My Vote's on Katherine!

Don't know if any of you follow American Idol. But my vote is on Katherine! Her rendition of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" was amazing!! (Even if she's nowhere as consistent as her competitor!) GO KAT! Plus, she's gorgeous ok!

~Al

24

Today was the last episode of Season 5 of 24. What on earth am I going to do until January??????

Forget terrorism--save me from boredom, Jack!!

/J

What I do really do for a living

I think I have had several of you guys ask me what I actually do. It's really hard to explain. But basically it involves cooking and feeding people. Yup. I'm the office chef. I even have a couple of sous-chefs to help me out. Here are some pictures to illustrate my job.


This is me attempting to teach my sous-chefs how to make the perfect scrambled eggs. We used 240 eggs for this event. They are really good assistants... always ready to go. (The guy on the right is our CFO)



This is me checking on my sous-chefs.. who are obviously more worried about how they look in the picture then their job of cutting the fruits. (We only use freshly picked fruits - we have a garden in the back of the office building for that)

So. There you. That's what I get paid to do at the office. I also do a little H.R., so let me know if you are interested in getting a job.

:)

~Al

Nyonya in NYC

So, I was in the City for a few days last week, and realized that, despite my having been there quite a number of times now, this is the absolute FIRST time I've seen Central Park with LEAVES on the trees, since all my previous trips have been made in winter. The City in summer is so much nicer--especially since you have to walk everywhere, and it helps to not be freezing your arse off. Here's a part of Central Park just outside of the Strawberry Fields, with some random cyclist obstructing my composition (it's Tuesday at 11:00 a.m.--don't these people have to WORK?)

Anyway, Al asked that I post some non-pasta-related photos, so perhaps this will count. Anyone who is in the City (well, anyone not currently residing in Malaysia, where there is no shortage of such dishes) should make a visit to Nyonya on 194 Grand Street:


From right to left: clams in chilli black bean sauce, beef rendang, salt and pepper squid, a bowl of (hainanese) chicken rice, kangkung belacan, and an empty plate for discarded clam shells.

Excluded from the photo (because it had already disappeared into my stomach) is a roti canai, served with a bowl of curry chicken that, I swear, I nearly wept upon tasting, since I don't think I've had curry chicken Malaysian-style (with lots of coconut) for yeaarrrrssss.


The food was fabulous generally--not spicy enough (only to be expected, I suppose), but beggars can't be choosers. I wanted to order chilli crab, but they had just run out of crab (literally--the next table to ours ordered the last one, the BASTARDS!).

Sorry there are no more photos--I did take my camera (as evident from above), but I keep forgetting to use it!

/J

So close..yet so far

So big typhoon approaches Hong Kong having devastated Manila over the weekend. The weatherman says it's the biggest typhoon yet in May for us - so what do you do? Hope and wish real hard it blows into Typhoon 8 --> that's when everything is closed, work is cancelled, schools are closed - the whole city just becomes dead!
Monday - Typhoon 1 is raised - there is hope
Tuesday - Weatherman says they will raise Typhoon 3 by end of the day --> becomes more like wee hours of Wednesday morning.
Wednesday - Typhoon 3: winds roaring, buckets of rain pouring - you would think we are so close to an 8 and you start being really hopeful.
Wednesday pm - Typhoon is moving away from the South China Coast near Hong Kong and moves towards Southern China to hit Guangzhou.

AAARRRGGGHHHH....why couldn't the big winds save me from this big mess called work?!?!?

sigh..~jian~

A compas!

A COMPAS!!!
The flamenco boys had really nice behinds. This pic doesn't really do any justice!!!!
Check out the lovely motion in this picture!

Last Saturday I went to a flamenco show presented by Paco Pena & his flamenco dance company.

I was COMPLETELY bowled over. I've been to a few flamenco shows before in Spain, but ironically, the show in London happened to be the best I've ever seen. The music was excellent - I can't remember the last time when the guitarists were so technically good and played with such passion. Paco Pena is a well-renowned flamenco guitarist and now I know why...Oh. and the DANCERS. fuh fuh fuh. They had such a flair and were very expressive whenever they took the stage..

I had a great time - if ever they tour LA/NY/KL/Sydney/HK, do go!!!

suannie

Jakarta trip

i went to jakarta last weekend of april 2006. here are some pics. just went to visit a friend who works there, Suan has met him, Cindian fella name Arul. I went there with another guy - Fairus. Here is our trip.

Oh i got a poo poo story to tell. I took some laxatives cause I couldn't poo, and the very next day i had stomach upset. While i was in a restaurant, just when the food arrived, i was like OH OH. so my friend Arul had to call his driver (apparently everyone who lives in jakarta has a driver) to take me to the nearest mall. Near my ass... i was doing some heavy meditation. you should see my face, it was white or maybe greenish. just my luck, we had to stop for a train, and indonesians have no urgency either, he took his sweet time to get me there, when i needed him to hull ass, maybe he was a sadistic man secretly enjoying my pain. Then i forget that there is normally a line to even get into the bathroom. Anyway i made it just in time ok, And the following monday when i got back to KL , it was even worst. I was out for a day. i flew back in sunday. So all i can say is even that holiday was lame.

MO PICS

ok how come val can post a million pictures on the same posting, and i have two duplicates of the same pic. Help,.,.
ok ok ok i figured out now you can post like up to like 4 or 5 pic.. this uploading picture thing is dumb.
anyway here are more pics of langtengah trip

Long weekend at Lang Tengah

lazy to write lar, but after coaxing from suan.. ok ok i'll do it.
Last Friday was wesak day, so got the long weekend to go to LANG TENGAH, it is the island between perhentian and redang island. This trip was planned about 6 months ago, when Air Asia was giving out 2 million free tickets. We paid for fuel charge or sales tax for 80 ringgit

all i can say is if you are one who are optimistic, like some of my friends were, you'll call the island experience " exclusive" as for me i said it was like being dropped off at alcatraz, like jail there was no escape, and meal times are fixed. if you miss your three meals at the specific window of time, that's it buddy you go on starvation.

i wish i took the picture of my triple sharing en suite bathroom, it was like the tornado that hit it. for the exclusive price we paid, we sure as hell did not get better service, or variety food as my last trip i did with VAL and Malcolm, perhentian kecil is still the bomb. At least there was a working, cooking kitchen.
you know me.. don't mess with my food man.

ok i should stop whining about it. Hmm. well i guess the company was pretty alright, so when desserted on an island, it is a good thing to bring along your friends, or else you'll really go insane..

so Island vacation anyone?

Happy Mother's Day

Sorry I haven't been blogging much. Been quite a hectic with work and we've been looking for an apartment. (We being me, mum and brother.) So, we found a really nice 70s retro place in Pasadena... very spacious and quaint. Can't wait to move in end of this month or beginning of next month. Also can't wait to go furniture shopping! Oooohh yea. As for work, for the past two weeks I've had two 2 hour meetings daily!! I only spend eight hours at work and when half of the goes to meetings, the other half i have left is ARGGH!

Mother's Day is this weekend you guys.. So, don't forget! We had a little fund raising in the office (for our Annual Party) yesterday - selling roses sempena Hari Ibu. Went to the flower mart (which is heaven on earth), bought roses for 83 cents each and sold them for $3! What a rip off huh! Made a whole bunch! Kekekek!!

So, happy mother's day y'all! Have a great weekend

~Al


Romey, Me, Karina and Ashley selling flowers

have we aged at all??

ok - time for a bit of voting. this was taken way back in 1999 or 2000 (does anyone know when???). do we look 7 years older???????? comments please... 

one more!!!

a bit of girly fun - don't ask what i was doing yanking esther's hair...trying to ger her to look at the camera probably. val looking like she was half gone already - the girl can drink.


esther feeling a bit 'hungry'. ngap ngap ngap. go get a room!!!!


the most hilarious thing ever!!!!! i saw this in singapore when i was there and HAD to take a picture of it. short for poontang = tang so you guys go figure!!!! 

back in London - yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!

my fellow biatches,

i am now back in London after what seemed like FOREVER - take it from me, looking after a sickly mom is very very very hard work. at times, i wished i was back at my desk, working. didn't really have 'me' time, which was what i was looking forward to since i was supposed to be on a break. but i guess the 'duty of a daughter' was top priority for the last 2 weeks and a bit and i am now totally KNACKERED.

my mom is now recuperating - there was a slight mishap post her surgery, which meant that she had to take the same flight as I to singapore (i use SIA to fly back to london now that MAS is not the best airlines in the world) and stayed in the hospital where she was operated for observation, but she is now in a stable condition. thank you all for your kind wishes throughout, and thinking of her during the whole course...

i DID have time though, to meet and catch up with val and esther (lara, no where to be seen or heard - she's really busy at work)...and we had good fun catching up on gossip (mostly about our love lives) and general chit chat, and me offloading about my mom's nagging...it's so good to know that, after all these years, we can still talk to each other and not wonder what the hell we're all on about...



where the hell is esther looking?? FOCUS girl, FOCUS!!!!


yay! finally a 'proper' pic!!! ahahaha...i overdosed on virgin spanish strawberry slushes (they were sooOooo yummy. thanks, val for introducing them to me!!!)


esther & val feeling a bit cheeky.

we finally coaxed esther to start blogging - taught her how and she's got a draft blog somewhere. hopefully she'll start blogging soon!!!

i hope all are well. keep the blogs coming ok guys?

jetlagged and in need of a proper night's rest.
suannie