happy feet

They grow up so fast.

Catching up on my reading at work. Went to Ikano for lunch. Didn't even bat at eye at Habib Jewels. Instead I dropped by Metrojaya and got myself a necklace from the Denni brand at only 68 bucks. So proud of myself. I would probably put it away after a week but hey! I managed to save 1.5k today!

DV Ristorante Pizzeria

What time is it? Time for a restaurant review! Boss was feeling upbeat last Friday - probably because her birthday is coming up, our KPI session went well or maybe because it's been a while since our last department lunch. But boss being boss, she decided on DV Ristorante Pizzeria at Damansara Heights. I wanted to check out La Carretas but she said no. Pffth. But I don't really mind. First, I never say no to free food. Second, I love Italian food!

I guess this place is pretty new coz the last time I went to Decanter there was still some renovation going on. Again, boss being boss, she decided on what to order. We had fried squid for starter (it's calamari, stay classy Nate), three types of pizza and some delicious eggplant dish that I gobbled in 2 minutes (pictured twice here - hehe). Everything she ordered were pretty good, except one pizza that I didn't bother to try because it was some 3-cheese pizza with salty anchovie on every slice. YUCK. But it was fun watching my colleagues trying to finish the damn thing. Ha! Ha!

Thought my Shirley Temple was kinda bland (best one I had was at Basil BV1) and my latte wasn't that great either. So no points there. But yeah, give it a shot. Would love to try their pasta though. Still can't believe we didn't get to pick what to eat. Sigh.

So that's that. So you know what's the most annoying thing about being the office/family photog? NOT A SINGLE GOOD PHOTO OF MYSELF. Oh well. I can't win at everything. Besides, I have this huge zit on my nose. Last I checked I'm still 35. Not 15.

Gonna try make chicken wraps tomorrow. And oh, in case you wanna check out DV, here's the add: DV Ristorante Pizzeria,77 Jalan Setiabakti, Bukit Damansara, Kuala Lumpur. (same row as Decanter, the one with Secret Recipe). Tel: 03-2098-2001

Merry Christmas!

Ok the thrifty inner self has spoken. No jewellery for me, I don't need it.

 

(ok ask me again next week after Christmas)

Award submission sent to Hong Kong successfully on the 17th and now I can finally breathe easy. It's in God's hands now, or maybe the Hongkies that I deal with on a yearly basis. I'm finalizing my KPI tomorrow (should have done it today when the empress was in a good mood but I wanted to leave early for a semi-date night with the hubs) and some Japanese translation due then I'm set for the weekend.

Saw something that I like at Habib Jewel today. Gonna sleep on it and see if I still want it by end of the month (because by the Valar, everything is on sale at 50% at Habib right now). As I'm typing this I just remembered that I'm in a bad need of a bedside table. The mountains of books won't read themselves. Drats.

I rather stay at home with my beautiful mess than be at work.

Note on pic: Not my home; my kids don't play masak-masak.

3 days without rice so far. It's manageable for now, and I haven't been substituting rice with additional food. Felt weak in the knees on the first day, but I'm feeling better now. Last weekend I declared to my husband that December will be called Recember, or Ricember = NO RICE MONTH. We'll see how it'll pan out.

money talks the walk

Proof that Rumi and I not only share the same look but also our immune system is pretty shit these days!

3-day weekend was cut short on sunday because I got sick and he was coughing non-stop (my niece who slept over was coughing in the first place).

Haish.

 

I don't know about you but I've signed up for the Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) recently. Goes to show how much I fear the future, financially that is.

Let's face it, by the time you retire, your EPF money that you've saved up all your lives will probably be gone in 2-3 years. This is a fact, guys.

So now I've got PRS, EPF, ASB, TH to back our future up.

Lately, no, not lately, since Emre was born, people have been asking "so when is the third one?".

And when I say "see budget first, you know I need to take into account the inflation rate and all.." then they start preaching to me about rezeki yada yada yada...

 

Recently, a colleague said "you think like a Chinese", well I rather think like a Chinese than act like a Malay no? Let's face it, we Malays are pretty terrible at saving money. I for one, is still suffering from my parents' fiscal mistake and I hope that my husband and I will reach that financial freedom we've been dreaming of sooner or later. I believe in rezeki, but until that rezeki comes knockin on my humble door (a couple of times I hope) I need to keep a comfortable nest egg for the future.

 

Now, would Julia Ahra make a perfect name for a baby girl? Heheh.

It's unfair how time can fly so fast when you're at your happiest.

There's probably a recurring theme in my Nov-Dec posts every single year where I lament about being overworked and not being able to go on leave. Or something like that.

Well the dreaded November is back.

Our big event (that we have been preparing for the past 2 months) went well today but I still need to maintain my momentum until 17 December.

I can't feel my legs today. I am feeling the exhaustion. I can't open my eyes. Even typing this makes me want to keyboard mash myself into a coma.

 

I just want to go for a quiet dinner with my husband tonight then rush home and cuddle with my kids while I watch Innocent Man. Heh.

spicy fried beef maal hijr

I said please don't eat it, the beef is too hard to chew, the sauce too spicy.
He said it's the delicious thing ever.

So here's the recipe for Spicy Fried Beef Maal Hijr.

500 g beef - boiled till soft (yeah right)
2 garlic diketuk
1 labu bawang besar sliced (I used Hollandaise)
1 big spoon of cili kisar
1 big spoon of oyster sos
A bit of fish sauce
1 big spoon of chili sauce
cili padi-di ketuk
1 red chili-hiris
Sehelai daun limau purut (I used curry leaves)
1 batang lemongrass-diketuk (missing from my recipe tonight)
Oil & salt & sugar to taste

Masak!

Fry the beef, put aside.
Saute garlic, lemongrass, then cili kisar. Once cooked, add curry leaves, cili padi, oyster sauce, fish sauce and chili sauce.
Add beef, red chili, bawang besar. Add salt and sugar to taste.

One day, just one day my beef will be perfect and I will have a feast at home. Yeah.

diwali butter chicken

Been hearing about Gold Chili's butter chicken over Jalan SS15/8B, Subang Jaya for quite a while but never got the chance to check it out. Coincidentally, I found the recipe at hanamemories' blog and since today is a public holiday I might as well experiment with this recipe.

On to the ingredients.

To marinate for an hour and fry separately:
250g chicken (boneless is recommended, to make frying easier) | a bit of salt | a bit of sugar | small spoon of chicken curry powder | 1 egg | a spoon of corn starch
(I don't marinate the egg & starch together, I prefer to keep the egg fresh)

To sauté:
2 big spoons of butter | 2 chops of cili padi | a few curry leaves | quarter cup of whipped cream (heavy cream or susu cair is fine) | quarter cup of water | a spoon of sugar | half of chicken cube | salt and pepper to taste

Masak!
Fry the marinated chicken, put aside. Then melt the butter and sauté the cili padi and curry leaves. Once you can smell the lovely aroma of spice and curry leaves, add cream & water, then sugar&chickencube&salt&pepper. Once the gravy starts to thicken, you're pretty much done.

You can either pour the gravy over the chicken or serve separately. I did both. Heh.

I was kind of worried that the richness of the gravy might not taste well with rice but you can taste the spice from the curry powder and chilli padi so hey! This is a pretty darn good dish!

ok bye.

Work instagram link! Work!

(oh nevermind)

happy diwali

Testing the embedding thing for instagram pictures. My little family has been coughing and snotting like there's no tomorrow (especially me). The only one who is all good and ready to conquer the world is the little bam-bam aka Emre aka mini dinosaur. He has gotten so heavy now (I just noticed it last week!).

http://instagram.com/p/RgQOWbB5IA/

ok update later. the washing machine is calling and i just need to watch a little bit of kang maru and his crumbling world. thank god real life is not as heartbreaking like the ones you see in k-dramas.

get your cray on

I suppose this will need to be written sooner or never so that when my memory starts to fail me, I can always look back on my silly entries and ruminate on the life I've lived.

 

(insert unfazed expression here)

 

27^th October 2012

 

Having been a fan of Korean music (I refuse to be labeled as a k-pop fan because I don't listen only to k-pop, ehem), Big Bang concert probably milked the most money and time out of me. I love concerts, there's something about live music that keeps your adrenaline pumpin' and when I know I am getting my money worth, I don't mind paying.  

 

Here's a breakdown of what was spent on Big Bang:

 

1.     Cost of ticket: RM491

2.     Cost of official Big Bang crown lightstick: RM75

3.     Cost of skulls top specially bought for the concert: RM12.90

4.     Hours spent queuing for the tickets: 5 hours

5.     Hours spent queuing to enter the stadium: 2.5 hours

6.     Hours spent waiting for concert to start: 1.5 hours

7.     Concert: 2.5 hours

 

But I guess I am getting too old for concerts. Well standing at concerts that is. We were drenched 10 minutes before the concert and halfway through I thought I was really gonna drop dead there. I've shed sweat and tears for this concert (earlier in the morning I was close to cancelling going to the concert altogether – had a fight with my other half, boo hoo).

 

After the concert, I ran into another trouble. Again, the other half and I had a miscommunication where I ended up having to walk 20 minutes to get to the right monorail station. I was tired, fuming, sad, all bundled up in one post-concert mess.

 

Until a Mercedes Benz came out of nowhere and I heard girls screaming. The Benz stopped at a traffic light, slightly hidden beside a bus and somehow none of the rabid fangirls wanted to go near. Probably a royalty or something, I thought. So I decided to walk by, you know, just to see who's inside. Walked passed, the window was halfway open and by lord:

 

GD & TOP in the flesh.

 

Now what would you do if you were in my shoes?

 

Years back, I remembered bumping into Tony Kanal from No Doubt in Salem Power Station. You know what I said? "Hey, you're Tony Kanal right?". I smiled sheepishly and walked off. *face 90s palm*

 

I digress. Back to GD&Top. I ended saying "Oppa" (in my sweetest failed aegyo) "thank you for the concert" and bowed to them. GD smiled (I will never forget his misaligned smile) and Top nodded. Would be nicer if they said hey or something back but look, I met GD&Top in person. You rabid fangirls did not.

 

By then all my anger and fatigue dissipated into the high heavens and I was feeling High High. *snickers*

If only I had my camera or a fully functioning phone with me. I tweeted about it though, and the tweet was RT-ed for a couple of days. Felt famous.

 

I met GD&Top.

Me, the soccer mom bordering to ahjumma-dom met the biggest rap duo in the k-pop industry.

A night to remember indeed.

 

I love Korean drama and music. It's a simple equation to men loving, say, Manchester United. It doesn't take away any of my time from my family but sometimes I do find joy in spending slightly more in enjoying what I like. Not even sure what I'm trying to emphasize here. Probably the fact that people think 'K' stuff is merely a phase. But I doubt it. It's here to stay. Even if K-pop will one day be forgotten (Psy, you gotta go easy on gangnam style man) I think I will forever be a fan of its entertainment industry. I still hate Korean food, and android phone gives me a headache so to call me obsessed with k-stuff is just wrong.

 

If you'll excuse I'm gonna go catch up on allkpop.com now. Saranghaeyo!

Oh Ben.

Had dinner at Ben's General Food Store last night. We ordered Salami pizza and a chicken pie that comes with salad. The salad arrived first, then the pizza but the chicken pie never came. 15 minutes later, I started making my Joe Bastiach face* and demanded for my chicken pie.

Apparently the order receipt machine screwed up my order and yup, no chicken pie. It came 10 minutes later, but by then, my head was already drafting crazy hate mail to Ben (don't know the owner personally but hey) but when I got the bill later, the chicken chop with salad was exempted from the bill. My husband, bless his good soul, asked whether we should highlight this to them but I said no, I ain't paying for the chicken pie. Win.

Ok no need to send hate mail to Ben then.

On another note, wanted to buy a dress to celebrate my curves and husband's improving weight loss but couldn't find anything nice. Let's face it, I'm not gonna lose weight anytime soon. I'm dealing with this, but having colleagues constantly ranting about their body issues can totally drive me up the wall. YOLO, I'd say.

* There's no such thing as a Joe Bastiach face. Just a bitchface.

 

An elderly man passed away in front of the office building this morning. He was given CPR, but when the ambulance arrived I knew that he has died. It's upsetting to know that this man probably has a family to come home to and considering tomorrow is AidilAdha, it's just so sad.

 

I've been working here for 5 years and this will be my 2nd time witnessing a death (our CEO's driver passed away at the lobby few years back). No more please. Life is short, too short, I keep telling myself.

 

Al-Fatihah.

Fell asleep in two meetings today. Perfect! I just need to last another day and then I want to spend a quiet weekend recuperating with my boys while the husband battle it out at the 48 Hour Film Project: Kuala Lumpur. Praying for a healthier October (the kids were sick for half of the month in September!) but Emre is down again with mild fever. Rumi is off antibiotics by Saturday, please please God make him strong enough. It seems that there's some nasty bug that just won't leave the boys, in fact it seems to enjoy playing tag team with them. Please, no more sick kids. We want them healthy. And cray-cray.

 

I am imagining a Kafka-esque flu bug as huge as a human hanging down our ceiling ready to strike. Hish, rubbish. Bring it on flu bugs this mother is gonna take you down for good.

 

Hwaiting~

ass-tro

Since we have astro again* we've been watching Masterchef MY and US diligently. Pretty much whatever you see on MY sucks balls, but everything you see on US is very intense, and tear-jerking. Watching the US version last night made me realize something - no more excuses not to cook, even the blind can cook!

 

And also, I have an intense craving for McD's apple pie hmmm yum.

 

* It's amazing how we survived on 7 free-channels without astro, but now that we have astro, there's nothing to watch on most days really...

Last Wednesday I had a good external meeting in the evening i.e. my boss didn't make a fool out of in front of everyone. I wanted to drive separately so that I can drive home straight then I thought since the parking is a bitch I might as well hitch a ride with her.

Eurgh I'm too lazy to update. I'm gonna catch up on some blogs now. Or stare at asos.com