Food Galore

Over Due

2007-08-18T18:54:00.000+08:00

My stay back home in Penang is long overdue. That's what I feel at the moment. Why?

I feel that there's more reason for me to leave than to stay here any longer. Yes, although it's where my real home is, my hometown, the place i lived and grew up most of my life, the place that your surrounded with people that loves and care for you, I still prefer my independent lifestyle back in KL. I do what I wanna do, I sleep whenever I wanna sleep, I wake up whenever I feel like, I go wherever and whenever I want. I'm not spoilt nor selfish. Don't get me wrong, I still love my family & Penang.

Its just that when your so used to living independently for almost 2 years somewhere far from home (ok, its only 5 hrs drive away), I just can't stand the feeling of being tide when I'm back home. No nagging from parents especially mom, no certain house rules, more privacy etc. Really, the feeling is different. You do everything yourself, which I've also got used to. Although, back home you don't have to worry about what or where to eat, laundry not done & stuff.

It's nice when you come back home once in a while, during short holidays, weekends. The treatment is different. I'm sure everyone agrees with me. It's like after your not around for some time, and when you come back, the family / parents seems to care for you more. You also get more attention! But after a while, the old habit is back! Nagging, finding faults, accusations, arguments, bla bla bla. So its really true that absence makes the heart fonder. Don't believe? Try it. Go for a long holiday, and when ur back, see the difference.

Not to say, most of my friends are not here in Penang. Most of them are in KL. Even those who are back for summer holidays are not here. No kaki for yum cha, shopping, talking crapz. Sometimes, I just feel so lonely and pathetic.

I really wanna go back (yes, to jungle land semenyih). I really wanna leave this place at this very moment. This is the effect of the staying here for more than 3 months.

:'(

Office politics

2007-07-12T19:39:00.000+08:00

There’s no doubt that there’s always office politics going on in each and every company. Be it a small private company, a big multi-national company, government offices, school, hospital, everywhere where people work together. Unless your company has only 1 worker and that is you.

How does office politics starts? Jealousy? Gossips?

Working as an industrial trainee, I could sense the office politics going on after 1 week of work. Even Dr. Law asked me how's the office politic in your company when he came to visit me yesterday. Why do people have office politics? Can’t everyone live and work happily together as one united family?

One can choose not to get involve in it but can one avoid it? Can you ignore what is going on when you’re one of the targeted subjects? I believe you can, but it takes a lot of work and effort. You have to learn to ignore, be less sensitive and probably thick skin. In hokkien, you say ‘kau bin pwey’. You must not let yourself succumb to office politics and be de-motivated.

When there’s jealousy, gossips will start spreading. Sometimes, it spreads like a wild fire, sometimes it’s within a group of people. ‘Kaypo’ people I call it. Why one have to be jealous over another person? If you want or like what the other person is having or doing, then work towards it. Let it motivate you. There’s no need to be sour grape. If you don’t like what the other person is doing or her for that matter, then just ignore her. All have you have to do is at least have some courtesy, greeting that person. Who knows after getting to know that person, you might change your perspective.

But I think worst of all would be a two faced person.

That’s life. It’s hard. No one ever said it’s easy. It’s just how smooth one takes it.

Working has somehow matured me.

Untitled

2007-07-12T19:35:00.000+08:00

There will be another 7 weeks, 1 days of ‘torture’ before I can spell FREEDOM. MERDEKA it is! My internship ends on the 31st of August. Why is it that I say its torture many of you may ask? Let me enlighten you with a story that seems to be getting better, but apparently I was fooled.

For the past 3 ½ weeks, I’ve been pretty relaxed or rather free of any important work or any work at all for that matter. The first week was awful as I was only doing data entry, cutting and stamping papers. I did not drive 29.5km one way (59km a day!!) to do data entry and paid peanuts ok!! Not to mention, I was harassed by a stupid, idiotic & damn ‘yong sui’ malay guy everyday.

Then, on the second week, my life as an intern looks brighter. I was given more ‘important task’ or project to carry out. No one can imagine how delighted and excited I was. Finally! I’m given something somehow related to my course of study, making me feeling less stupid. (Seriously, when you do data entry and cutting papers all day long, you feel that your wasting all your parents $$ sending you to university, working their butt off paying the exorbitant tuition fees and YOU, sit all day long CUTTING PAPERS!! Where is the logic?) And so I thought my life as an intern has at last started. I was even asked to participate in meetings. You can imagine how happy I was at that time. Not to mention, I was transferred to the office upstairs (away from the ‘yong sui’ harasser *yee haww*) and got a computer with internet access!! Yahoo!!!

Into third week, life just seems to be getting better and better for me. I even got the chance and green light from my manager to leave office and go to another factory to collect information for my assignment. LEAVE?? OUTSIDE?? Yes, leave the prison, out into the wild!! All in all, my happiness only lasted maybe about a week and a half. After that, I began to feel bored and helpless. Why is that so?? First of all, I was thrown into the task all alone. I’m blur at things but I’m willing to learn. Therefore, there are lots of questions inside me waiting to be answered. The unfortunate thing was, to even have the chance to ask those questions, I need to wait. N waits. N waits. N waits. It’s like when you walked into a government office, before you can do any transaction on the counter, u first need to take a number and wait for the never ending list of numbers before it’s even your turn. Yeah, the manager is super ultra bzzzzz. Can’t help it, he is that important.

From then on, life in office became a waiting game. And my happiness and excitement level took a leap from level 10 to 5. Everyday, I would ask around office, is there anything I can help out?? Yes, I am that helpful ;) I was actually very thankful & pleased when someone said yeah, could you help me with this. You can say I do odd jobs. Hehehe. But how many odd jobs can one give you rite. So the waiting game continued.

The only thing that kept me going for so long (it feels that time passes veryyyy slowwwwlyyy when u have nothing to do) is the internet access I have. The most brilliant invention for me at that very moment! With that, I was connected virtually to the whole wide world, relieving me from the bored ness in me. It was my only source of communication with my friends that motivates me to hold on. Not to mention, I did research on my assignment with the aid of internet as well.

On the 4th week (2 days ago), 2 IT officers came installing new computers and fixing phone lines which was bitten by Mickey and Minnie. Yes, there’s Mickey and Minnie in the office eating our tidbits and wires and papers and anything and everything. One of the IT officers was quite small sized, really!!, and both not leng chai enough for me to noticed, so I don’t bother. Mana tau, damn!! It was a mistake!! Never underestimate them!! Licik sial. They saw me checking emails, instant messaging, reading blogs, but they choose to keep quiet and BAAAANGGGGGGG; the next morning when I came into office; there was NO MORE INTERNET on my computer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At first, I thought ok, don’t worry, don’t panic, maybe its just server down. Then when I went on to investigate, I realized that everyone still has internet access except mine. I’m barred!! What is the problem with those two gutless, brainless, emotionless freaks! You could have told me straight there and then. There is no need to disconnect me and keep quiet about it. You’re a working adult. You should be educated. You should have some working etiquettes. There are so many other staff using MSN, YM, SKYPE, but those two idiots just have to bloody bar my connection. PISSSSED! Is it just so I’m an intern you can act like that?

So all I do now is sit and stare and day dream and think. A lot. I feel useless. I hate this feeling. I want my internet back!

I don’t know how I’m going to last for another 7 and a half more weeks.

Happiness level: 1.

Don’t feel sorry for me. It’s just my luck.

Who let the dog out???

2007-07-06T22:05:00.000+08:00

Helloooo Malaysia....

Its been a long time since I blogged. So to start off blogging again, i'll make this post short. There were of course many reasons why I was in a hiatus for so long. It all started with me writing a long post and it got deleted when I accidently press the 'back' button and 'poof' there goes my 2 hrs of hardwork. So I merajuk wif e-blogger. Then the semester starts and was so busy with work and activities among other things.

DOG. Dog is said to be man's best friend. Why?? Have you ever wondered?? Apparently, it is said so because a dog is more faithful than other animals and more faithful than many people. Hmmm....quite true. People usually rare dogs to guard houses. Police use dogs for tracking drugs, human and etc. Dogs are smart indeed. Once, I was watching this discovery on dogs using their smelling senses to detect cancers cells. Smart huh.

Talking bout dogs guarding houses. Hmmm, at work today, a fellow colleague didn't show up. Everyone was wondering what had happen. Later, it was found out that she was bitten by a friend's dog and needed 7 bloody stitches to close the wound!! Didn't find out what breed is the dog though. Probably if anyone was bitten by Nelson's big super scaryyyy fierce German Shepherd, a minimum of 15 stitches is needed. Heh.

Coincidentally, i packed home made coney dog for lunch! Anyway, why is it called a coney dog? Coney because it came from coney island? or its shape like a cone? (dont think so). Dog? Why dog? Why?

Anyway, this is what i made!! My very own CONEY DOG!

Coming soon...

2007-05-11T17:59:00.000+08:00

Another semester come and go

2007-01-27T22:18:00.001+08:00

The spring semester's time table is out! Yay i got monday off and NO more Hind Bargash! But..... Tues to thurs are going to be a long long day. Start at 9 am everyday except friday. Lab till 6 pm on tues n thurs, means it'll be 9am-6pm with 1 hr break for lunch? Madness!! Seems like this is a shitty time table after all.

Time really flies when ur in uni. I'll be in my second semester of 2nd year and before i know it, its summer break all over again and start year 3 after that and maybe graduate. What am i going to do after i graduate? I'm still confused and how can that be? Shouldnt i be focused?, i'm already half way through 2nd year! Haih.....

This semester holiday i must say is VERY VERY short. 1 week is definitely not enough. I'll update on my langkawi-penang trip when i get hold of the pictures. There are nearly 1000 pictures taken i think. Hmmmm... It was an AWESOME, EXCITING & FUN outing although most of us were deprived of sleep. Hahaha.

Lastly, THANKS PIN FOR THE NEW LAYOUT!!! xoxo!! Like it alot, i need u 2 teach me how to add some stuff to it though.

Its over!!!!

2007-01-20T14:45:00.000+08:00

At last, EXAMS OVER!!

Cant believe that 2 weeks of exam actually felt like 2 months. The time just never pass when ur studying. Last paper was yesterday n it sucked big time. Since it was my last papar, so the mood of studying wasnt there anymore. U just day dream about plans after exam. In addition to that, I was sooooo super hungry during the exam that I couldnt think and started sweating. Really sweating when i was just sitting under the air-cond. Anything that comes into my mind during that time is food! Glorious food! Partly, the paper was difficult, dunno how to answer so think of food.

Hmmm, apparently my readers have been complaining that there's too much food in here. WHY?? I love eating, I love food! Food is heaven! No one can live without food. My motto is Live to Eat and not eat to live. We should be thankful that we are able to have nice delicious food on the table everyday. Even if its just a plate of plain fried rice or bread or biscuit. Although i have to admit that the food posted here are more to that. hehehe.

Food.

There must at least be a small celebration after exam rite. So what do we do? Eat of course! Went to this italian restaurant, Venetzia in Cheras that is suppose to be better and cheaper than Itallianies. The portion was quite small though. The pizza is heavenly, which i think its a must when u go there. It only cost RM15 for one. More details of the food can be obtained from cheese's blog. (i think!) Hahaha. Since The Sun Newspaper has this little cut-out coupon of buy 1 free 1 ice cream from Baskin, our dessert was ice-cream! The greentea ice-cream i had was great and so is peiwen's mango. Seeing these yummylicious ice-cream, Pin just couldnt resist and had to get one for herself. Hahaha... tham chiak po!

Plans after exam:

1. Satay celup tonight at eddie's place.

2. Langkawi-Penang trip tomorrow.

3. Sleep

4. Gilmore Girls

Happy Holidays to all and All The Best to those in UK who still have a few more papers to go. Gambateh!!

Vegetarian course dinner

2007-01-01T00:09:00.000+08:00

I've never heard of chinese vegetarian course dinner. I know there are lots of chinese vegetarian restaurants sprouting in penang like mushrooms, but I havent seen or been to an annual / anniversary dinner that serves vegetarian course until just now. It was my buddhist temple 35th annivesary and they had a big dinner celebration at Han Chiang High School Hall. There were 97 tables and the hall was packed like sardines! Thank god the hall is air-conditioned. Didnt manage to capture the first two dishes that was the four season which included fried vegetarian duck, pig's kidney fried with carrot and green bean, eu char koay wif cashew nuts and cuttle fish fried wif dried chilli and shark's fin soup. All I can say is that they really taste the same as the original.

Fried chicken wif ginger in sesame oil and fried chiken drumstick

Chicken Curry with Mantou (some hyena stole 2 mantou when it reached the table)

Fried 'Lor Bak'

Fish (ray fish)

Rice steamed in Lotus Leaf

Dessert: Hot snow fungus with dried longan and lotus seed

Overall the dinner wasnt that fantastic but it was quite an experience. It was definitely 'ditangung halal'.

Fast food

2006-12-31T23:38:00.000+08:00

Being lazy to go out for dinner, made cheese baked pasta for dinner last night. Just boil the pasta, add the delicious leftover pasta sauce, mozarella cheese and pop it in the oven for 7 mins. Tadaaa, dinner's ready!

Yummmmy!!

'Hardworking' Su-Lyn eating dinner while studying with the computer and msn on infront.

This is one cute japanese cup noodle. Its comparatively smaller in size than our normal cup noodle. It definitely tasted different, a little like miso soup and u can get small slices of fish cake and tiny pieces of dried tofu. This was the last cup on the shelf (brought here by a japanese student exchange that stayed in my hse for 3 days). Will definitely ask anyone, relatives and friends from japan to buy more next time. Dunno what its called, so ppl remember that it looks like this------->

The clock shows 00:01. So Happy New Year 2007!! May this new year bring everyone good health, good luck n prosperity! Have an enjoyable and memorable new year, best wishes!

PANIC!!!.....DIE DIE DIE!!

2006-12-28T20:24:00.000+08:00

Ohhhh nooooooo!!!!!

I want to turn the clock around. Please bring me back to 2 weeks before. If my wish is granted, I promise I WILL study and NOT be lazyyyy. I will spend my time wisely doing revision and not go shopping!!

I had quite a bad panic feeling last nite and couldnt go to sleep till 4am! Thanks to pin for bringing the exam topic up earlier in coffee bean. We should be catching up on our friends life & leave the worries later! Hahaha. Promise myself to do more work when i wake up but totally forgot about the whole thing again the next morning.

And what did i do? Tried making lasagna. Not bad for a first timer. The meat sauce used is the spagethi sauce i usually make. I just made it less watery than usual. The cheese sauce was not bad either. The milk used actually taste and smells like vanilla! My favourite! Or maybe all milk is like that, just that i dont really know cos i dont drink milk. I cant eat too much of it though as I'll feel 'jelak' due to the rich ingredients. Overall, it was quite a success! Will definitely make it again soon.

Last night was great meeting Van, her sis Sharm and Phing again before they fly away far far away over the pacific ocean. Have a good year ahead and enjoy urself! Work hard and till we meet again during the next christmas holidays. Lets hope i can visit u guys there during summer.... *dreaming*.....hehehe.

Prawn & Mushroom Olio

2006-12-23T16:39:00.000+08:00

Nyammmm~

Dad wanted to eat Pizza Hut's Prawn Olio. So I made one for the whole family for lunch. Its my own version of frying spagethi with garlic, mushrooms, prawns, cherry tomatoes and lettuce in extra virgin olive oil. I also added a dash of dried oregano, salt n pepper to taste. It was yummy although there wasnt enough prawn and mushroom. They wanted extra 'liu' but my bro still rated 9/10!! Its actually quite easy to make and not much preparation is needed.

Its just another saturday & I feel bored at home. I know I'm suppose to study but I just can't! Then off my mind drifted..... If only i'm back in semenyih. Saturday means playing badminton at around 4 pm then squash then swimming. By the time we're clean and freshen up, we'll head over to semenyih night market to 'ta pau' our delicious dinner. We'll buy so much, more than our tummy can fill. My favourite is nasi lemak mama with extra sotong and a cup of bubble milk tea. Then we'll have our feast in tts 5 and chit chat or catch a movie or play PS or mah jong until late at night. Time really flies when u have the right company with good food and atmosphere. After that, maybe mamak @ Suren or Sri Leena. Its been a routine for the past 1 1/2 months or 2 maybe. Breaking this routine makes me feel a little weird.

That said, maybe i should feel a little happy cos we're having steamboat tonight at home! Grandma has already prepared the soup, all the seafood you can get and meat and noodles. Although i prefer tom yam soup, the soup we're having is plain chicken broth (little cousin cant take spicy stuff). It just reminded me of the tomyam steamboat I had in my tts 3 home. Although there wasnt much stuff to put in, we still enjoyed every moment of it. We mostly had processed food like sausages, crabstick, fish ball and instant noodles. We also included mushrooms, seaweed and lots of chicken meat and vege. We improvised and used a rice cooker instead.

Better sign off now and help out in the kitchen. If not......

Tong Yuen N Its Evolution

2006-12-22T12:12:00.000+08:00

Today is TANG CHEK, the day the chinese make glutinous rice ball or 'Tong Yuen'. It is to mark the winter solstice festival. We usually make it twice a year, 'nee tiong' and 'tang chek'. Once u eat the tong yuen, ur labelled as a year older (its just a believe, not true). There are of course different flavour and colors of tong yuen nowadays. It just evolved with time. U can also buy it readily in the market every other morning now.I remembered when I was young, it was a very special occasion. After dinner, my grandma will clean up the table and set the colorful kneaded dough on the table. She will start pinching small amount of the dough about the size of 1 cent coin. Then the whole family will help out by rolling the dough pieces with both hands.

There are fillings for tong yuens too; peanuts, black sesame and even chocolate. Talking bout evolution! There are also plain rice balls. My personal favourite is still the black sesame. These tong yuen is then cooked in syrup with pandan leaves or sweet ginger flavoured syrup. The evolution version is in coconut milk (like bubur cha cha), in Peanut paste soup or in red bean paste soup. There's this famous hawker in penang opposite Trader's Hotel (then shangri-la) in an alley selling tong yuen the whole year round. I used to follow my aunt there when she's craving for it.

This year, I had so many bowls of tong yuen, meaning i'm very old now if we follow the old believes. During chinese new year, my tts home's hse warming / christmas party (thanks pui san for the lovely tong yuen in red bean soup), occasional tong yuen from the morning market and now tang chek.

The colorful tong yuen i helped make this morning.

What u can get from the market.

Despite all the conveniences, i still love my grandma's tong yuen best! A truly scrumptious experience not to be forgotten.

"Winter Solstice Festival is about balance and harmony in life, and a time for optimism" (really need that optimism part especially exam is so so near!)

2006-12-17T22:08:00.000+08:00

SuRpRisE!!!!

That was the reaction of my whole family when i rang the door bell earlier in the evening. U c, i was suppose only suppose to come back penang tomorrow, but there were changes n i didnt let my mom know. I just mesg her asking her whether anyone we'll be home around 5 plus. I dare not take risk as its a sunday & the family might be out kai-kai-ing.

The stupid post office in Semenyih does not have proper glue. I bought stamps n was trying to seal the envelope. Then the bottle of glue that was on the table is empty. So after some scouting around, found a new full bottle. Happy me! (Tot lucky me!) So I peeled the dried layer of glue of the small little hole and start squeezing. Squeeze, squeeze, shake, shake. Still no glue. So i started to squezze using both hands and pop! out came the top of bottle wif half the bottle of glue. SHITZ MAN! #@*%! The glue landed on my top, seep through 2 my body, on my shorts, on my sunglasses, on the envelope. It was super messy. FINE! Ran to the car for help n HJ n Pin start feeding me with tissue. But bcos i was filled wif so much glue, the tissues start to stick on me. Wif no choice, we had to patah balik for me to change & clean up wif me pulling my shirt of myself all the way home to stop the glue from seeping through. After that, lunch n LCCT n more shopping.

Its been quite a tiring day for me. Only slept for about 4 hours last night. Busy packing to go home cos only came back at 1.30am after having not a fun time spending money @ The Curve thanks to pin. The deco was very blue and glittery and nice though! The christmas atmosphere is definitely there. The deco @ midvalley was not bad either. Before that, pin n I send HJ to LCCT in Sepang after the horrible incident @ the post office. Guess wat, she saw the wrong time, we were about 2 1/2 hrs earlier! Thats not it, later she found out the flight was delayed! Poor HJ. Nvm, u had a great feast waiting 4 u at home in MIRI.

The Curve

Mid Valley

Testing testing 1, 2, 3.

2006-12-13T15:25:00.000+08:00

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