Work work work and work are my plural singular daily routine. Materials test on Saturday, electrical test coming up tomorrow, 2 quizzes up next week, tutorials for structures, Preliminary work for Electrical report, Computer lab submission on Friday, Structures Project 2… WHAT MORE! WHAT MORE!!! ARGH!!!!
Missing out on joy, social activities with friends, and time for myself is really consuming me! I need a breather. I feel like I’m going down down down!
Below are 2 youtube videos of Britains Got Talent 2009. Watch them!
Realise that everyone is special in their own way! Never look down on anyone, as you too are not perfect. Be fair to others, and be fair to yourself! Take up the challenge, of accepting a person for his/her weaknesses, and soon you’ll come to discover his/her strength. God made us all special!
Back on 11th April 2009, the Thoo’s - Kok Wai, Wendy and Suet Mei travelled all the way from Ampang to come by my place to celebrate my belated birthday (9th April) with me. Knowing that all my family members are scattered around the world, they wanted to help fit that hole in my heart with some warm family love.
Being greeted at my doorstep together with them were boxes of coffee bean cakes. This day was commemorated with a few slices of cakes which were picked up in midst of their travels. Above is a picture of my Birthday cake – Chocolate Fudge.
After the candle blowing, it was Bon Apatite! Above is a picture of the Blueberry Cheesecake which Suet Mei had.
Above is a picture of us all (Wendy, Kok Wai, Suet Mei and I). I really enjoyed the company and appreciated the effort to come by for my birthday. As seeing Wendy was a rare opportunity and Kok Wai an even rare-er opportunity, I really cherished our catching up that day. Till we meet again, I wish you good health and God speed.
The shipment from Shanghai has finally arrived! We awaited our “treasures’ ” arrival at our new house at Desa ParkCity at 10am. Thank God, nothing was damaged, and my piano was still in tune! This marks the begining of a whole lot more deliveries and moving which are to come forth my way.
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Lunch at La Casa @ Desa ParkCity Waterfront
In midst of the waiting, our tummies turned on us disobligingly, demanding to be fueled with food. Hence, we had to ditch our monitory duties and went scavenging for our prey “restaurant”. Eventually, we spotted our prey and dived into La Casa to Italian-fy our tastebuds.
As I’m currently trying my best to live up to my theme of “boycotting franchise (chain) restaurants”, I decided to give this low profile restaurant a chance. The entrance of this restaurant wasn’t that grand, with only a simple overhead banner saying La Casa. As the old wise tale goes, “Do not judge the book by its cover”, the interior of the restaurant clearly testified the idiom. Above is a picture of the cozy woody “booze shelf” and the dessert bar.
The offerings here were abundant, with extreme flexibility, catering to your very tastes. (You know how fussy I am when it comes to food). The prices of food and beverages were also reasonable (not a rip off like Itallianies). My Entree (Primavera Fetuccine) in the picture above, possessing a sinful gluttony portion was tagged with a price of RM 17.00. In fact, the final bill had the exclusion of 5% Gov Tax!
Wonders: why would such a small scare restaurant levy this 5% while big-time chain restaurants don’t ?
A happy customer I was indeed! Thumbs up!
After being delayed by 40 minutes due to Air Traffic congestion at the Pudong International Airport, we finally took off at 20 minutes to 5. Below is the captured moment of sunset during our take off in the Boeing 777.
Being levitated in the ionosphere for 5 and the half hours, we finally touched base at KLIA. Our arrival time was 10.30PM.
The immigration officers were all dumbstruck at their counters by the sudden burst outflow of arrival passengers. The automated thumb-print counters went kapuff-ed with the heavy crowd. We had to eventually resort to have our passports stamped man-ually.
After claiming our check-in luggages from the caroussel, we headed for the taxi counter. It dawned on us when we were informed that all of the budget taxis have been sent off, all was left were the Massive Vans, and the Luxury Mercedes E-Class Limousine. What a rip off, I believe that the taxi counter was just out to suck our blood dry, as both me and my mom had large luggages.
As beggars can’t be choosers, we were made submissive to being blood-sucked-dry and headed home with and ironic Luxury Limousine experience.
What a wonderful “BEING CHEATED” warm and friendly welcome!
Blimey! MALAYSIA OH TANAH AIRKU. . . . .
3.30PM - At this very moment, I will be boarding the Malaysia Airlines MH 389 aircraft, on an aviation mission back to KLIA.
As I exit my main door, I imagined my dear FuWas bidding me a farewell hand wave. Good bye Shanghai, and hello MALAYSIA (a land which I AM A PART OF)!!!
My Shanghai laboratory is weeping the sorrow of disbelief that it had been robbed of two of its noisy Yamaha accomplices - the Electone and the Piano.
The movers created a displeasing cacophony with our house's door bell at half past eight this morning. Believe it or not, they were half and hour early! I pounced out of bed darting between the thoughts of being pissed and being pleased for their early arrival and hurried to answer the door.
After a whole hard hassle of deciding what were the essentials to be shipped back to our new house in KL, we eventually got the shipment lists finalized. The packing job was thenceforth commenced.
Perhaps it was me being over-sentimental, but it tinged my tear glands a little as I saw the mummification of both my Electone and Piano. After running my fingers through they keys one final time, with my approving nods, they encased both my darlings into "coffin" crates!
My parents' ornaments and statuettes were a part of this shipment batch. A few of our neighbours put on their fake puppy dog eyes and came up querying on whether we were being repatriated. Well DUH~ off course NOT! We're just moving some stuff back to suffocate our new house in KL!
Having meticulously done the inventory listing and checking, our goodies were loaded into the container to be sent to the port for deportation.
Pirates of the South China Sea, away you stay from me treasure! Me back is really aching me soul! To rest, I must for the healing of me aches..
Shimmering sparkles of easing lights were visible throughout the compound, which somehow jingled in my head, gently reminding me that Christmas is really near. This reminder soon led to flashbacks of really happy, sad and childish memories of having spent all the past Christmas-es with loved ones.
Being a fan of sentimental orchestral music, I really enjoyed the strings ensemble performed by the violist, 2 violinists and a celloist. Personally, I define a meal with background live performing music (be it singing or the playing of musical instruments) to be a dine of finestre.
Food was as usual proved to be my overpowering enemy for the night, as I gorged in without taking into account the circumstances. Well, how often do I get to be privileged with such an event. Furthermore, having me as a lazy bump when it comes to barbeque, I was more than happy to have ready made barbeques served onto my empty "begging bowl".
This night was a night filled with activities, having activities catered for the kids, for the ladies and for the gentlemen. The kids had a carbonated drinking competition while the adults had a booze drinking competition.
The winners of each of the above mentioned activities were each presented with a small gift, memento-ing this very merry day. See the broad smile on the boy's face who got a bowl of Gold Fish as his prize.
Approaching the drop of the stage's curtains, we had a young little Italian boy who requested to sing a "banjo on my knee" Christmas song for the crowd. As we applauded him for his courage, he set the Christmas swing in motion.
After the closing ceremony by Vivian, following the strings ensemble, the all of us just tossed our crystal sphere of togetherness as we left our warmed seats. Witnessing the crystal sphere crash onto the ground into beyond salvageable debris of bits and pieces, we cold-heartedly parted ways and headed home.
This fun and happy episode, was once again diminished.
A Revisit to YuYuan Gardens
Here we were back at YuYuan Gardens again this morning. Chris and Bernard had some last minute souvenir shopping to do. After purchasing our goodies, both Chris and Bernard had a sudden craving for Pork Burgers. We turned our sniffing senses on and allowed it to lead us to our "prey". Guess where we finally wound up! Ronald McDonald's house! Having been greeted by the Big Yellow M sign and the "stoned" Ronald, we went right up to the cashier to order our "pork burgers".
The ordering of the burgers was such a big task! as the China service staff provided "made in China service" and could not understand a single word of English! Witness the change of her expression upon Bernard's first utter of an English word.
Dinner at PuDong
Being it our final dinner meal together in Shanghai, I wanted to make it a memorable one by bringing both my guests to a Bund-view Restaurant in Super Brand Mall on the PuDong side of Shanghai. My eventual pick was Xiao Nan Guo, a fusion Shanghainese restaurant. The food was mediocre but the view was Magnificant!
Feeling bloated from the inside out, we foot the bill headed outside of the mall to capture a few memorable moments of us having been to the foot of the Oriental Pearl Tower together. * complain: I'm not in there again!!!! *
Submitting to the insistence of my mom's, we ended up at Häagen-Dazs Ice cream shop to have our "final supper" together. This somewhat brought a feeling of dejavu as on the night of the arrival of Bernard and Chris, they treated my family and I to a feast of Cold Stones Ice Cream.
Heavy heartedly, we vacated our warmed benches and left for home, bearing in mind that this, was truly our "final supper" together in Shanghai..
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Both Chris and Bernard will be leaving Shanghai, back home to Malaysia tomorrow. I hope they had a superb time here in Shanghai! Cause it was a blast for me having them around! Sadly in my eyes, the image of a vibrant and colourful Shanghai, will very soon turn into a pitch of darkness.
After a hectic routine of travelling and visiting, we have came somewhat close to turning the whole of Shanghai inside out. Our sight visiting to-do list is now down to 2 unchecked items - Pudong and QiBao water village.
The Authentic Chinese Water Village - QiBao (七宝古镇)
We hopped onto the good old bulky buick at the point when the clock stroke 10am, and headed for QiBao Water Village.
Many might wonder why pick QiBao instead of ZhouZhuang as my tour destination for my guests. Well the main reason was because, QiBao is one of the most preserved and un-commercialized water village. Unlike ZhouZhuang, QiBao has no entrace ticketing policy, and is not a tourist destination but a habitat of local water villagers.
"Where no white people are found, is where the cheap deals are found" is a very well proven philosophical theory here in Shanghai. Hence with their absence in this humble little village, enabled us to dominate every single bargain made.
Apart from the "water" business, this village is made up of a narrow alley, squashed and towered in between by two rows of double-storey houses-turned-shops. As you can see from the above picture, the roof linings of both the buildings come so close together that the sun's ray can only enter through this narrow slit. Notice the swarm of spitting insects? I DREAD IT!
"Bon apetit"! screeches the "roti telur" which caught my attention as we strolled by. It seemed that this new food is a hit in Shanghai. They named it (台湾手抓饼) which directly translates to Taiwan Hand Moulded Pastry. Why Taiwan? Oh dear, China, you are truly laid back! I had my first taste of that sickeningly fat and unhealthy food when I was like 5 years old at a drainside mamak stall!
Lunch at Blue Frog with Sarah
Our next stop for the day was at HongMei Road. Having made prior arrangements to meet Sarah for lunch at 12pm, our arrival at HongMei Road coincided with this privileged 12pm.
Together with Chris and Bernard, the four of us turned our tummies into blast furnaces for heavy duty calorie burnings at my all time favourite American diner, Blue Frog on the Hongmei Entertainment Street.
Shopping Frenzy at various flee markets
Having satiated our appetites and bid farewell to Sarah, we zoomed into the International Pearl City (a misleading name for yet another flee market) which is located directly opposite the entertainment street.
Next in line was to head for Cao An Road, where random assortments of wholesale goods are to be found. Sadly, everything sold there deemed to be inappropriate as souvenirs to be brought home. We eventually left the place with only two calculators in hand.
Despite being overwhelmingly exhausted, we still went against our natural instincts of hibernating and dived into our final flee market for the day - Da Tong Yang. After much effortful bargaining, we "fleed" the flee market with tonnes of goodies; leaving the vendors disgruntled as we had MAGA KILL-ed every single one of them who "barter traded" with us!
The day's post is not very picturesque as only Bernard had his camera with him in the later part of the day after the Water Village visit.
PS: This day is memorable for that Bernard was EMO!!!
To fulfill my promise to my guests of showing them the scenic country side of China, our itinerary for the day was to pay HangZhou a little visit, allowing It to further beautify our memory of having been to China.
HangZhou together with the beautiful West Lake (西湖) founded by the famous poet Su Dong Po (苏东坡), was entitled as "The most beautiful City in China". The city's beautify is prominently evident in the above picture of the west lake.
Our first stop at HangZhou was the Willow Gardens (柳树公园). Personally I love the willow trees as being a fan of Su Dong Po's poems which always uses the willow trees metaphorically, I excitedly got Chris and Bernard to jump off the Buick to snap good shots of the garden.
After having had enough of the Willow Trees, we headed "bridge" which allows the people to travel across the lake by foot. This wasn't exactly a bridge but more of an isle.
We walked along the "bridge", which measures approximately 2km from one end to the other. The walk did not seem tiring as the breezy weather together with HangZhou's mesmerizing beauty inspired us to keep moving on to see what other charming sceneries it has to offer.
In midst of our journey, we came across a Peacock farm. Barricaded in an area of approximately 50 square meters laid a habitat of Peacocks. Unfortunately I missed the moment when the peacock decided to seduce its apposite gender by "flowering" its butt!
Having arrived at the other end of the Isle, we got my driver to come pick us up and send us to the all time famous restaurant of HangZhou - Lou Wai Lou (楼外楼). Here we were ceased the chance to indulge in HangZhou's delicacy, Dong Po Rou (东坡肉), which directly translates to Dong Po meat. Note that the meat is named after the poet, Su Dong Po.
After the meal, we had to further tantalize our sweet tastebuds with a specialty desert made by the restaurant.
After the meal, we set off to the tea plantations at LongJing Village. As the name suggests it, HangZhou is also famous for its LongJing tea plantations. Our arrival at the village was welcomed and greeted by a lady villager. She kept insisting that we drop by her house to try out her Long Jing Tea. She soon turned out to be a pest as she just could not give up tagging with us, constantly bugging us to drink Long Jing Tea. All we did was mumble random Korean and Japanese words to her, pretending that we were mandarin noobs.
By playing dumb by pretending not to understand her, when she pointed at the tea leaves and said "cha", Chris would point at the floor and repeat after her saying "cha"; and when she pointed at the duck meat saying "ya", Chris would point at the sky and say "ya".
Knowing that Chris is very fond of pigs and pork and that seeing such non-halal stuff dangling in mid-air is a rare sight back at home, I decided to show everyone that pork... is just a food! =P
Our final destination for the day at HangZhou was the tea museum. This tea museum is situated in midst of a beautiful tea plantation. It had a wide range of tea leaves on display.
I bet everyone must be overwhelmed by the faces of Bernard and Chris. Well, that's sadly the case as these pictures were mostly taken by me. Lets just hope that they will have lots of pictures of me in their blogs!
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