A kick start to 2010

I celebrated my new year's eve getting to know a whole group of new frens thanks to "Uncle"'s invite to his new pad for a get-together.... There was good food, "Sex on the beach", great company and to top it all off a fantastic rooftop view of the KL skyline... At the stroke of midnite the skies were all filled fireworks near and far lighting up and smoking up all of KL as far as the eye can see... It was kinda cool to watch so many fireworks all at one shot... the benefits of living in a condo with a sky lounge and loft huh? The gathering was definitely one of my more enjoyable new year celebrations... perhaps it's a sign of maturity (hate to use old age) that I prefer a more laid back celebration.... :)

To kick start my new year, what better way than to go hiking... yeah rite... I could think of a million other ways - nah..actually just one... to sleep in!! Haha!! But anyway... woke up at 0630hrs and headed to Cheras for my hike up Bukit Apek... The whole time I was driving and hiking there was only one thing on my mind... WHY??!!! Haha!! Why did I agree to such torture the first day of a new year? It was during the early stretches of the hike that I had to acknowledge my lack of exercise throughout 2009... I was sooooo UNFIT!!! haha! I was huffing and puffing all the way.... luckily I didnt give up and managed to reach the peak... but there was no view... Isk.. what a let down.. took us 1hr 40mins to hike to the summit... But the worse was yet to come.. thanks to my smarty pants fren who thot that he would know the way and decided to take a different route down... It took us 2hrs and 20 mins.... yeah... it's a first for me...that the hike up is shorter than the hike down (except for KK when I busted my knee but that's a different story...). Anyhow, lesson learnt... only hike if there is proper guide who knows his way.... or else stick to the beaten road...

the starting point....

I spent the rest of the day napping... My sleep deprived body was complaining... haha!! :)

So what is my new year resolution? never really had any specific targets but I would like to try and lose some weight, get fit, better myself in all ways possible and to have "HOPE".... with hope things just dont seem as bad... :)

Wishing everyone a fantastic year ahead.... Make it the best you have ever had... Carpe Diem... :)

*pictures of food and ppl were flitched from Kevin... (ooopss..hope u dont mind...)

My Christmas dinner....

This year my sis and I were hardworking... so we decided to prepare christmas dinner... well she decided to prepare dinner... haha!! So we had a nice family meal with stuffed baked chicken (in lieu of turkey)....
The chicky....
Its stuffings...
Then we had stuffed baked potatoes as well... basically stuffed with mash potato mixed with bacon and mushroom topped with some chives....

Next up...some baked prawns... as you can see...everything is baked coz although we said we are hardworking...we aint that hardworking... haha!!!My plate full of goodies..... that's cranberry sauce you see there...

and to wash it all down... we had a bottle of Choya.... not exactly Christmassey but oh so nice to drink... :) this particular one especially....
The only sad thing about my christmas this year was the lack of christmas present... Haiz.... sniff sniff.... my christmas pressie was the Burberry wallet I got for my birthday... that's it coz sis said it was too expensive to be just a birthday pressie.. As such, we had no tree this year... coz there wouldnt have been any pressie under it... :(

Tis the Season to be Jolly...

Fa la la la la la la la la....

It's Christmas again!!! My MOST favouritest season of the year.... Although this year my time has been quite packed with work and studying and I didnt have much time to enjoy the festivities and go for my Christmas shopping.... I still love this season..

Managed to squeeze in a few things though.... :)

Baked some gingy men for all to eat....

Made some small Christmas cards for all to receive.....

Wrapped a few pressies.....

and made a pop-up card..... (for a closer look, check out my other blog)

Sadly that is all for now... lets see what I can squeeze in with 1 day more to go... :)

One Malaysia Wedding

I attended one of my highschool mate's wedding over the weekend... It was truly an extremely interesting one.... Firstly Eve is a Christian indian so she had her ceremony at the church which I unfortunately didnt get to attend.. So I attended the dinner at nite not knowing what to expect... Invitation says HGH Convention Centre so there I went...

I was first greeted by throngs of people all beautifully dressed in Sarees of all colours... Some were truly breathtaking... Lo behold right outside the hall was the registration table... how odd huh? Normal indian wedding you just go in... this was where things started to get really interesting... I signed myself in...got my assigned table.. No 56... went through the door and Oh My God!!! 95 tables in total...

Was the first to my table, sat down and picked the menu up... hmm... what for dinner? Mutton curry perhaps.... Imagine what I saw....

A full 9 course chinese dinner complete with sharkfin soup and ending with chinese pastries... whadayaknow... haha!! Chinese food at an indian wedding and that was when I noticed chopsticks being laid instead of fork and spoon... hmmm... :D

Then there was these little cups of something alchoholic... wasnt too sure what it was for but I soon found out... :) But before that finally the rest of my gang appeared and we went on a picture taking frenzy....
Soon the announcement came for the bride and groom to enter and before the door opened we had the shock of our lives... There was fireworks being lit within the hall and it was flying our way!!! OMG!!! it flew right above our heads and hit the wall.. yikes!! Then the music started playing... We had Black Eye Peas with 'I got a feeling' playing as the couple walk in... interesting huh? The best has yet to come... After a brief intro the emcees for the nite welcomed dinner into the hall and dinner came with this!!!! Look for yourself... Our very own fire show....hahaha!!

Somewhere between the 4th and 5th course of the meal we were told to welcome the bride on the stage for the cake cutting and champagne pouring... That was normal... what came after was not... We had a yam seng session.... haha!! Now that is what those little cups were for... It's the wine to toast... :D

To top it all off we had a Philipino band playing throughout the whole nite... This is definitely the most eclectic wedding I have ever attended... It truly is One Malaysia....

Oh I almost forgot... we had a photo montage of their childhood photos all the way to adulthood... It was the coolest I have ever seen... It was like an Ipod advertisement... Coolies... :D

Well, that's the story of the wedding... I do wish Evelyn and Lionel all the best in their marriage... May it be filled with love and laughter always....

Reunion Dinner...

Every year my family goes through the same routine of packing up on new year's eve and driving down to singapore for our Reunion Dinner with my mum's family... Yeah..u read right.. mum's family... My family is a bit terbalik when it comes to tradition...

How, what was different this year was how much food there was.. haha!! on a norm we would have perhaps 12 dishes max... This year we had 18 dishes... yeap.. count em... 18 dishes for 20 person.. Menu is as below:

1. Sharksfin soup

2. Abalone soup

3. Claypot chicken rice (supposedly with damn good 'ham yu')

4. Fried Mee Sua

5. Tang Hoon in thick soup

6. Pork dumpling

7. Chicken dumpling

8. Tomato curry chicken

9. Stir Fry Beef

10. Pan Fried Beef

11. Chicken stuffed with glutinous rice

12. Vegetarian Pun Choi

13. Tong Po Meat

14. Prawn Fritters

15. Sweet & Sour Fish

16. Mixed Vegetable

17. Beancurd skin roll

18. Fish Maw

Part of all the dishes... some couldnt fit on the table so were left in the kitchen... and as our typical reunion goes... we stood and walked around the table like a buffet spread.... It has been a long time since I have properly sat down around a table and have my reunion dinner.. but I like it this way anyway... It's how my family rolls... :D

My Christmas....

Last year.. my christmas was quite a quiet one.. didnt do much... My eve started with this little greeting from Denise... thanks... so cute... :DChristmas Eve nite was spent at my TKD instructor's house... food was damn good.. my annual intake of roast lamb was waiting for me... It was as delicious as I remembered... had the ribs till they were bare... the rest of the food was great this year round too.. so much variety... best part of it all was being able to catch up with Saz, Ching Yee+husband+family, Vivien, Hong Wai & Isabelle...Have not had such a getogether for such a long time.... It was nice... My first christmas pressie was from Ching Yee....

A turquoise coloured stone pendant... Sorry.. dunno what stone but it is really nice... :) Her sis gave me a frenship band as well but I didnt snap a photo..thanks Ching Mun...

Then home I went to open pressies with my family... Here is where the fun starts... I bought us some crackers from Marks & Spencer to play with.... hehe!! The gifts were just trinkets but the popping was cool...hehe!! Have not popped one for the longest time...

Then came to my pressies... hehe!!! My present for the year from my sisters was my cute little Thomas Sabo Schnauzer Doggy charm... nice!!! :D
Ai Li made an extra effort this year too!! She handmade me a butterfly pendant....and for such great efforts.. she gets a cute snowman in return... hehe!!!

I have one last pressie... a special doll with a very special msg.... She's got a secret to share... Shhh.....

Hehe!! That wraps up my christmas pressies....

Now for my christmas day... had lunch at a fren's place... had really good devil's curry... and super large popiah... heheh!! At nite there was my dinner at Elcerdo... but u already know what I ate there... :)

I enjoyed my christmas thoroughly eventhough this year was a very simple and personal affair... :)

Hope everyone was happy with my gifts... :D

Christmas Dinner.....

Had an unconventional christmas dinner last year... finally am blogging about it... haha!! I went to Elcerdo... after many ppl telling me bout this place, I finally managed to gather the right amount of ppl to go piggy eating with me...

First up... mini sausages wrapped in bacon served with saurkraut!! Nice!!! This is the yummiest sausages I have tasted... :D (dun mind the picture, flash was too bright!!)

Next up was my ribs... really tasty.. a bit mongolian-like but it would taste much better if there was more meat on it... hehe!!

Now, for the star of the nite!! My suckling piglet!!! it was cut traditionally with a plate which Ai Li so graciously did!! and it was time to tuck in some tasty, crispy piglet!!! OOohhlala!! the skin was so crispy...the meat was tasty... the only complain I had was how much fat was between the two.. but oh well.. it was still a tasty piggy...

We then had seafood paella which to my disappointment really didnt live up to my expectations... No thumbs up for this...:(
After the paella we were still a tad hungry so we ordered additional spicy pork sausages with bacon again.. haha!! this one is also so so yummy... Think anything porkish is good here... haha!!

Finally came deserts... we had the werner's special and some other special.. they were quite interesting desserts... wouldnt say good not bad though but nice enough to finish the meal...
Time to go home with our tummies nicely filled... It was a great christmas dinner this year... Coz for the rare occasions... my entire family including my brother in law was back... Nice!!! :D

CHRISTMAS IS COMING....

Tis the season to be jolly.... fa la la la la, la la la la...

Tis is also the season of giving... I just love christmas!!! It's my favourite time of the year... It is just so festive... the malls are all decorated.. everything is lit brightly... then there's present!! :) It's all just really really nice..

As usual, it is the time of the year for me to play Santarina... :)
First up!!! Isuzu Malaysia...

Every year everyone in the office gets a little something from me... First year it was candy canes, Second year it was bell shaped chocolates in an origami box so this year I had something new up my sleeves... First.. cards...

This idea just popped to mind... It just looks like a jagged pattern when u close the card.. but when u open it up it becomes a christmas tree... :D

Next up..! The gift itself... :D Cupcakes!!! yeah... the trial lots I did before... this time round it is the mass production... Chocolate, Lemon and marble cupcakes all topped with chocolate and sprinkled with christmas trees and wreaths... :)
Now that we are all done... time to pack!!! Whoa!! I didnt expect to have so many boxes.. haha!!!
Well, cross you fingers hard and wish... a box might be coming your way!! :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

HO! HO! HO! HO!