Hairy Crabs Feast

My cousin sister from the US who is currently based in Macau, dropped by Shanghai to pay us a visit. My dad hosted dinner tonight at "田园家", a Shanghainese restaurant not far away from ours.

The main entree was the hairy crabs! Being sinful for the second time this week, I indulged in this oversupplied-cholesterol food. As the hairy crabs were in season, they were all filled with crab roes, their flavours were tantalizingly magnificant!

Above: The arrival of the hairy crabs

Above: My serving of hairy crab

Above: The beheaded hairy crabs

Thanks Giving @ Shanghai

My timely presence in Shanghai coincided with this Thanks Giving Dinner held last night, at the home of our fellow Malaysian.

The night was wonderful, being able to meet new people, especially fellow (bright) Malaysians in Shanghai as expatriates. Not to mention, the wonderful full fat foods.

We had Beef Veal that was smuggled in from Seattle, and a 19kg fatso turkey!

Above: Gravy on Turkey

Above: Served Turkey

Above: Beef veal

Above: Sawing of the turkey

After eating to our hearts' content, everyone was up for a group photo session. Sadly, again I'm not in there!

Above: Group photo of the ladies

Above: our Philippina-American Chef and the 2 sporting Japanese men.

2008 Toray Cup Shanghai International Marathon

Event Date: 30 Nov 2008 (Sunday) Event Time: 7.30 am

Events:

Men's Marathon (42.195 km), Women's Marathon (42.195 km)

Men's Half Marathon (21.0975 km), Women's Half Marathon (21.0975 km)

Health Race (4.5 km)

I'll be signing up for the Men's Half Marathon (21.0975 km) event today! The route for the 21.0975 km event is coloured in green in the above route map.

Despite being a frequent runner, the maximum distance I have ever covered was 15km. Doing 21km would definitely be pushing my body to the limit! Well, as they say; Put yourself to the test and take up challenges while you're still at your teens!

During the run, I'm going to pin the Malaysian Flag on my Marathon Singlet. (hopefully its not illegal). Any other suggestions on what I should pin on it? BERSIH? =P

A Meet Up At Rakuzen

As promised that I will meet up with my high school friends after my exams, I organized a meet up dinner at Rakuzen (Desa Park City Waterfront).

Initially, I intended to get more of us Ex-Malurians to gather here for this meet up. Sadly, this proved to be difficult and too trying as somehow most of us are crowned to be "anti-social".

 

 

The list of people coming soon shrunk to a handful amount of 4 - me, Lali, Leon and Houzhi. Knowing my friends very well, despite having made a reservation for the restaurant and 7.30pm, I told them that dinner was to commence at 7.15pm. I did that, giving allowance for their VVIP lateness.

I as usual, am never late, arrived there at 7.30pm, and waited. Waited waited waited... till the clock struck 8.15pm. And that was when I was presented with the grand entrance of my other 2 friends. Yes, indeed I was all frustrated and pissed; but my heart melted as soon as I saw my long-time-no-see friends.

I brought my cam along that night, but lost the mood of taking pictures, and only ended up having 2 shots. The waiting KO-ed the angelic side of me, and the yellow light just made my day.

Above: Lali fiddling with the chopsticks!

Eventfully, the meet up turned out to be very rejoicing. We had fun hearing about each others' experience and encounters, not to mention about our bitching topics!

Its good to hear that Houzhi's doing well, and Lali's being a bundle of joy with her forums and adventurous hobbies. For Lali and others who are applying for US unis, all the best! And I hope for the return of good news!

A Frame to me Photos

I have finally came up with a template for by pics! Well, as this is just a BETA, I guess I'll come up with an improvised one soon!

 

Above: Water feature at Tropicana

Call me Mr Contractor

I dropped by the construction site again today, to snap some pix of the inside of the house. I didn't go all the way to take the pix for the "lulz" (a word that I learnt from peeps at Monash),

 

 

I had to snap pix of the renovation progress, and send them over to my parents in Shanghai. The M&E works were completed and the carpentry works were kicking in. Fortunately, as the M&E works were done, and I could finally enter the house to take pix at me own will!

 

 

 

 

And for the exterior, the shades were finally up! The lanai was in progress, but too awful a sight for it to be a "frozen moment". When the ugly duckling turns into the swan, I'll snap pix of it then!

 

 

Casa Tropicana Condominium - FOR RENT

Located at the border of Tropicana and Damansara Indah is the joint venture development of LBS and Dijaya Holdings - Casa Tropicana Condominiums.

 

 

We own a 1, 538 sq ft unit (Type B) on the 9th floor. A fully furnished brand new unit, with 3+1 bedrooms.  This unit is situated at Block A. Also there are 2 parking lots specially designated for the owners of the unit.

 

Above: Floor Plan for the unit (Type B)

 

See below still shots of the interior of the unit:

 

Above: A view from the main entrance through to the living area.

 

Above: Living Area

 

Above: Dining Area

 

Above: Kitchen with breakfast table

 

Above: Master Bedroom

 

Above: Master Bedroom's lounge area.

 

Above: Bedroom 2 (Single Size Bed)

 

Above: Bedroom 3 (Queen Size Bed)

 

Like all luxury condominiums, Casa Tropicana Condominiums has got gym and pool facilities, park and security intercom services. In addition to that, at the ground floor, there is a courtyard with restaurants, convenient stores, salons and laundry services.

 

Above: Guard house

 

Above: Elevated Park (on the 6th floor)

 

Above: Children's pool, the adult's pool is on the further end. This is also on the 6th floor.

 

Above: a view of phase 1 from ground level.

 

We're aiming to fetch a rent of MYR 3000 per month. Our unit is fully equipped with essential electronic equipments ie: air cond for living, master bedroom and bedrooms 2 and 3, TV sets for living area and master bedroom, 6 kg Samsung Washing Machine, and a Toshiba Refrigerator.

For more in depth information of the specifications and facilities of Casa Tropicana Condominiums, visit: http://www.dijaya.com.my/project/casa_tropicana/intro.html

 

Interested parties can either leave a comment, or email me at eujuin89@hotmail.com

Zenia at Desa ParkCity

I went to our new home at Zenia today for an appointment made with the ID person. Our soon to be "habitat" is currently undergoing renovation and interior designing. I represented my parents and heavy heartedly passed the ID person the cheque of a whooping amount for the progressive payment.

Being me, I'm usually never late and always early. So I arrived at the site at 9.45am, 15 minutes prior to the appointment time. While waiting for time to pass by, I then went around, looking for interesting shots to take.

While taking the shots, a security guard came up to me and told me no taking photos. Little did he know that I was actually a resident of the compound! -_- After having clarified who I was, he embarrassingly apologized and buggered off.

 

Above: A picture of the garden deck (elevated garden)

 

Above: A view of the garden terrace

 

Above: The lane leading to the garden deck.

 

Above: The view of the pool which is just outside of my house =D

 

Above: The comfy sun bathing benches!

 

I initially wanted to take some pictures of my unit, but unfortunately, it was just too dusty and dirty in there! And I couldn't afford to bring my cam close to such conditions!

Will be heading for our Condo at Casa Tropicana soon, to take more shots!

Sudden Randomness

My final paper for the semester ended yesterday. Having been excitedly looking forward to the end of the semester and the exams; its abrupt arrival got me dumbfounded.

I feel lost, empty and aimless. It feels like all of a sudden, after a continuous hectic study routine, it has suddenly disappeared. Just like a major tsunami which slams the shore, sucks and pulls everything away. And what is left is bareness... nothingness...

I tried to make my day productive, by further mastering the 40D. I read through the 40D guide, and kinda went bang bang with the camera.

Here are the random shots!

 

Above: There were no available living souls for photoshooting, so let me introduce my cactus model =D (experimenting on depth of field)

 

Above: My golden brown sandwich =D

I made my own sandwich for lunch. Back to my healthy and veggie loving routine!

 

Above: Juicy, yummy and healthy =D

 

Later in the evening, boredom overwhelmed me. I then went to the construction site to inspect on the new house's progress. Randomly, I saw this "artistic work" on the cement floor.

 

United States Presidential Election 2008

The United States Presidential election for 2008, scheduled for Tuesday, Nov 4 2008. It will be the US's 56th quadrennial election (election held every 4 years).

The results of this election's outcome will determine the new President and Vice President of the United States.

The 2008 Election will be a historical one as this is the first time in  U.S. history 2 sitting senators will  compete against each other for president.

 

Above: Barack Obama, Democratic Party Nominee (Junior US Senator from Illinois)

 

Above: John McCain, Rupublican Party Nominee (Senior Senator from Arizona)

 

This is the first time an African American is a presidential nominee for a major party (Democratic Party). Also, both the candidates are born outside the continental United States - Hawaii for Obama and the Panama Canal Zone for McCain.

The president-elect and vice president-elect are scheduled to be inaugurated on 20th January 2009.

*Extracted and rephrased from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Presidential_Election

 

It seems that the people of the United States are excitedly ready to witness and welcome a change. Are we just as ever ready to explore our boundaries? Or should we just submit to the constraints of our comfort zone?

I wonder......