Dinner

The following dishes were served for dinner at home tonight.

Sweet & Sour Crab

Veges



Kurma Lamb



Another Serving of Kurma Lamb



Crab Claws with Prawn Crackers



Steamed Chicken with Chinese Sausages and Black Fungus

But I did not have dinner at home. I joined Sharon Lai, Monica Leong and Alice Hiew in inviting Andrew Tai & family and Kenny Lim & family for dinner at Wagamama Japanese Restaurant at Lintas Square to celebrate both gentlemen’s belated birthday.

I had a plate of California Sushi and Beef Udon.

Other orders include Menchikatsu (Breaded Dish with Minced Meat) Set, Kimchi Beef Set with Garlic Rice, Chicken Teriyaki Set with Garlic Rice and Saba Shioyaki (Grilled Mackerel) Set with Garlic Rice ...

Fried Octopus

Salmon Shio Set with Garlic Rice

Tori Katsu Set

Sushi

The birthday boys together with their son had the chance to blow a single candle each on a chocolate chip muffin.

Left: Different colour codes for different price for sushi plate
Right: Andrew's Birthday Gift



The amount of sushi plates (about 20) consumed by the next table

Always Ready

Since I started having the RM3 economy rice (smaller serving as compared to the Jawa economy rice of RM4) for lunch at work, my stomach is always hungry by the time I reach home after 6p.m. So instead of my usual internet surfing prior to shower and then dinner, I have been having dinner as soon as I come home while watching the Hong Kong TVB series Always Ready on ntv7.

Always Ready is about the Hong Kong Government Flying Service (GFS) and among the cast members are Cheng E-Kin, Bowie Lam, Charmaine Sheh, Shirley Yeung, Linda Chung, etc. I always like Bowie Lam playing any characters.

And I always find the foreigner who speaks quite good Cantonese a mystery like who is he, where is he from, etc. One night recently I managed to have all my questions answered through his website. His name is Gregory Charles Rivers. He hailed from a small town of Gympie, Queensland, Down Under.

Gregory resigned from TVB recently and is now the personal English tutor of actor Chow Yun Fatt for the Hollywood movie Dragonball.

Lunch at Restaurant Kim Fah, Inanam

Today one of my colleagues YKK who is an Assistant Resident Engineer for one of our project sites was coerced by the boss since last week into treating all office staff lunch after his engagement was confirmed by Public Works Department.

At 11a.m. YKK came to office and before he left, he passed to me his medical bill. He was having fever and went to see the doctor but the doctor did not give him medical leave.

My colleague NE and I went to the restaurant in the boss’s car. The rest of my colleagues went into two other cars. The office boy could not join us since the food is not ‘halal’.

When we arrived at the restaurant, YKK had already arrived and ordered the food (feast, as the boss called it). He brought along his Taiwanese wife to join us for lunch as well. Eventhough I was sitting next to her, I did not talk to her because my Mandarin is still not up to par for holding a decent conversation not related to work. I did not intend to make a fool out of myself.

The menu was as follows.

1. Fish Maw Soup – Can really see and taste the pieces of fish maw.

2. Crispy Skin Chicken – A lot of people do not eat the skin so I ate more of the skin than the flesh. The chicken was quite crispy but I had eaten crispier elsewhere.

3. Fish in Thai Sauce. So so only. I had one teeny weeny piece.

4. Duck in Plum Sauce. Very tasty.

5. Dry Buttered Prawns. Serving was really big but in the end we still managed to finish everything. The prawns were towards the big size range. I had five.

6. Pig Trotters. I only ate veges in this dish as I do not take pig trotters.

7. Yam Ring. Very tasty. Almost as good as Gaya Seafood Restaurant.

8. Veges. Very tasty as well.

The conversation throughout lunch was vouchers spending at 1 Borneo Hypermall. Not everyone has finished using theirs and the deadline is tomorrow except for French Connection outlet (which is still under renovation). Someone has promised the boss that the deadline for the vouchers can be extended but this same person told other people the deadline cannot be extended. So we are wondering whether this person will keep to her promise or not.

Overall the food was fantastic. I think the food in this restaurant must be quite expensive and so YKK would have to fork out a few hundred $ to treat the eleven of us.

(Chatted with CL in Yahoo Messenger for a while after bosses left at 4p.m. I am happy that you got a free trip to Bangkok. Enjoy yourself when the time comes.)

YOUR AGE BY EATING OUT

(I received this through email today. Thanks to LLS for forwarding to me)

Don't tell me your age; you probably would tell a falsehood anyway - but your waiter may know!

YOUR AGE BY DINER & RESTAURANT MATH

This is pretty neat

DON'T CHEAT BY SCROLLING DOWN FIRST!

It takes less than a minute. Work this out as you read.

Be sure you don't read the bottom until you've worked it out!

This is not one of those waste of time things, it's fun.

1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to go out to eat. (more than once but less than 10)

2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)

3. Add 5

4. Multiply it by 50

5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1758... If you haven't, add 1757.

6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.

You should have a three digit number

The first digit of this was your original number. (i. e. How many times you want to go out to restaurants in a week.)

The next two numbers are

YOUR AGE ! ------ (Oh YES, it is!)

THIS IS THE ONLY YEAR (2008) IT WILL EVER WORK, SO SPREAD IT AROUND WHILE IT LASTS

Better Production Rate

I had seven hours of sleep last night. The weather was quite cool and therefore I managed to sleep through without waking up until the alarm on the mobile phone went off.

I was very glad that I was able to finish filing some documents that I have accumulated for so many weeks this morning before the boss arrived.

Sometimes when my production rate is at the lowest, I really have to motivate or push myself.

Yesterday the maid cooked noodles for lunch and I brought some leftovers to work today to have for lunch after heating up in the microwave.

After lunch, the auditor called up and told me she just emailed me the Fixed Assets Schedule. From the Schedule I extracted out the Computer and Office Equipment details that I needed to fill in the Survey Form. I had finally completed the form. Tomorrow I will call the officer from the Statistics Department to collect the form from me.

This afternoon the boss was attending a meeting outside and therefore I had the time to catch up on my accounting work. At least I am not as far behind as before.

The weather is so hot today as compared to yesterday.

Minimum Production Rate

Yesterday the boss was away for a meeting in Kuala Lumpur. Everyone’s production rate was at a minimum including me, maybe a side effect of spending our vouchers at 1 Borneo Hypermall during the weekend and therefore insufficient rest. *wink*

The office boy helped me to deliver some goodies to STAR for Paul Lok and his friends which I bought at Servay Hypermarket on Sunday afternoon after my retail therapy at 1 Borneo Hypermall. I bought them Tenom Coffee, Coconut Jam, Lollies, Biscuits, Dry Guava, Durian Cake, etc (some local products which are unavailable in Hong Kong). I had wanted to deliver to them personally on Sunday night but the pouring and non-stop rain prevented me from doing so.

1 Borneo Hypermall

Retail Therapy at 1 Borneo Hypermall Part 2

Yesterday I had one piece of the prawn noodles brought over from Hong Kong by Paul Lok for breakfast. Before he came over, he did mention that the ones being sold loosely taste better than the ones sold in boxes. He bought two dozens pieces for me. True enough, when I started to eat them, the noodles tasted even better than the ones my brother bought in Hong Kong last year. I did not know the noodles can taste even more delicious. Haha!

I went to 1 Borneo Hypermall again to spend the remaining of my RM200 worth of vouchers which I exchanged with my colleague. I saw a few people I know before I even had the chance to touch foot inside Tune Store.

Once again I went to the clothing department to see whether I could find any clothes I like. I found three I like from Nicole. I brought them all into the fitting room to try but I did not like one of them. As soon as I took off the clothes I had tried, to my horror, I saw one by one small red dots appeared on my neck. It was such an ugly sight. To make it worst, I was wearing an open neck blouse. My skin is very sensitive and therefore the rashes must have appeared because the clothes are not clean. Argh! (After putting some cream on the small red dots last night and tonight, the rashes are subsiding).

I wanted to get more footwear and was trying on so many pairs of shoes from NYC (the same brand I bought last week). All throughout my life, I always have problems finding the footwear that I like to wear. As my legs can only fit size 3 footwear, more often than not, the footwear has to choose me instead of the other way round. I also try not to wear high heels too often since I have a back problem. At least I managed to get two pairs of footwear from NYC.

At the kitchen department, I managed to find two pairs of scissors for kitchen use. Mum always complained that the scissors I bought would turn blunt very quickly. I hope this time the scissors would last longer since they are supposed to be made in Japan.

I learnt a hard lesson from last week’s retail therapy. This time I put all the things I want to get at the cashier first and went out from this outlet to window shopping at other outlets.

After walking around for a while, I finally got to the Second Floor where Daiso Japan outlet is.

Everything for sale such as stationery, gift boxes, kitchen stuff, household stuff, etc in this outlet is RM5 each. But some of the goods are made in China, not Japan. There were a lot of people in this outlet. I bought these from this outlet.

Butter Knife & a Small Plate to put Japanese Soya Sauce on one side and Wasabi on another (instead of using two small plates)

These gift boxes for sale at Daiso Japan Outlet reminded me of the company I worked for in Sydney.

At first I wanted to come home for lunch but my stomach dictated otherwise. I ended up choosing Penang Village. I was struggling to choose between ‘Asam Laksa’ or ‘Penang Prawn Mee’. My colleague had recommended the latter so I chose the latter. This eatery was only half full when I walked in. I tried to take some photos of the menu but the dim lighting did not enhance the photos and I did not want to use the flash. So the exercise was totally redundant.

The soup for the Penang Prawn Mee was one of the best I ever had. It was so concentrated. But the noodles and the prawns were ok only. I almost finished drinking the whole bowl of soup. I was glad I did not order any drinks because the soup really filled me up. *burp*

After lunch I went back to Tune Store to get all my goodies before leaving. As I walked out from the hypermall, there were more people arriving by cars. The cars had to practically queue up to get into the carpark.

I enjoyed the retail therapy this time round because I had more time to walk around.

Starbucks Coffee Kiosk

Golden Screen Cinemas - Movies On Show

Gifts Outlet

Tune Hotel

Security Guard Guarding ???

Construction Still in Progress

2007 OT

Finally two days ago at 4p.m. I managed to complete the Statistics Department Survey Form. Actually I started doing it last Tuesday but had to put it aside because other work took over the priority.

Last year altogether my colleagues and I clocked up 1000 hours of OT. But then the figure is not really correct because I did not make any claim from January to March. One colleague clocked up the most – 68.4% while I came in second at 19.8% of the total. The rest of the colleagues clocked up only 11.8%.

It would be interesting to see how many hours of OT I will end up having this year as this month alone, I will have approximately 50 hours.

This morning I emailed the auditors to ask for the breakdown of the depreciation for Office and Computer Equipment since they lumped both together in last year's audited accounts. After obtaining this information, then I will have completed the Survey Form.

A Decade Ago

A decade ago today at exactly 6a.m. you changed your earthly address.

I miss you ever since and will forever miss you until the day I change my address to join you.

Thank you for making a lasting impact in my life …

Last Night’s Dinner

We have a long distance relative (Bro. Leong) visiting Kota Kinabalu from Sydney during this period of time. He is my cousin’s cousin-in-law. He is accompanying his mum to come back here and later his wife would join him. Bro. Leong was a former lecturer at University of Technology Sydney.

Mum invited him and his mother and two of their relatives for dinner last night. The menu was as follows.

Ladyfingers (from backyard) with Fishcake

Aubergines (from backyard) with Fishcake

Veges

Prawn Wantons

Roast Pork

Soya Sauce Chicken, Spare Ribs and Boiled Eggs

I did not join them for dinner because my very good friend Paul Lok and his wife Grace along with their son Kwan Hou arrived in Kota Kinabalu yesterday morning from Hong Kong with two other couples of friends who along brought along their children as well. The other two couples are Jeffrey & Bonnie and Billy & Shirley (gang leader).

After coming home from work (though I wanted to leave earlier to come home to have a nap first, I was not able to do that because an urgent work beckoned), I savoured a bit of mum’s cooking before I showered because I reckoned that dinner would not be that early.

I parked the car at the Shangrila Tanjung Aru Resort (STAR) and walked up to the lobby to meet Paul. The rest of them were still at the playground with the children playing while the adults keeping an eye on them.

Before Paul came, I requested for him to buy the following for me. Thank you Paul for all the goodies. (They were really heavy!)

Lychees

Cantonese Style Prawn Noodles

Snacks from Ichiban

I brought the whole gang to Ocean Seafood Village. Three adults and two children went into my car while the rest took a taxi costing RM15 from STAR to the restaurant. All of them went into the restaurant first while I parked the car. When I alighted from the car, there were droplets of rain falling down.

Upon entering the restaurant I was so shocked to find that it was full house. I regretted not making a booking and that they all had to wait for a table to be available.

In the past when I went to this restaurant, it was usually not full at all. I did not expect that business is so good nowadays. Billy then told me almost all the people coming over on their flight are Hong Kong people taking a short vacation in Kota Kinabalu because the children are having their summer school holidays.

While waiting my cousin Anna Chong’s daughter came over to gesture me to their table. She was having her dinner there as well with her daughter and nephew. Her friend is the owner of the restaurant and I told her I did not expect so many people patronizing this restaurant nowadays. That was when she told me she always made a booking.

To pass time, some of them took their children to see the live seafood so as to decide what to have for dinner.

The menu was as follows.

1. Steamed Two Stoned Fishes. Very fresh. Shirley enjoyed this dish.

2. Wet Buttered Tiger Prawns. Yummy as usual. Jeffrey and Bonnie enjoyed this dish. (Seemed that the chef put a lot more sauce on our dish as compared to cousin Anna’s order of crab. She had to tell the waitress to give her more sauce.).

3. Pepper and Salted Mantis Prawns. Billy enjoyed this dish.

4. Black Bean Green Chilli White Clams. Billy and Grace enjoyed this dish.

5. Local Beancurd Claypot. The children enjoyed this dish.

6. Mixed Veges with Oyster Sauce. Too plain.

7. Lemon Chicken. Everyone enjoyed this dish.

Paul and I were busy chatting and catching up until none of us remembered to take any photos of the food.

Earlier four of them had ordered iced lime juice (‘kat jai’). By the time the food came, these drinks were still nowhere to be found. Paul enquired with the waitress and that was only then she told us it was sold out. They had to order something else.

Earlier also they had ordered Honey Chicken but even after all the other dishes came out and we had been eating for a long time, this dish did not come out. Grace enquired and the waitress went to check and came back to say that it was sold out!

Food wise was ok (though the only dish that was served piping hot was the Lemon Chicken) but service sucks. The rice was served in a teeny weeny bowl for RM2 each. I was the only one who ordered hot chinese tea and they used the pot to serve everyone. Since they all are used to drinking chinese tea, I did not query the waitress for giving us a big pot. But the pot was RM8.00 each!

Most of the waitresses cannot speak English and were not alert at all and I do not think the restaurant has enough people to serve.

At the end when we finished eating, I asked the waitress whether there were any complimentary fruits. She did not know and had to check.

Since the time was after 10p.m. by then, I went to the toilet in pretence to be able to pay the bill when I came out. I told the cashiers not to accept any payments from other people. But when I came out, Paul was waiting for me at the cashier. I told him to go back to the table to find the carbon copy of the bill but he told me he saw me putting it inside my pocket when the waitress came to put it on our table.

Paul insisted we went back to the table together. While he left, I handed my credit card to the cashier. Paul came back and told the cashier to stop the transaction but it was a bit too late.

When the gang found out that I had paid, they were embarrassed. I told them it was my pleasure. We started to go out from the restaurant but Shirley went back to the cashier to ask how much was the meal. She also insisted Grace to reimburse me for the whole amount. The taxi drivers were looking at us passing money to each other because I did not want to accept it.

In the end I had to do accept it. I drove Paul & his family and Billy back to STAR. Before Paul alighted from the front seat, I wanted to give him back the $ but he quickly got off the car. *sigh*

Today's Happenings

This morning before I went to work, I filled up RM40 (previously RM30) worth of petrol for 14.82L since there was only 0.2cm of fuel left in the car. I rarely fill in full tank. I would be driving more this weekend and hence filling in almost full tank.

Today boss went to Putrajaya to attend a meeting. The notice of the meeting was only given two days ago and yesterday afternoon, MOE called to say that the meeting today at noon had been postponed to 2.30p.m. At 4.25p.m. today, the boss called the lady boss to tell her the meeting was cancelled. These government officers are really too much. They do not care that people are flying across the South China Sea to attend the meeting and paying more than RM1300 for the round trip! They would only reimburse these travelling expenses maybe one year if we are lucky or two years down the road.

With the boss was away I was able to finish a deadline due next Monday. I also managed to file in all the cheques received the past three months to their respective financial file. But as usual time just passed by so fast. I was waiting for one of the site staff to come to the office so that I can do his report but he did not bother to turn up. If I am too busy tomorrow, then I will not particularly care if he is not able to submit his report for the meeting next Tuesday.

One of my colleagues was kind enough to exchange the vouchers I did not use during the last weekend at 1 Borneo to Tune Store vouchers. So I have to spend it before next Thursday. I hope to be able to make a trip there this weekend and use them up.

Incidentally Eric Tsang and some other Hong Kong stars from TVB are at 1 Borneo tonight to hold the popular HK TVB game show ‘Super Trio’.

Hotmail Pain in the Rear

For the past week I have been having problems accessing my hotmail account at home at night. Most of the time I cannot access to the website, let alone read or reply my emails. *sigh*

When I access it at the office in the morning before I start work, everything is ok. *sigh* *sigh*

Today for the first time I was able to chat with Sophia Tsen in Yahoo Messenger while at work. I usually do not chat esp. when the bosses are in the office unless it is concerning work with associate colleagues. Sometimes I do make the exception when they are not in the office but I make sure I make up for the time I spent online eventhough I am usually multi-tasking.

Blogger Pain in the Rear

The last couple of nights I was having a hard time uploading photos onto my blog. It was simply too slow.

And therefore I did not get to upload photos I took during my Retail Therapy at 1 Borneo two days ago until tonight.

Increment

Finally today we received our increment letter. Those who did not work two days ago also received their shopping vouchers as well.

The increment letter stated the previous two times I received my increments ie. July and November last year. I had totally forgotten about the increment in July 2007.

I am happy considering that I have three increments within a year. Earlier I had guessed that the amount of increment this time round should be less than the one in November 2007. I hit the bull’s eyes. But I still obtain more than most people whose last increment was July 2007.

Thank you Lord for your blessing. Hallelujah.

Retail Therapy at 1 Borneo Hypermall Part 1

Today after Canaanland Celebration I drove to 1 Borneo Hypermall to spend the vouchers I received yesterday. I arrived there at 1.25p.m.


Auto City

Hypermall

One of the Hypermall Entrances

Some of the Available Outlets

Outlets Under Renovation. Reminded me of the same concept I saw at The Garden, KL

Centre Court Stage (Eric Tsang and Co. will be here to conduct the HK game show starting this Thurs through to the weekend)

Before I started my supposedly retail ‘therapy’, I went to the ladies toilet to relief myself and I found this in the toilet. It is quite unsightly.

The first outlet I dropped by was Tune Store. It is a collaboration between Air Asia affiliated Tune Venture Sdn. Bhd. and 1 Borneo Hypermall developer. This departmental store sells a bit of everything – clothes, perfume, footwear, bags, household goods, toys, linen, lingerie, etc. I tried to find some clothes but could not find any that I like. I ended up buying two pairs of NYC shoes which were not on sale. When I paid for the shoes using the RM100 vouchers, I was given two free notebooks from NYC. The cashier at the counter told me to go to the Customer Service counter to get a free teddy bear. At the Customer Service counter, I was given a form to fill in to guess how many teddy bears were inside a transparent glass box. On the way out from this outlet, I saw one of my colleagues based at one of the project sites browsing at the outlet with his family, also trying to spend the vouchers received yesterday.

The second outlet I went to was fcuk – French Connection. This outlet is still under renovation. I was annoyed. How am I supposed to use the vouchers when it is not even open yet!!!

Next outlet I went to was Nine West - a footwear, bags and accessories outlet. Shoes are RM300 per pair. Bags are over RM200 each. Wallets are more than RM100 each and after 30% discount I still have to fork out about RM20-30 if I want to get them. Lastly I looked at a pair of earrings – about RM200 and they were made from metallic gold and not even pure gold. I told myself to forget it. I cannot find anything I like or more likely I would not even exchange anything for the vouchers because the things are not worth that kind of $. I walked out from the outlet without getting anything.

Next outlet was Home Essence – a home decoration and furnishing outlet. There was only one customer inside. After I entered four came and left after about one minute. This outlet sells vases, mirror, lights, cushions, photo frames, candle holders, etc. While I was browsing through this outlet, I saw another one of my colleagues who is based at another one of the project sites came in to join his wife (the lone cusomer) also trying to spend the vouchers received yesterday. There were not many choices available so I ended up getting a candle holder and a photo frame.

The last outlet was Living Concept – also a home decoration and furnishing outlet. This outlet sells a teeny weeny bit of Ikea stuff. I got three pots, two chopping boards, a pair of salad mixer and two vases.

As I expected, there were people but not a lot in the hypermall. Somehow I do not think KK has the kind of market yet to be able to spend in this kind of shopping mall. Most of these people are there to eat and window shopping. Hardly anyone buy anything. Occasionally I would find some people carrying one or two shopping bags. That’s about it.

By 4p.m. my shopping using the vouchers was done. I wanted to put all the shopping into the car first before spending another hour there window shopping and taking photos. I have not even seen where is the Daiso Japan outlet (which most people have been raving to me about) and other outlets as well because I was busy using up the vouchers. But I had a hard time carrying all the things to the car. When I reached the car, I was totally exhausted and sweating profusely. I decided to go home instead.

This was definitely not a retail 'therapy' exercise for me. Anyhow it is good to go shopping when I do not have to fork out much $ for once.