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.

Artwork by Chloe Chong

Chloe made this during art class yesterday to give to her principal.

Email Reply

I am very happy tonight despite being exhausted.

I received email reply from my former guardian Francis Ng (who is residing in Melbourne, Victoria) with photos attached. Yay!

Thank you internet for making our world smaller.

OT again

These last two nights I had been sleeping early, getting at least 7-8 hours of sleep per night. I needed those hours because this week has been an extremely tough week.

There are so many deadlines to meet. And therefore last night I decided not to go to cg/life group as I was planning to work until 6p.m. today. I needed to rest early last night.

Before I started work this morning, I mentally listed out everything that I had to get done by today. As I proceeded to do them one by one, I was glad that I had the peace and quiet (actually total bliss) when everyone left by 1p.m. The only sound was Light FM on the radio.


I had this for lunch.

Thank God for the strength and that I did not fall asleep this afternoon.

As usual on a Saturday I backed up all my work in my personal pendrive in case something happens to the computer. And by the time my files were finished backing up, the clock showed 6p.m., not a second less or more.

One thing I did not get done yet was filling in the Statistics Department Survey Form and therefore I brought it home to do it. I do not think I have the energy to do them tonight. I really need to sleep early tonight to recuperate once again, after a long and extremely tiring week.

I really thank God it is the weekend.



Mum made this while I was at work. ('Cha Koh' & 'Ondeh-Ondeh'). Yummy.

Vouchers Day

This morning before bosses came to the office, they called up and told me to inform all site staff to turn up to the office before 10.30a.m.

By 10a.m. they were slowly trickling in. Each of them was given some shopping vouchers to spend and those of us who work on Saturday in the office were also given some.

This time round I feel kinda a bit stress to go shopping because those vouchers are only valid until end of this month and most of the outlets sell expensive stuff. I hope I can spend all the vouchers in one go so that I do not have to return to the shopping mall again before the end of the month.

Sign Outside Office Toilet

Sign Outside Next Door Office Toilet

New Refrigerator

New Microwave

New Pantry (I hide my lunch at the most bottom cupboard)