Monday, February 19, 2007

Happy Chinese New Year

This is supposedly a joyous time for all Chinese. But this year, I felt as if there is a lack of something. But anyway, this year is different as the years before. My parents are once again going to be away: Mum at China and Dad at Manila. Not to mention, JWei is spending his new year at KL.

I spent the whole afternoon at Lynns' place today. Helping out with serving the guests, taking a nap and etc.

Tomorrow I will go house-visiting with my ex-classmates though I think I will ditch them before we even start visiting. Need to go to Grandaunt's open house as well.

A week off from work. Yupe, it will be so free for me.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Spring cleaning

Each year, in preparation for CNY, i will help out to clean the house. When I was studying last time, I have a lot of time to do cleaning around the house. Ever since i start working and Grandma is not longer at home to supervise me, I have not do much cleaning. Till recently...

I have been cleaning at night. Wiping the windows and cabinets.

I hope I can finish the cleaning up before the arrival of CNY.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Recalling the trip

Packed my stuff two days before the departure day. Dont really have much time to think and be excited about the trip due to the workload at office though. Felt as if I was trying to cramp as much work as possible so that I dont have to worry too much after the trip.
Miri Airport & LCCT

Arrived the earliest at the airport. Closely followed by Aaron and Kueh, then Laura and finally Kelvin. Didnt sleep in the plane although it was already quite late. Instead, we played 'Cho di' during the whole flight. Arrived at LCCT at 12.30am. By the time we put all our stuff down in the condominium unit, it was already 230am. The condominium is at Taman Melati, Setapak.
The condominium electronic card

The bedroom and my luggage

Friday, 02.02.2007 - We drove a long way to Sunway Pyramid. At first, we went to eat brunch at Kim Gray Restaurant. I had a set meal of one bouche (i think this is how it is spelled), baked cheese rice with beef, jelly and a glass of fruit milk drink.
Kim Gray - French toast and my set meal

Celery bites - Proof that I can withstand celery in soup. Urgh~!

Thomas and Chinos came to meet us and window shopped with us after that. My first shopping items are one khaki handbag and one bracelet from Radioactive. We strolled through Sunway Pyramid then left the place for 1 Utama. We had a Secret Recipe dinner, which I devoured a spicy tomyam spaghetti. Dont really like it. I prefer the one I had at KK, which was less mild.
Secret Recipe's TomYam Spaghetti

We then strolled around 1U then went to Ming Tien where there are variety of food available for supper.
Ipoh Hor Fun


Actually we also ate fried oysters but I forgot to take a pic of it. Hehe... Too busy eating. Yum~!


MidValley

Saturday, 03.02.2007 - Due to lack of water the day before, I think I was so dehydrated that my liver felt very warm and thus, not feeling so well. Drank a lot more water this day. We went to MidValley. I waited for Jinnwei and Lynnx for brunch. We had a Manhattan Fish huge platter and I also ordered the recommended Peanut Butter Smoothie which has another name which I cant remember now. And for dessert, we had Papa Bread (or Bread Papa)'s cream puff. The cream puff is really really yummy.

Huge Seafood Platter and Cream Puff


Baskin Robbins' Mango ice cream

Then, the three of us went on a shopping frenzy (more like only me on a frenzy). Poor Jinnwei 'cause he had to follow me around as Lynnx left to meet up with her friend. Well, at least he got a Billabong shirt out of it. I got myself two working shirts and one long khaki pants. At 3 sumthing pm, Jinnwei left me with my friends as he went off to do whatever he wants to. After a stroll around, we went to the next destination: Power House, Ikea and The Curve.
Ikea - Restaurant, Meatballs, Huge Gondolas, Showroom


First, we went to Ikea for dinner. I ordered the famous Swedish Meatballs. I love Ikea. I wanted to get everything there. I want to change the furniture in my house. But how to transport back le?!! Wait! What is more important is where can i get the money?!! Anyway, after that we went to have a stroll at Power House and then The Curve.
The Curve - with its beautiful CNY decoration


After that, Laura went to find her aunt while I went to find Jinnwei. Hmm... Jinnwei's place is like any other rented students house. Messy is the word to describe it. Well, after that, we went home to sleep. We got an early morning the next day.


Sunday, 04.02.2007 - We woke up early to go to Genting. After a roti canai breakfast, we drove to the cable car station and used the cable car to go up. We went into the casino first. Then, we went to the indoor theme park. Erm. I can say that the Genting trip is pretty boring as we didnt want to spend the money to go out to the outdoor theme park. So we ended up just going on the monorail to go round the outdoor theme park.

Mandatory feet shot

Genting

McD Lunch - Beef Prosperity Foldover at Genting McD

After coming down from Genting, we went straight to our dinner location, Saisaki Restaurant. The japanese buffet is amazing. Too much choices. I didnt manage to eat as much as I hope. Too full.

We went to Times square to look around. Kind of too tired already so I didnt really feel like shopping around. We then went out to the cafe to chit-chat. Recalling our university lives. hmmm... I miss those days.

Monday, 05.02.2007 - We parked our car at Times Square then walked all the way to Sungei Wang to have brunch at Super Noodle House.

I ordered a plate of roasted duck with HorFun but the Hor Fun turned out to be a bit too mushy. Anyway, after that, we walked to StarHill to have a look around. Er..too high-end for us. So, we moved on to KL Plaza and had a little exploring going on in there then straight to Lot 10. At Lot 10, I finally lost it. I had been trying to constraint myself from buying any makeup which I know I dont really use. Well, I bought a Red Earth foundation package. Aiyoks~! At the same time, we met up with Thomas there and then I bought mum's fur gloves. After walking around Lot 10, we crossed the road to go to Sungei Wang and BB Plaza. Dont really have anything to buy anymore. So, after we had a little pc stuff shopping at Low Yat, we headed to Petaling Street. Weird... Petaling Street is not as i remembered it. Perhaps it has been too long. Anyways, after that, we headed to SS2 to look around the pasar malam. We went to eat our dinner at this place called 'Gei Dak Sek' which serves really tasty dessert. The mango lok, which all of us ordered, is really nice.

That's the Szechuan Sour Hot Hor Fun and Mango Lok

After dinner, we went to stroll at the pasar malam. Hmm.. After a fulfilling dinner, nothing in the pasar malam can attract my attention. We went home playing 'Cho Ti' while eating otak-otak and tempura tofu and mushrooms. Couldnt really finalised my luggage packing 'cause I still have a few more things that I cant packed yet. Anyways... it is the final night at KL.

Tuesday, 06.02.2007 - Because we need to give the keys back to Laura's cousin, we went to KLCC as her office is there. We ate A&W for brunch.

After brunch, we window-shopped around. Hmm... Nothing much to shop for actually. Then, we left the place to go to buy more bak kua before heading to LCCT or I thought so. Turned out that we actually detoured to Cyberjaya and Putrajaya. When we reached airport, we checked in and then went to McD to have dinner. I had Spicy Beef Foldover. Ok... I dont really enjoy this foldover. I prefer Prosperity Beef Foldover.
hmmm... that pretty much sum up my trip to KL. Oh! One thing.... I always take photos of the place we parked in shopping centres. Worried we might forget where we park the car. Hehe...

Final Escape Before Plunging Down

A final trip before plunging into the endless hole of work and study till mid of July. A trip that I sort of anticipated for a long time. For two particular reasons.
Reason one is, a reason that has been in my mind for (at least) three years, that is, I want to go to KL to shop and visit. Many people told me that KL has nothing to do at all. May I point out that these people has recently been to KL and yet they told me that KL is not a place to go to. But they dont know how envious and clueless I am whenever I hear about the places in KL, eg. Carrefour, Ikea, Sunway Pyramid, 1 Utama, etc. Simply because I have never been there!
Reason two is that this trip will be an official with-friends trip. Ignoring the fact that we went to travelling at KK and Kuching before this. This time we travelled together from Miri to KL. No travelling alone. Together fly there. Together fly back.
After this trip, it will be all work and study and no play. It will be boring and hectic months. Erm.. Ok, there are holidays to be happy about for each month from now till June. July till December schedule havent issued yet.

We actually have an intinenary made before our trip. Basically we have our five days planned out. A plan filled with shopping and culinary experiences. The culinary places we went are recommended and carefully selected to satisfy our taste buds.

This trip, I have the use of Yuanz's Samsonite cabin-size luggage bag. I was worried that I might overpacked again so I limit myself to half of the bag. It weighted at 7kgs when I checked it in. No worries then. I sort of once again over-packed as I have two clean tops and one short pants left at the end of my trip. I didnt change my clothing as often as I expected. Oh well....

Our accommodation is graciously provided by Laura's cousin. Her condominium unit. Wait~! Her NEW condominium unit. There are not much furnitures, just mattresses, dining table and chairs. But we didnt need anything else than that. Thanks to Laura's cousin for letting us use her place! I hope we dont use too much electricity and water though.

We rented a car to travel around. A Waja. Considering the fact that we didnt need to spend any money on accommodation, the amount of places we want to go, the number of participants for this trip, and also Kelvin's amazing driving skills, renting a car to use is the best alternative. Using that Waja actually made me consider asking Dad to get me a Waja to replace the old Wira. Still a thinking-in-progress now though.

On a happy note, I am glad I didnt gain any extra kilo due to all the food consumed at KL. We did drink less water. It is more like not drinking water at all during shopping time. I suffered chapped lips on the second day. More water was consumed the next day so that I wouldnt get sick. Talking about getting sick, I seems to have a weird trait during travelling. On the final two days of the trip, I had a terrible migraine (same during KK and Kuching trip). This time, I bought headache pills, Pronstan, to cure it so that I wouldnt be moodless while walking around. It worked so I was a happy girl throughout the trip except for that few hours.

My budget for this trip is actually just RM 800 but I think I blew it. I think I might have spent RM 1,000. Food, car and shopping included. Air ticket not included. Talking about my shopping this time, I spent a whole load of money on my second day at MidValley. Thinking of my shopping loot, it wasnt much. Looking at my spending list, I think I spent a lot on food. Well, actually it was within my initial food budget of RM300. Right on the spot. RM300 all on food itself. So i guess what blew my budget were the unexpected pampering of jinnwei, my mum's gloves and the foundation set.

Going to try to do as much cleaning around the house before going back to work next week. Got to give the house its spring cleaning although there will be no CNY celebration this year.

Have I enjoyed my trip? Yupe. And I am ready for the plunge.

P/s: Pics and more description coming soon.