trip to Australia for my convocation with my family, i was working with Apple (CG Computers) as a part-timer.
It was a pleasant experience although the pay was nothing to shout about.

But that wasn't the main reason i wanted to work as a part timer.
Figured rather than just sit at home, i might as well go learn a thing or two on the retail level.

CG Computers being the medium-sized company it is. i reckon that it will be easier to grasp how they operate on every level of the organization. It gave me a broad picture on how companies work and what are the essential elements. In the end, it was a valuable experience, learn what to do and more importantly what NOT to do. oh, and i just resigned today =)

oh, and did i mention in my 3 weeks there i sold 20,000 worth of goods? hehe... =) heck, i was even top of the sales performance at one point on 17,000.. hehe :P

Moving on, my family trip to Australia.

We were in Adelaide for 2 days, 3 days in Melbourne (again) and 4 days in Sydney.
Was in SIX different airports, TEN times altogether in TEN days.. tiring but fun =)
I love tiring myself...

My Australian adventure is almost complete now after the visit to Sydney..
With Canberra, Ayers Rock, and Perth the remaining places i have yet to visit...

My verdict for now is that, Melbourne ROCKS!
Simple, Classy, Clean, and Artistic.

Sydney, very happening..
but it's too similar to KL to my liking..
and worst, I fell sick in sydney!
but to be honest, Darling harbour, Circular Quay and all... it was really something special...
and dining along the cafes along Cockle Bay wharf was just superb..


(blowing me nose away in Sydney)

My mom however loves sydney though.. especially Paddy's market... reason being that it feels like home.
I hope she remembered that she was on a VACATION!! and feeling like home ain't sound like a vacation to me..

My dad...yeah you guessed it.
He likes Adelaide. Quiet and serene. He regretted for not staying in Adelaide for one more day..oh wells =)

It was a quite a pleasant trip although there were moments that i almost exploded.
Shall not blog about specific details =P

Here some pictures from the trip:

(Great Ocean Road- Twelve Apostles)


(Crown Casino, Melbourne. Me n my bro didn't tell my parents about the flaming pillars and the expressions on their faces when they saw the flames was really funny)

(me and the t-shirt painter herself)

Coming back from Aus.. i was in KL for 6 days.

On thursday nite, we went to Ikea and OneUtama till midnight.

NO, not for the Ikano Merdeka Celebrations but for the midnight sales which was rather disappointing.

What really irks me during these sales is the sight of shops that offers 10% or 5% discounts..they should just go kiss some wrinkled ass...

What's the friggin point of offering 10%...
yeah right... 90.00 and i get 9 ringgit off...now that's a lot of money saved! nincompoops ..

Although we didn't really join in the celebrations, i must say the atmosphere was pretty nice.
I mean, it was really quite nice to see peeps from all walks of life come together..
Lala(s), ah Bengs, the smart asses, the idiots, old & young come together...
Yes you might say they went there just because for the party, but hey! at least they were there celebrating it together...
and it was the first time in my life to see such an atmosphere on the eve of merdeka day..


After dinner at Absolute Thai in Ikano, we noticed in the bill that we were charged only RM1 for the green curry.

Me, being the honest and angelic person that i am =) (at least according to the color-personality test)

Of course i informed the waiter on the error..

Guess what.. the first 50 customer gets the green curry for RM1 ! ...talk about good luck eh? hehe... Happy Merdeka !!

Moving on,

we feasted quite a bit the next few days..
which explains my ever growing cheek and tummy.. horizontally that is :P

After some shopping at Bangsar (which i manage to get a D&G t-shirt that i simply adore :P),
we had tea at this place call 'The Banquet'.





I suppose they were inspired by the movie in which Daniel Wu and Zhang Zhiyi starred.
Now i know why Ashley wanted to eat there..ish.



They should come out with a poster something like this to attract customers though :P



That aside, i must say the food is pretty impressive.
We had tom yam soup with vermicelli, tiramisu and a dish call Tuna Toastado.

(click on the pic for a larger view)

The Tom Yam was miles better than the one at Absolute Thai although the best i've tasted was at Lygon Street in Melbourne..
That was really awesome..

The Tiramisu came with an extraordinary price with an ordinary presentation..
Having said so, the taste of it was really something...
We could smell the liquor as soon as it was served on the table.

The final dish was Tuna Toastado..
A dish they were rather reluctant to serve as it requires 20-mins to 30 mins to prepare..

And boy was it worth the wait...
It was a simple dish..
Bruschetta with tomatoes, tuna and cheese on top..
Boy was it good! The tuna tasted superbly fresh and the chesse was simply amazing..
on top of that, it was the cheapest of all 3 dishes.

it was so good that we even attempted our own version of tuna toastado the second day which turned out rather well.

Overall the Banquet was really a nice place to dine in..
Nice environment, good service with the waiters (yes, all males) offering excellent service and neatly dressed in those chef uniforms.

Shall try out the other main courses the next time we visit Bangsar Village II..

Having said so, for someone born in Malaysia with in-built taste buds well suited for local delicacies, nothing beats the humble hawker stalls at Wai Sek Gai in Pudu..



Ashley has been talking about this place ever since last year and we finally have the chance to eat there... And boy was it something to boast about..

You see, I come from Penang... obviously i have extremely high expectations for local food.
And Ashley being such a hard core fan of KL food (NOTE: KL and not Selangor).. she's being waiting for the chance to prove to me that KL food isn't that bad after all....

I must admit it was really really good.
we had the Curry Cheong Fan... awesome stuff *slurp..
the Koay Kak (Fried Lo Bak Gou),
the KFC-Like fried chicken... i'm not kidding, it really tasted like the original recipe chicken in KFC, and the Dan Dan (Egg Custard) which i will attempt sometime around this week..hehe..

They were all awesome stuff...really...
the only downside was the horrible "Yao Cha Guai"...
It was the worst 'yao cha guai' i've ever tasted...ew...

Nonetheless.. you can bet that i'll be eating in that street whenever i can =)
which we already went for the second time the day after just for the Dan Dan...hehe

Having had a dose of good KL food... we went to this supposedly famous Wei Kee Restaurant that serves Roasted Duck..
Needless to say, it was by far t-h-e Best roasted duck rice i've tasted =)

oh, and we also had this humongous pot of claypot chicken rice somewhere near Wai Sek Gai..
What makes this stall so special is that the rice is cooked using charcoal-fire which of course makes it even tastier.

Having said so, I still prefer the one at Petaling street..i thought that was better.

So there you go, performing, lepaking, travelling, shopping, feasting, & graduating =)

that's what i've done so far *winks..

Jobs? next entry =) 

till next time den!