Obsessed!

Currently obsessed with Chocolate Truffle Cake from Hilton....or generally any chocolates....gosh.. Champagne and truffles....sure am being pampered. Going to be super spoiled soon! Gonna be super fat now..i need to head back to gym. But will need to work out my timing...sigh..busy busy with work and studies. I think i may be burning the candle at both ends and may crash out soon. Thank God for the school holiday this week. But heading into the peak period for both work and studies....wish me luck!!

Quarter Century Mark

I know that it's been ages since I last updated, as usual! I guess it's because of Twitter, where its convenient and quick, but of course limited to 140 characters :P. Anyway, as per my custom, I have to update on my birthday. Somehow, this year I didn't really have the mood to celebrate it, unlike previous years. Mayb it's age catching up, or probably because I dont feel like I have many ppl around, compared to in Kuching?

However, I am still grateful to my family, friends, colleagues and ex-colleagues who made the effort to help me celebrate. It started with Aileen, Kwang Houg and Michelle who asked me out to dinner the weekend before. I didn't think they would do a celebration, since I didn't mention my birthday, but they remembered. There were 2 cakes, since they forgot to tell the other that they bought me a cake. Luckily Aileen had bought 4 mini cakes (sized for 1 person type) instead of a regular sized one. My uncle, auntie and cousin Sam had all gotten me presents/angpow and also a large Boston cheesecake. So that made 3 cakes in the fridge...luckily my brother and my dad were around to help finish them off. My colleagues also treated me to my favourite Korean food at Kimchi-Haru, though it wasn't Korean bbq, but it was still yummy Korean kimchi pork :).



From Aileen, Kwang Houg and Michelle

 

Presents and angpow from Uncle, Auntie and Sam

My dad happened to be in town for my birthday, so we went to Sid's (my choice) for dinner. It was pretty expensive, and I think the food was just so-so that night :P. The next weekend, my uncle brought us to Shook! at StarHill Gallery in KL for my birthday as well as their anniversary. Looking at the prices on the menu was pretty scary. Almost every main course was above RM50! Had to choose carefully to pick something more reasonably price and hopefully a large enough serving. You know how fancy food comes in tiny sizes but with exorbitant prices! My ex-colleagues also gathered for a lunch on a weekend after my birthday at Kissaten for Japanese fusion food. They got cupcakes from Wondermilk+ instead of cakes, which was a good thing, since I'd just cleared all the cakes out of the fridge. Haha! So even though I wanted it to be low-key or quiet this year, I still had quite a few celebrations, but nothing too fancy. Thank you guys!

With Kenny, Danny and Yoke Mun

As with every birthday, I take the opportunity to reflect upon how I might have changed or grown compared to the previous year. The thing that still remains is that I still prefer bad boys. Haha! Well, not quite like previous years where I just liked them rebellious. Nowadays, I mean the guys that are willing to try new things, not just stick to the rules all the time. They should also have a touch of maturity, or ability to see the world from a different perspective. I think these type of 'bad boys' would be streetwise or worldly, that they've experienced things to mold them to how they are now, so they could always advise or help me when I need it. Prime examples of these type of guys would be Big Bang's TOP, Show Luo Zhi Xiang, Nicholas Tse...oh and Ian Somerhalder aka Damon Salvatore. Hehe. They LOOK like bad boys..but they don't necessarily have to be completely bad or be criminals, you know?

I would also say that I've become more...um...vain and concerned about my looks than previously? I mean, I've been trying to take better care of myself since I moved to PJ, but over the last few months, I've paid more attention to it. I would buy more skincare products, where previously it'll just be cleanser and moisturiser, now there's sunscreen, BB cream and lotsa masks! Then you add eyeliner, lipgloss/lipstick and occasional mascara and eyeshadow. I've tried the more natural look to the dramatic black eyeshadow. Heck, I've even tried false eyelashes! Besides the face, I've gotten more interested in my nails and clothes. Seems like I've gotten a bit known in the office for my nails and shoes, since I'm willing to try things out. As for clothes, as per Linda and Vicky's influence, I've started reading magazines like Ray, Vivi etc to check out the styles. So I would say that now I have more 'current fashion' pieces in my wardrobe compared to previously. Of course, I'd still pick pieces that can be reworn often, even if it's not quite in fashion now. Heh, I think I'm quite a shopaholic now.

Which brings me to the next change. I went through quite a long period of confusion and not knowing what I wanted out of life. The 'quarter life crisis' come early as I liked to joke. But now I think I'm pretty sure about things now. Previously I would choose a career over my family and love. I would have said that i would be willing to sacrifice in order to advance my career. Currently though, I'd prefer to have a simple but happy life with my family and friends. Of course, salary has to be enough to save some money, but ultimately, I would choose to be back in Kuching with loved ones. I may earn a higher salary in PJ, but it gets lonely here. Not many people to ask out for movies or even meals, especially if my brother isn't around. When you need help, sometimes its hard to figure out who to ask without feeling embarrassed. I mean, there r friends but somehow my pride gets a bit in the way, probably coz we're not that close yet?

So yes, at 25 years, I feel that I am starting to like what I've become, and of what I've achieved. I would say that though I am still single, but I am kinda comfortable with that. A girl's gotta love herself before loving others right? Though, please don't let that stop you from introducing me to anyone nice.. Hehe. Once again, thank you all for your wishes, messages, gifts, celebrations. Here's to more good times with everyone :)



Present from Dad..hehe...



fnally got my new Nike shoes..half a size too big..but thanks for getting them :D

From CY and Siew Hie

Busy Month of Work and FOOD

I JUST had to update today, after all, this day only comes once every 4 years right? Hehe, guess if u always check my blog, u must b surprised at the rate i'm updating this month. It always seems that the more busy I am, the more I blog. Must be how I release stress or something. Or that I just had to blog about how I'm feeling etc. But I'm really backlogged with posts, I have a list of things to blog about and I'm forcing myself to post based on the time sequence instead of jumbling everything up. Call me perfectionist but yea, I think it'll b less confusing for me when i come back and read my old posts.

Anyway, this will just be a quick update on what I've been busy with this whole month so far. It's been pretty hectic, since it's such a short month and then you include CNY into it. So let's see, I went back to Kuching on the 6th till the 10th for CNY which I really enjoyed. It was all that I was expecting and a little bit more. I'll blog on that later. Then went back to work on the 11th :( but most ppl in the office were still on leave, so it was pretty quiet too. There were also fewer cars on the road, guess a lot of ppl in KL basically took longer leave since CNY was close to a weekend. Oh and Valentine's Day here was pretty quiet. I think I saw that only the receptionist received roses. This year, I treated myself to some books and dinner at Chili's. Hehe...which was pretty ok too. Of coz, I did all this on the 15th of Feb, instead of the day itself, so as not to get ripped off by the exorbitant prices. :)

The company organized a CNY lunch with the customers of lighting department on the 18th of Feb, at Oriental Pavilion, Jaya 33. Each table cost about RM1000 and had some pretty good stuff. Shark's fin soup (where u could see actual PIECES of fin), cod fish, yee sang (total of 4 for me this year, hopefully it will pay off!), suckling pig, roast chicken and more. I must say, most of us went back to the office around 3 something feeling rather full and sleepy :P. And that night, there was a testing and commissioning of a project in KL, near Sogo. Basically we had to adjust the angle of the lights to get the required effect on the facade of the building. So I got to learn how the changing of the angles appear in real life, as well as the colour difference of the lamps. We reached the place around 7 something and finished at around 9, which is considered early..a lot of times they tend to finish at around 12 -_-.

I had to go for the Project Dealer's training from the 19th to 20th at Boulevard Hotel, Mid Valley. 1st day was mostly about the lighting products, including the newly acquired LED lights and I admit, I kept falling asleep! This is actually pretty common for me, I tend to feel drowsy during this type of trainings/meetings, unless we have to do some practical work. I must make sure I sleep earlier on the nights before any meetings/trainings. It's not good to continue this!! But the next day, I didn't have any time to sleep as I had to help my supervisor with the training. The project dealers, as well as our own sales engineers were taught how to use the software we use to do lighting calculations. They had to try out some simple examples and the other 3 of us designers were assigned a group to take care of. So yeah, I had to answer their questions and I did feel worried if I was up to it. Luckily, it went pretty ok.

In the afternoon, they were divided into smaller groups to try designing the lighting for a cafe and presenting it to everyone about the concept, lighting fixtures used and calculations. Since I wasn't in a group, I just thought I'd give it a try and see how I would do. I ended up having to present last as my supervisor thought it'll be good to show them what I did, since I'm considered to be more experienced than most of the other participants. After presenting, there was this silence in the room, till my supervisor asked them to ask me questions. To which they asked me to demonstrate how I did cove lighting, explain about the lighting etc. -_-|| Luckily i could answer! But the main thing was that we were very well fed over the 2 days of training. Breakfast and 2 tea breaks were quite ok, but the lunches *phew*. 1st day was buffet lunch where I really did try to eat more veg...and 2nd day was set lunch where there was salmon and lamb!...wow..I think I grew fatter in that week alone.

Main Course of Set Lunch: Salmon & Lamb (L-R)

I think I gained even more in the next week as a few of us were assigned to do a lighting audit at a 5-star hotel in KL for 2 days. 14 of us were divided into groups to audit the different areas, which was pretty interesting. My group got to go to the pastry kitchen where we saw them baking, decorating cookies and cakes, and making chocolate!! Oh the temptation...but we didn't get to try anything though. There was even a sausage making room, ehhe. But we also had to audit the rubbish compacting room :( Overall, I think our group was pretty lucky since we didn't have too hard areas. Other groups ended up with the huge basement car parks. Since my task was to count the lamps according to type, i would have really suffered in the car park, since there are so many! On the 1st day we started late as they were discussing the methods to audit, so I had late breakfast with 2 of the male sales engineers, which was on the senior one (Thx D!). I had a HUGE chocolate croissant, which they doubted I could finish, but I did! Heh.

And not long later, we had lunch...which was buffet! This is considered 1 of the best buffets in KL and it costs about RM100 per pax. OMG...I was like in heaven when I saw the spread. The buffet was divided into different areas by type of food. There was loads of fresh seafood like oysters, mussels, crabs, prawns, sashimi and sushi in the front. Then, there was the Chinese area complete with dimsum, porridge and get this..duck's tongue..EWWW. The Indian/Malay food area, Western roasts area and so on. But the area which I really really went weak for was the dessert area! My eyes literally brightened and I started noting down mentally which desserts I wanted.

Here's my only plate of mains, the meat was too tough tho :P

Though the food was pretty good, I made sure I saved up space for those yummy desserts. There was this counter with a see-thru panel where spoons were stuck through, and these spoons were holding little fruit pastries. I took like 2 of them and I wasn't sure if I had to take the spoon together with the pastries, but I think I did. Hehe. There were lots of yummy-looking cakes and also their own ice-cream, but I stuck with just the choc/fruit/cheese cakes. They also had quite a big selection of their handmade chocolates and even a chocolate pizza...WHOAAA. And finally, I went for the ultimate...the chocolate fountain! After all, it was my 1st time actually dealing with a chocolate fountain on my own. So I chose some fruits and marshmallows to dip under the glistening waterfall (imagine a mini version of the choc waterfall in Charlie & THe Choc Factory). After they were thoroughly covered with melted chocolate, I sprinkled them alternately with chopped nuts, raisins and sprinkles. Surprisingly it wasn't too sweet, but just nice. Later I found out that they use dark chocolate, which is my fave! THat was seriously the best buffet I've ever had, pretty much worth the RM100. I would go just for the desserts ok! So, I think I will go back just for their hi-tea, which I'm sure will have EVEN MORE DESSERTS! Did I make anyone drool yet?

Yummy Chocolates! (taken from sheryl0202.blogspot.com)

Chocolate Fountain! *drool* (taken from sheryl0202.blogspot.com)

The next day, we had lunch at the chinese restaurant there, where they ordered lots of interesting stuff. One of which to note was duck with kiwi instead of the usual orange duck etc. It was slightly sour and tart, when I expected it to be sweet. This went down really well with the guys at my table who ordered another plate. But my fave was the scallops dish! They sort of made nuggets out of whole scallops with eggs, water chestnut (i think) and stir-fried with a sauce. Those scallops were really really sweet and fresh and I had 2. There was a platter of mixed roast pork, a plate of mostly roast chicken skin and so on. I was the only girl at my table and they kinda treated and called me a princess *blush*. I felt so paiseh, coz they always made me take 1st. BUt yeah, I could keep up with their appetites..eheheh. It was an incredibly expensive lunch..2 tables of 14 ppl...the bill came up to over RM1000 -_-. Turns out the scallops dish was one of the more exp ones..eheh..but hey..they ordered it..i just eat ;)

We also had this meeting/training for our new lighting concept on the 28th, where I had to give a presentation about some project examples. My 1st time presenting at the company so I was kinda worried but yea, it turned out ok. And they ordered Domino's Pizza and KFC for lunch! Good grief, talk about fattening me up huh? Well, it was my first time trying Domino's which is pretty good, I think better than Pizza Hut, but not as good as Romeo's at Centrepoint. I think I had like 2 slices of pizza, 2 chicken wing parts and 1 KFC piece, not sure what part it was. The next day, I went with some female colleagues to this restaurant at Bangsar. Our company is organizing a function there in April, so they had to coordinate on the food details while I was there to do measurements of the features we planned to light up with our new products. What they didn't tell me was that they planned to have lunch there 1st. So yes, more fattening up with pasta and worse..they ordered dessert, which was much nicer than the pasta. Warm chocolate cake with a molten center and some pancakes with fruits, ice-cream (strangely, with sweet olives!). It was also my 1st time going around measuring things with a measuring tape and I nearly fell backwards down the stairs while measuring how high they were -_-.

In addition to all this, my brother was in KL from the 19th to the 27th and of coz, we brought him to all the good food places like Pangkor Seafood for our fave lala, Jake's for the steaks, Rakuzen for Japanese and so on. So yes, I think I definitely gained weight and I can feel that my pants have gotten a bit tighter. Even though we did work after eating..but still. Damm..after all that effort to eat healthy and maintain my weight! I was so happy when I found that my pants were looser just b4 CNY.....!! So in March onwards, I must control my food intake!....BUt it will be hard when I have cupboards with my stash of CNY food -_-......Pls don't tempt me too much ok?....Esp with desserts..they're my weakness :P

Jom! Buka Puasa food & other ramblings

As per yesterday's post, I had some food cravings. The original plan was to go to the Buka Puasa market with CY and maybe Henry or my bro. But what the hell...I got pissed..and Henry of coz got pissed as well...and big time this time. So yeah, am in deep shit now. F*ck my temper and stupid emotional personality, keeps getting me into trouble I can't settle. Probably will break out the vodka later...Yay!..*sarcasm detected*

Anyway, CY couldn't make it last minute so I told my bro it's ok, he doesn't need to skip class to go anymore. But he insisted on going, so yea, I had to wait at Swinburne in the car for him for almost 1 hr. Then, we got stuck in heavy traffic for over half an hour...and all this when the fuel tank was showing its warning sign. So yes, add more to the joy of my shitty day. Sorry for all the profanities. Just feel like it today. Well, we reached the Satok area at almost 6 and my bro goes, "Oh, you overshot it, need to turn around under the bridge." To which I go, "What the hell! Nice navigating you idiot" and he gives me this sheepish grin. So yea, you can tell our relationship has improved to the stage that we can insult each other n not get into huge fights. Luckily coz I don't need anymore conflict for the rest of the day.

In the end, we had to park at Wisma Satok and walked over. I suddenly became like a little girl with her older brother while crossing the road, "EEekks! Wait for me, I don't know how to cross!" And even more so when the first thing I saw at the market was some guys selling cotton candy!! I actually havent been to a Buka PUasa market for probably 2 years? So yeah, I was pretty unfamiliar, so I just followed my bro around and tried to figure out what we wanted to eat. And surprise surprise, he paid for his own stuff on his own accord! Probably the only pleasant surprise in my whole day. Either we were really hungry or greedy, but we really bought a lot of stuff between the two of us. We spent like RM30 on everything, probably also coz we were so tempted by all the variety. Plus food tends to make me happy these days...so yea...the more food the happier I am rite? Especially in the f*cked up condition I'm in. Once again, excuse the French.

When we were about done, we saw a stall selling BBQ seafood and my bro went "Look! Your stingray!" So the final tally of food is as follows:

Andrea: Chicken satay, special kebab (chicken, beef & cheese), roti telur, cotton candy
Aaron: Special kebab, nasi lemak, beef murtabak, crispy popiah
Shared: BBQ stingray, keropok lekor, huge packet of sugarcane juice at only RM2

What's a food entry without a pic rite? And it's nicely labeled for u to see what's what!

So yea, now I feel like a stuffed pig, I'm so damm full. But as someone's still pissed at me..and I realize my life is getting more n more shitty..what with labs, projects, FYP piling up...I'm starting to feel the pressure..and yet I want to go drink!...WTF rite? I feel like puking everything out, I make myself sick. But I won't do it on purpose. Don't worry, don't call the ppl in white coats yet.....I am really screwed up now huh? God help me. Or maybe I don't want help. Maybe I just want to self-destruct. Stop being the good girl...the responsible and level-headed girl everyone thinks I am. I just want an escape. Food and alcohol are only temporary relievers. Am I being melodramatic for attention? Maybe! But maybe I need the attention...the concern...the sayang...but I don't know if I can take it from just anyone. Heck, I can be damm manja with my younger bro..what do you think...I must be damm desperate already.

Where's my drinking buddy when you need him? Oh yeah, he's pissed at me. My bro's out with his frens so damm. And the rest? We're supposed to b at home, doing DSP/FYP etc etc. So that's what I'm gonna try and do now. The key word being TRY of coz..since we have no idea what DSP is all about. I am seriously f*cked up now and I haven't had a bit of alcohol, yet. SHit. Tonite is gonna suck big time.