Happy New Year!!

My last entry for the year. I have to say that I haven't been blogging religiously this year. I guess I am just getting lazy. It is a time to think about some New Year Resolutions but I have decided to have none this year... how's that for being lazy???

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Faith

I got this cute little thing on October 31 2007 and I absolutely love it! I still have my ipod video but this little thing is my gym companion and my travel buddy in a sleek little package. I was absolutely devastated when I left it in the gym on Friday! Woe is me! At first I couldn't believe that I forgot to bring it back with me. I turned the apartment upside down but then I realised that the last time I saw my nano was in the gym. I was depressed for 12 hours.

The next morning I went to the apartment office and found out that someone actually turned it in!! Whoopee!!! The joys of losing something and then finding it again! Gave me a big high for the rest of the day.

So I guess I should still try to keep the faith when it comes to human nature. I guess there are still some honest people left in the world!

How to make jello shots

A popular dessert/alcoholic shot for a party over here is jello shots. Very easy to make, can get people drunk very fast (depending on amount of alcohol used) and nice and colourful. I attempted to make some for Doug's Halloween party and I have to say that it turned out pretty well. I obtained the cups from Peter but otherwise you should be able to order it on Amazon.

1. Get some jello

2. Get some alcohol. I used Absolut Vodka. Note, you can keep the vodka in the freezer and it won't freeze. Vodka is nice when it is cold. Mmmm...

3. Empty the jello sachet into a mixing bowl. Pour 1.5 to 2 cups (depending on how much jello you use) of boiling water into the bowl. Mix thoroughly. Make sure there aren't any grainy jello bits left.

4. If you are making normal jello, this is the time to add in cold water. However, for our purpose, we add in VODKA. If you used 1.5 cups of boiling water just now, add in 1.5 cups of vodka in the bowl.

5. Stir thoroughly and then pour it into the cups. Put it in the refridgerator until it hardens.

6. Eat and be merry!!

Pumpkins!

There was a pumpkin festival at the West Village in Dallas the weekend before Halloween. There was arounf 6000 pumpkins there and they had a whole day of games. I was there towards the end of the day because I only wanted to see them light the pumpkins!!

Posing among the pumpkins.
1 out of the thousand pumpkins carved that day.
Before the pumpkins were lit. The structure was quite big. We could even see it while driving on the highway.
There was a countdown and all the pumpkins were lit at the same time! They didn't do candles.... I guess it was just more convenient to do electric bulbs.

Nasi Lemak party

When a group of Malaysians get together, we always talk about food, food and more food. When I got back from Malaysia, I brought back some crunchy ikan bilis (anchovies) and peanuts from Jenny's mum. Heh heh heh... perfect for nasi lemak!! I made chicken curry (hot) and chicken rendang tok (mild - for the wusses), kangkung belacan and the coconut rice. I delegated the sambal (chilli paste) to Aaron since he had dried chillies and candlenuts. He used my blender to make the sambal but he forgot to take the seeds out so it was nice and spicy. Nice for me but very emotional for some of the other people because they started crying. Aldern fried eggs and Paul brought the sliced cucumber and fruits for dessert.

CK brought "Old Town White Tea" and I made teh tarik (pulled tea) from it. Check out my pulling action shot!!

Obviously after a party, there will be lots of dishes to wash. Luckily I hired a dishwasher for the night.
I am now detoxing with loads of vegetables and fruits... hopefully after my detox, I can re-tox again with more nasi lemak... :)

Potluck at Aaron's!

After having a fab time hosting a BKT party, i bullied Aaron into hosting a small get-together as well. However, this time it has to be a potluck because Aaron said that if he cooks, we won't be able to swallow the food. Anyway, that was a gross exaggeration because he made buffalo wings and it was YUMMY!! Mmm... Koong made the vegetable dishes, Lee Lean brought the salads (chicken and crab), Paul brought sinful cupcakes (I tried to move the cream away but it went so well with the cupcake that I HAD to eat it anyways!), Yap brought the wine and I made my usual tomyum beehoon.

Just before the party, Aaron realised that his dining room table only had 4 chairs. Hence, we ended up doing a buffet and brought our food to the coffee table to eat. Nice and intimate but as usual, not much conversation until everyone has eaten something and is not too grumpy! Hahaha!

Next makan session would probably be a full English breakfast or a Sunday roast... mmm... have to look for yorkshire pudding first though...

Bak Kut Teh party

When I am home alone, it is time to have a house party!

Decided to cook BKT since I had the herbs from Malaysia and since I also had the time. Went to the butchers and bought so much meat until I had to keep half of the pork ribs in the freezer because it wouldn't fit in the pot!! However, I do think it is better to have more rather than less when you invite guests over to the house. Wouldn't want people to go home feeling hungry. I prepared yam rice (mum's recipe with a mixture of white and brown rice), bak kut teh (with pork ribs, herbs, chinese mushrooms, bean curd, golden needles mushroom), fried vegetables and "yaw char kwai" a.k.a chinese doughnuts. I got the chinese doughnuts from the chinese supermarket and heated it up in the oven. Came out nice and crispy. Mmm.... Just right to dunk in the soup!


3 colleagues from Malaysia and 1 from the UK came for my mini-BKT party. I think the next time I do this, I would put in less water. Felt like the soup could have been a bit thicker. I might not have been able to taste much since I spent the whole afternoon cooking and smelling it. Ah well...

The meal was washed down with a nice bottle of Riesling which I received for taking care of Nutmeg. Whee!!! I must remember to buy more herbs to bring back for my next BKT party!!

Nutmeg can surf!!

Here's some pictures of Nutmeg on the surfboard... She finds it a bit hard to balance so you'll have to hold her up like this!! She didn't really like being on the board that much and preferred to swim. She loves swimming and will just launch herself off the boat if you do not hold on to her collar. Very dangerous when the boat is moving because she might get caught in the blades and become... well... dog meat... Haha!

Here she is... launching herself off the board because the water was too enticing for her to resist!!

Here's Patrick trying to get her back onto the boat again after swimming for hours!!

Here she is launching herself off the ramp to get into the water again because she hasn't had enough of swimming!!!

Nutrition is good for the soul...

Seriously, ever since I came to Texas, I have been steadily putting on weight. This is just not cool.

Anyway, had a cool weekend (actually it was hot hot hot!!) at San Antonio. Took us 5 hours to drive there and 5 hours to drive back. Texas is just such a huge state that even though you drive and drive for hours, you are still in the same state!

Managed to visit the Market Square where they have a flea market on a Sunday. I saw lots of useless stuff that I considered buying but decided against since I am already such a pack rat and need to throw some stuff out first before even considering buying more. Almost every shop we went to, we saw this sign:

In the hot 100 degrees farenheit weather, you need lots of water!! Otherwise, you'll end up like the couple below:

So I guess essentially... water is good for the soul...

Nutcase / Nutmeg

My colleague bought a chocolate lab (Nutmeg!!) and she is adorable! I have had the priviledge to babysit her for a couple of days and she is quite a character. Here she is at around 10-11 weeks:So sweet and docile!! It is good that she loves me just as much as I love her... unfortunately, sometimes she gets into this crazy mode where you can see madness in her eyes... This happens when she gets over-excited and can't seem to wait for you to pet/play with her. Example below:

Check out the mad look in her eyes!!!! In this situation, she is known as "Nutcase".

When taking her for a walk, she loves to bite her collar/leash and getting her collar on can be quite difficult because she thinks you are playing with her and she will be going round and round trying to bite her collar while you are trying to fasten it. When she has done her potty, she'll tell you when she wants to go back home by biting on her leash and pulling it and directing you back to the apartment! What a clever dog!!

The amazing thing about Nutmeg is that she eats salad! She eats carrots and broccoli or maybe just a tossed salad for lunch as well as frozen yoghurt. She likes playing catch but she doesn't like to give up the toy she caught! She has grown so much already and I think she is going to be a BIG dog... Here's a pic just a couple of weeks ago...

She actually looks like a grown up dog already!!

Where did the time go?

July is almost at an end!! One thing I noticed about the consulting lifestyle is that there is always not enough time. We go project to project and after one project life-cycle, 9 months... 1 year... 2 years of your life has passed. This is good for me as it keeps in interested in the work I am doing. Although I am far far away from home, I still have a solid homebase. In a way, that keeps me grounded so I don't feel so lost sometimes.

Things for me to look forward to:
1. Chicago - visit an old schoolmate (Wini!!) and catch up on the good old days.
2. Philadelphia - Spending Labor (I still think it should be spelled Labour... I cringe at American spelling) Day weekend with Winifred. Looking forward to exploring the area and coming back to the east coast.
3. Connecticut/Long Island - Going to visit Jenny at Long Island and driving down to Connecticut to visit Angie and family. I'll get to meet the latest addition to the family as well - Little Donovan!

Still considering a trip to New York in September...

Sigh... flight woes...

Flying to the US is certainly not my favourite thing to do... I am now stuck in LAX waiting to see if I get onto a flight to Singapore - not the direct one but one that will stop in Taipei and then SG. If I don't get this flight, I'll have to wait for the next one which goes through Narita. Argh! I am so tired. It all started with a little rain at the Dallas Fort Worth airport. They delayed the flight for an hour and before you know it, they decided to cancel it. I had to get out of the waiting area and back to the ticketing counter to find a flight for myself.

After some negotiation, they got me on another flight with 1 hour and 20 minutes to go before my connecting flight. Unfortunately, It was DELAYED again when I boarded the plane. Due to so many cancelled flights, people were on standby left, right and centre. All the flights leaving DFW was full full full... I arrived too late in LAX to get onto my scheduled connecting flight.
So here I am... Complaining and full of self-pity....

Introducing Hanley...

Here's a little teacup maltese. He is 4 years old and weighs 3 pounds. He is extremely well behaved and that is why he gets taken out everywhere! He gets taken out on walks - where he doesn't walk but gets carried around in his little pet pocket. He also goes to all the good restaurants and gets all the attention from the waiters as well as all the other patrons of the restaurant.


I miss having a dog... Well, correction... I miss having a dog that would actually miss me! I doubt my doggie Jacob back home actually realises I am not around. Ah well... I'll just have to go around spoiling other people's dogs!

How sharp your teeth looks...

Oooo... Nav, Sukey, Jenny and I went to Nobu in Dallas for dinner to celebrate my birthday. The food was extremely good that we ended up taking pictures of only the food and no pictures of people at all! We had this snapper dish where they fillet the fish and deep fry it and seasoned it with some black bean chilli sauce. Mmm... it was quite Chinese-y but so yum. It was their special for the day and we managed to get the last one!

I think a bowl of steamed rice would have gone well with this dish. I am still salivating everytime I think about this...

High maintenance

I don't think I am.... But the cushion is cute!

Bloody price...

I just love it when I see something like it... it just cracks me up!!

Did the bloody price go up????

To all the over 30's or nearly there........

I got this from Hung Yen and I found it hilarious! Thanks for sharing!

This is for all you girls 30 years and over.... and for those who are turning 30, and for those who are scared of moving into their 30's...AND for guys who are scared of girls over 30!!!!... This was written by Andy Rooney from CBS 60 Minutes.

Andy Rooney says:
As I grow in age, I value women who are over 30 most of all. Here are just a few reasons why:

A woman over 30 will never wake you in the middle of the night to ask, 'What are you thinking?' She doesn't care what you think.

If a woman over 30 doesn't want to watch the game, she doesn't sit around whining about it.
She does something she wants to do. And, it's usually something more interesting.

A woman over 30 knows herself well enough to be assured in who she is, what she is, what she wants and from whom. Few women past the age of 30 give a damn what you might think about her or what she's doing.

Women over 30 are dignified. They seldom have a screaming match with you at the opera or in the middle of an expensive restaurant. Of course, if you deserve it, they won't hesitate to shoot you, if they think they can get away with it.

Older women are generous with praise, often undeserved. They know what it's like to be unappreciated.

A woman over 30 has the self-assurance to introduce you to her women friends. A younger woman with a man will often ignore even her best friend because she doesn't trust the guy with other women. Women over 30 couldn't care less if you're attracted to her friends because she knows her friends won't betray her.

Women get psychic as they age. You never have to confess your sins to a woman over 30. They always know.

A woman over 30 looks good wearing bright red lipstick. This is not true of younger women.
Once you get past a wrinkle or two, a woman over 30 is far sexier than her younger counterpart.

Older women are forthright and honest. They'll tell you right off if you are a jerk if you are acting like one! You don't ever have to wonder where you stand with her.

Yes, we praise women over 30 for a multitude of reasons. Unfortunately, it's not reciprocal. For every stunning, smart, well-coiffed hot woman of 30+, there is a bald, paunchy relic in yellow pants making a fool of himself with some 22-year-old waitress.Ladies, I apologize. For all those men who say, 'Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free'. Here's an update for you. Nowadays 80% of women are against marriage, why?

Because women realize it's not worth buying an entire Pig, just to get a little sausage.

My Melody

I can be so full of nonsense sometimes....

Kalen got this for her birthday and everyone said it suited my "Cute but Psycho" t-shirt. So voila... cute but psycho Melody.

Drool...

I've had these pictures for a while but it is just so nice to go back and look at it and just drool over it once in a while. Whenever I get back to Malaysia, I have to go to this place to have my fix of yummy food.

I think this is one of the fav places to go for those people working in TPM. It is in Sri Kembangan and the restaurant name is Restoran Makanan Laut Yoke Heng. Everytime we come here we have to order the claypot loh shi fun. I don't think you can find this anywhere else in KL. It is thick and tasty and I love the crunchy fried dried prawns that you can mix into it.


Other yummy stuff is the goo seng tau fu which is tofu cooked with prawn and pork slices. This is to die for. The pork and prawn is deep fried and is crispy when served.


Another speciality is the pork ribs wrapped in foil. Someone told me it is marmite pork ribs but I can't taste the marmite or maybe they douse it with too much honey. It is steaming hot when it is served and hidden in the foil. Be very careful when biting into it as it can burn your palate. But... it is nice and juicy and tender and oh-so-delicious.

Mmm... anyone keen for a bite?

Miniature Doberman Pinschers

I've never had small dogs before so I took the opportunity to play with Rachel's dogs in Kuantan. Let me introduce the father and son duo - Pepe and Bambi. They are really tiny. You can just pick them up with one hand and they wouldn't even feel heavy. Things I noticed about toy doggies:
1. They have very high pitch barks that can get annoying.
2. They are super hyper active and needs a lot of attention. However, they are super loving as well.
3. They are really tiny and can easily squeeze out of the gate. Have to be careful about that. I guess you can either feed them a lot until they are too fat to squeeze out or build gates with smaller holes.
4. It is a good idea to attach small bells on their collar so that you can hear them. After all, you wouldn't want to step on them while going about your business.
5. They seem to walk with a spring in their step. They can jump over big drains and all. I can't even imagine stuffing one into my handbag. I doubt he would stay still for 5 seconds!

I think I still prefer big dogs... I love the deep woof!!

Climbing a chair

Kids at a certain age are just fascinating to watch. It is amazing how quick they pick things up and how their brain works. Here's Little Liem showing you just how to get settled in a chair after dinner.

1. Drag the chair to the spot you want it to be. Then climb on top of it. If you encounter problems such as heavy bum or moving chair, call out "Hep me" and someone will help you up onto the chair. Things to note: Sometimes grey track pants may slip and slide on plastic chairs.


2. Get settled in the chair with your favourite drink. Ahhh... nothing ends a day like a good drink.

3. If you have to, answer your phone calls quickly and let them know how busy you are so they won't harrass you at night anymore. After all, you only have an hour to play until your bedtime. Why waste it jabbering on the phone???

4. Look cute on the chair so everyone would exclaim over you and spoil you even more.

Ahhhh... tips and tricks from the expert!

In da Hood

Can you see the resemblence between my nephew and myself?

Peanut butter?

I heard this from Yu Lin and Rachel. Absolutely LOVED it!!

Question: Why isn't peanut butter rich?
Answer: Because it is not KAYA!!

Eaten alive

I am a mosquito's dream come true. If you want to protect yourself from mosquito bites, just send me into the room. Immediately, they will zoom in on me and I will have 100 bites within 10 minutes. After that, the mozzies are all sated so it is usually safe for you to enter the room. I think it runs in the family because my sister is also afflicted with the same "power". Ahhh... we are the superheroes in this generation! Saving the world one bite at a time!!

I bawled like a baby

I didn't think it would affect me very much. After all, I resigned myself to be in the US for a year and after going through multitudes of challenges and some tough times, I was ready to go home. I looked through my blog and I see how much I have done and how I have changed as a person. I don't usually like recording down bad times so most of my entries are all about the good times I had here. It is a bitter-sweet feeling leaving this place as it was home for me in 2006.

I told myself that I wouldn't cry. That didn't happen. When I was leaving the office, all it took was a hug from Angie and the flood gate opened. I have been on so many projects but I think this is the first time I actually cried when leaving one. It all feels so surreal. I guess it just hasn't sunk in yet that I won't be driving into work on Monday. I already miss everyone in the office. My lunchtime walks with Angie, my snaking time with Kiran, "bee talk" with Mark, Starbucks at 3 pm with everyone and even John's administrative work. In addition to this, I am going to miss my saviour and friend Jenny. She is the reason why I look so horrible at the airport with my red eyes and nose.

Till the next adventure... I guess I will survive...

1 kilo of chocolates

If you ever need motivation at work.... THIS would be it!! This massive bar of chocolate has been so amazing. Eravi got it at Heathrow airport. Buy 1 get 1 free! Wheee!! Since I really need to be on a diet, I was walking around the office (exercise) and distributing the chocolates (sharing the fat = 0 calories).