My B'day Dinner @ Monte's

It's finally the end of the month. *Phew*!!!

With the end of July, we must remember that there is only another 5 months left before the end of the year comes around... So, officially, we're in the 2nd half of 2009 now.

Now that Bangsar Shopping Centre has completed its face lift, I suggested that we head to Monte's for dinner as Dad misses the steaks there.

Monte's has undergone a major face lift too, where the place now looks like a very up market restaurant & wine bar. It has shed its western cowboy look of the 90's and early 00's.

The best part about Monte's is that after you've ordered your meal, they will serve you bread & butter. Most other restaurants will not provide this unless you order soup.

As for starters, my sis, bro-in-law and myself love the escargot served in garlic butter. It is decadent and sinful but we don't have it often. Kekeke...

Yes, escargot does mean SNAILS but these are not the ones you find in your garden-lah! It is a different variety and yes, maybe the snails can speak French... I used to be turned off by this dish but after tasting one, I realize how succulent snails can be! Now, I know why Snoopy love them snails in the garden when we had an infestation once. LOL!

Aside from all this, Monte's is great for their steaks. We ordered our usual beef sirloin and it was magnificent. The seasoning was just right and the meat was well rested before serving.

However, I did ask for Medium and it came out almost Well-Done which meant that the meat was a little too dry for my taste. Yes, I do like to see a little blood in my meat. *evil grin*

It was a simple birthday. It would have been nice if I had some Haagen Daz after dinner but we discovered that the ice-cream parlour was closed down after the face lift.

Well... Another year older... *sigh*

347th Post - 28th July 2009

Nothing spectacular reaching my 347th post.

Anyway, I hate it when my birthday happens to fall in the middle of the week. It makes it very odd for me to take the day off to enjoy myself.

With work/project being so stressful due to human/inhumane factors, I find it hard to enjoy myself this year.

I just found some very interesting photos on my mobile phone which I've not posted before.. I think. Kekeke... It brings back memories of when I used to have a desk and phone in the office - a place to call my own. At least back then, I had a proper place to sit to work. Unlike now, me being the turtle/nomad, camping around the office.

Oh well.. 347th post.. Another load of crap... LOL!!

Weekends are for...

What does one do during the weekend?

DEFINITELY NOT WORK!!!! If you can help it...

Like Snoopy, these days, my weekends are used for me to catch up on the following:

• Sleep (as I sleep between 3-5hrs per day)
• Photography & Photo editing
  
• Blogging
• Watching lots of TV
• Spending time with my Terror Terrier Rascals - Snoopy & Rusty
• Shopping... (if I need to)
• Yum Cha/Lunch/Dinner with friends
• ... Anything-else-I-can-think-of

Hope you folks enjoy the weekend before we head back to the madness which we call our working lives...

Flabbergasted?

Did I gas you?? Really??

Sometimes, you just can't help being flabbergasted.

I know that I'll be hitting one of my yearly milestones soon but I just can't help thinking about some of the other milestones I've hit.

What got me thinking was when I tuned into LiteFM and found out that songs they start to play are hits from 80's... songs which I grew up with.

That's when it HIT me.

I'm getting to be an Old FART.

I was having a quick chat with EV and she said that she is about to reach her 1st decade with the current company that she is working for. It is an achievement and deserves some sort of medal but there is no such appreciation for loyalty from her company. Her sister, who works in the same place has been with the same company for more than 20 years...

It is kind of a flabbergasted moment too as I can't imagine to stay in a company for more than 10yrs. At the current company where I'm at, there's a special "club" to join when you hit 25yrs of service... So, assuming that you started working for that company at 21, when you hit 25yrs, you'll be at least 46yrs old. Whoa.

I'd guess what I'm getting at is longevity - how long you can stay at something for the long run.

Flabbergasted, eh?

Glory Glory Man United!!

It was brilliant. Awesome. Magnificent.

Oh yeah, Manchester United was great too. LOL!!

Yes, I'm describing our Malaysia XI, who managed to score 2 goals against the BPL champs in last night's match.

I had missed the last time MU came down to Malaysia - that was during the time when Beckham was still wearing no.7 and the Gaffer hadn't thrown the hairdryer at him yet... Kekeke...

Back then, there weren't many football or MU fans whom I knew. It didn't help that I was the only gal who was football crazy too. :-(

Yes, I've always been known to be a bit on the "devilish" side..

This time round, we had a gang of friends who went for the match and some die-hards within the group who shouted, screamed and laughed at the antics throughout the match. It was great fun...

Majulah sukan untuk negara...

We had made guesses on who would score last night. Some had expected Berbatov to strut his stuff but he proved to look like he didn't have much momentum. Granted that he had been marked but he didn't quite shine.

The "Red Sea"...

The stadium was quite packed by the time we were there at around 3:30pm. We had taken a good seat near the railing. It was good but the most irritating part was the people who just stood to block our view. The police didn't do anything about managing the crowds near the entrance/exit. This is a hazard. In other countries, this would not have happened.

Lucky the uncles sitting next to me had the balls to fxxk the people who blocked our view. Some idiots would just stand there to look up to find a seat at 5:25pm!!! WTF!!! The match starts at 5:30pm SHARP. No Malaysian Rubber Time please!!!!

We tried not to have those unpleasant folks spoil our fun. I believed the tickets were oversold and the stadium was filled to beyond capacity last night.

Another gripe.. Idiots who wear other team's colours/jerseys to an MU match. Cari pasal?? (looking for trouble)

How did I find the team's performance?

Rooney was like himself always - working hard as usual. I expected Rooney to deliver and he did. The euphoria of the 1st goal of the match was magnificent! We were jumping up and down when he scored.

Next came Nani and he did his trademark back flip. I wonder if the Gaffer had a mini heart attack when Nani did that...

Of course, I was excited to see Michael Owen come on the pitch. He's a lot shorter than most of the players and I do hope that he will be able to contribute some goals in the coming season. Everyone was chanting his name to get him to come on during the 2nd half. My guess is that Michael Owen has come to MU to retire. I wonder how many years has he got left as a striker?

I was thrilled to see my favourite player come on the pitch during the last few minutes of the 2nd half. Ryan Giggs is brilliant on the pitch despite his age. An Old Guard from the legendary 11 who won the Treble back in '99...

At the end of the match, the players graciously lined up to shake hands. There was none of the "nonsense" of our Malaysian players running after the MU players to get their jersey. This time round, if they wished to exchange, it was graciously done so.

Outside the stadium, there was a carnival-like atmosphere where vendors of all kinds sold food, souvenirs and drinks. There were not enough adequate waste bins (as usual) and so, folks had no choice but to dump their stuff near lamp posts and what not.

Even the pedestrian bridge to the stadium was "premium" location for folks to ply their goods. This proved to be a clog point in the human traffic after the match when everyone was trying to get home. As usual, traffic police and/or stadium officials were lacking. *sigh*

I couldn't resist but to grab a few souvenirs for myself. I got the t-shirt and some key-chains to commemorate the night. I was hoping that I can get my MUFC flag and scarf but those were no where to be seen. Looks like I should have gotten it when I was in UK so many years back.

It was a great night for both MU and Malaysian soccer. Now, if only they can play that well against teams within our region so that we can qualify for the next World Cup? :-P

Glory Glory Man United!!!! The Reds keep marching on on on!!!

Mind on Auto-Pilot

Ever encounter this before?

1. You get in your car, you start driving to your destination without even so much as a thought?
2. You're on the road, your mind starts working on 2 or 3 different things at once?

My mind was going through both scenarios.... Hehehe... Multi-tasking on its own....

Not that it is something new, we've all done it.

For example, you're listening to music while driving on the road. Or you're listening to music, talking to a friend (via mobile handsfree kit) while driving on the road - (though not advised to do so)....

The other night, I was amazed to be using my brain in parallel mode. I was in my car, on my way back home, listening to my favourite "rant music" - Linkin Park when I started to think about my work, i.e. what needs to be done, if the particular component needs to do this and that... Then, I realized that my brain was working on at least 4 things at once!!!

It was scary. Not that I wasn't concentrating on the road, but I was too!

Anyway, I was mentally exhausted by the time I got home.

When I opened my machine to continue my work, my mind just hit a wall. It just refused to work which is bad because I was supposed to work around 15-20hrs per day.

Hmmmm... I need to find a way to relax my brain and get it work at an optimum level. However, hard to find rest these days...

Simple Dinner(s) @ Restoran Wei Hiong, Taman Desa

I just finished a 15-hour work day. And I'm not happy as I didn't complete most of the stuff I wanted to do. Granted that I set very high expectation on myself to complete 3 major documents by today. ;-)

Anyway, regardless of work; we need to still find time to eat/poo/pee/sleep. My friend said this, better not neglect your nature calls as your company will not pay for your new kidney/heart/lungs. It's much cheaper to pick someone off the street to do your job.. LOL!

I added the last line... Kekeke...

Nevertheless, I find time to have a sit-down dinner with my family at least once a week.

For this occasion, we went to the same restaurant twice in 2 weeks running. (^ ^)

Why? The food was tasty and reasonably priced.

The first time I went there was with both my parents, while the next one was with my sis and bro-in-law. In both occasions, we ordered simple food...

You've got to becareful to eat this dish as it is loaded with little chilli padi!!! The balance between being spicy while keeping the vegetables crisp is a challenge as you've got vegetables of various cooking times, i.e. 4-angled beans may take longer to cook than the eggplant.

The specialty chicken dish was a fried chicken stuffed with yam...

The reason why my Dad brought us to this restaurant was to try their specialty pork dish...

The pork belly was delicious! It was sliced finely and cooked gently with just the right amount of saltiness. Onions and ginger are added to enhance the flavour. Absolutely heavenly when you get a slice of "streaky bacon"...

The taufu dish was great. The taufu and tau kan which is actually soya-based products was drenched with the most delicious garlic-based sauce. Great with white rice.

For the other dinner, we ordered a different chicken dish and went for a Thai-based sauce. Again, the dish was peppered with lots of little chillis which were chopped finely to give the sauce a bit of kick.

The steamed eggplant was recommended by the staff at the restaurant. It was absolutely heavenly although it was oily as eggplants tend to soak up a lot of oil. We ordered a small plate but the next time we go back, we might go for a medium-sized plate. :-)

In the last dinner, we did order the pork belly dish again as it was my Dad's favourite. Boy, we've got to lay off the fatty food for a long while..

Yummmmy...

More Manual Fun

It was a full moon night. I realized it was a full moon as the garden was especially bright that night (we didn't turn on the porch lights)

My only wish was that I had a zoom lens... I've not tried night photography before and I know the implications of shooting at a light source...

1/8sec, F/5.6, 55mm, ISO400, Manual Mode, Tungsten WB

I've not got a chance to play around with my "M" mode for a while and so, decided to give it a try.

For post-production, I thought of trying out the Radial Blur and got some favourable results. I didn't want to bump up the exposure as it would introduce a lot of noise.

0.3sec, F/5.6, ISO800, 55mm, Manual Mode, Shade WB

I took this photo using different settings with the silhouette of our curry leaves tree in the garden.

I took the photos by leaning against the wall for support and keeping my arms close to my body for stability. It would be good to setup a tripod but I'm lazy to do so. Kekekeke...

There is some work done in the post-production process in order to make the photos stand out and I'm quite satisfied with my first attempt at night photography.

My goal is to take photos of the night sky as I've always wanted to do so when I was heading the Astronomy club in school. However, that would need a lot of specialized equipment, some big gun lens, remote release and a whole lot of stuff. Back in those days, there was special lens and photographic film made for night photography. These days, it is a lot more easier with digital equivalents.

So curious

Rusty and Snoopy finds something interesting beyond the fence...

There are times when we are so curious about what's it like beyond the other side of the fence.

Now, when we DO go over the fence and have our curiosity satisfied; do you feel that it was worth "jumping" over the fence? Or do you have regrets?

I'll have to admit that I feel like the latter at times but then, you can't turn back time, bla bla... So, I just suck it in and move on.

Life after all is about the journey, not the destination right?

Who knows, after you jump beyond the fence, you might find a pot of gold somewhere....

Breakfast of Champions...

You'll have to admit that this has got to be one of Malaysia's most favourite breakfast item...

When my uncles from Australia come back to KL for a visit, one of the first stops for breakfast would be at the local Indian restaurant to fulfill their Roti Canai crave.

I think one of my uncles can sit down to have 3 pieces of the Roti Kosong (no filling) with a Thosai as well.

My family often goes to this particular restaurant near the Universiti Hospital for our Roti Canai breakfast during the weekends. I don't have it during the normal weekdays as I either have bread, yogurt or cereal in the morning before I rush off to work.

Now, our favourite accompaniment with roti is...

This makes for a very complete "meal" (unhealthy.. :( ) and so, Roti Canai is sometimes a brunch thing that we do over the weekends.

Of course, roti being just pure carbohydrates will not last us beyond 2 or 3 hours and so, we have to take some fruits as fibre to keep us full.

Now that my uncle from Perth is down in KL, I wonder if we would be taking him there for Roti this weekend...

Delayed Publishing

Hate to use a techie term but I've finally figured out Blogger's "delayed publishing", in the sense that I've figured out Blogger's Post Options for a blog entry.

"Delayed publishing" is perhaps a feature in most publishing systems, where you may want to delay the release or publishing of an article or item to a future date even when the article or item has been created completely.

The reasons why this feature is set so that you can have some sort of scheduled release of articles without manually having to do it. Basically, the system where you publish your article in is smart enough to delay the publishing based on a set date and time.

This is different from drafts where your article is not at the completed stage and hence, even when you save your article, it would not publish until you hit the publish button. And, if the schedule is set right, the article would be published at the preset date and time.

Sorry for being so techie... The curse of working in the ECM (Enterprise Content Management) and Portal space for the past few years...

Anyway, I've tried this option previously and it didn't work out. After I hit the "Publish Post" button, the article was published anyway, displaying the future date and time correctly but in reality, the article wasn't supposed to be published yet.

1. First Things First..
If you expand the Post Options link a the bottom of the editor in Blogger, you are able to set the Post date and time of your entry.

Click the image for a bigger view

2. Set the Post date and time
Set the date and time to the future date. For example, if I wish to have this article published on 4th July 2009, I'll set it based on the date format configured.

The tricky bit is for time, as it follows the 24-hour format, which means 12am is actually 00:00, while 7:00pm is actually 19:00

Once all of this is set, just hit the Publish Post button like you normally do, sit back and relax. ;-)

Oh yeah... Blogger will indicate to you that the article's publishing will be scheduled...

Hope the tip helps. BTW, did you know that this article's publishing was scheduled too... (^_^)

Reflections...

Have you ever taken the time to reflect on yourself?

Basically, have you taken time to look into your "internal mirror" to see if the person there is who you want to be?

I think this occurred to me as it is already July and most companies are already closing their financial year. Which means.. It's time for those darn review sessions with your boss(s)... Uggghhh...

Lucky for me this year I've sort of escaped it as I've switched jobs.

Nevertheless, I often take time out to see if I've reached my own goals by this time of year, i.e. Resolutions for Year XXXX. But it's never a serious assessment as so much as just a fleeting thought only.

Anyway, after this evening's team meeting, I'm seriously doubting my capabilities as the PM said that my project has to "catch up" due to the delays. Frankly, I feel as though I'm carrying the entire project on my back as my two team members are far too junior to undertake some of the tasks I would like them to do. *sigh*

I try to put this behind me and soldier on but as I do so, I feel that I'm redoing a lot of work when I hand it out. Which is not what I want... Because of that, I'm seriously doubting my technical and leadership abilities.

Ok, rant over. The picture in the mirror is not so pretty but if I draw the mirror with nice doodles and etc, it makes me a bit happier. However, that's not the end result I'm looking for. I still need to find a solution....

Father's Day Weekend

I woke up to a very hazy Tuesday morning.. Great...

Anyway, a couple of weeks back was Father's Day and we had a few small celebrations instead of 1 big one as Dad had to head down to Ipoh to conduct some training sessions.

It was also the weekend where we enjoyed a movie organized by a group in church to raise money for our church building fund. We caught the movie "A Man For All Seasons", a movie which won 6 Oscars, adapted from a very popular play.

Yes, the movie tickets were expensive but it was all for the building of our new "home" as for many years, we've been having mass celebrated in a badminton hall in Subang Jaya. The tickets came with a drink and popcorn which was marvelous.

We expected the movie to be dry and boring but the conversation were exciting and humourous too! To think that during those ancient times, people were just as conniving and cunning in order to manipulate the system to bring down an honest man - St. Thomas More, who happens to be my church's patron saint.

My sis and bro-in-law treated both fathers, i.e. my Dad and in-law to a meal that Saturday evening. Unfortunately... the pics didn't turn out right and so, no pics of that night will be posted.

I took my parents to Canton-i after church on Sunday as it was just about the only place less crowded that Father's Day. He had to catch a taxi to Ipoh right after lunch.

My Dad is a typical china-man, where he wants to eat something Asian for breakfast/lunch, i.e. be it Roti Canai or Dim Sum. So, I ordered a few things to be shared...

My Dad loves his pork and so, I couldn't resist ordering the roast pork again. Somehow, I felt the portion was a bit small but it was satisfying.

I decided to order some noodles and the beef noodles which I ordered was succulent! The beef was tenderly braised, with the tendons which are jelly-like but not entirely gooey.

Another egg tart photo. My mom, who loves egg tarts approve of the Canton-i version. Although small, it is a perfect dessert after you've had lots of dim sum. Just looking at it makes me drool...

My Dad is someone who is shy when it comes to gifts as in, he is very unwilling to accept it. However, when you do get him something that you think he likes it, he will chuck it aside but not tell you whether he likes it or not. It is a bit infuriating but thank goodness he is the kind of guy who loves to eat. So, taking him out to a good restaurant is something which he will appreciate and enjoy.