Thank you ^^

It has been a rough week at work but one little card was all it took to make the whole week seem not that bad.... my little part timers of 5 days gave me a Thank You card which says "thank you for being so friendly & nice! Pleasure working with you =)"

A simple and sweet gesture......... once again it is the little things that matter......

*happy*

Dangerous Dash

The other day when I was driving home from work, it started drizzling a little bit. So on the left side, many of the motorcyclist were stopping to put on their jackets or windbreakers. Suddenly the wind blew and something flew away from the motorcyclist towards the main road. Without looking at the passing cars, he dashed to grab whatever was that thing was. This was a highway mind you and cars were not exactly going at a slow pace. 

How many times have we made dashes in life without considering the danger it posed to ourselves as well as the people around us? When we are focused on a particular item, we lose sight of the big picture. Life is more than one thing that we seem to be always chasing be it career, money or relationships. It should be a healthy balance. 

*zen*

CNY 2012

Not long after recuperating from the Christmas and New Year celebrations, Chinese New Year drops by! And that definitely means great company, excellent food and loads of fun!  Not that many photos for show (mainly because too occupied with eating ^^) but here are the main ones!

CNY eve family reunion dinner's appetizer prepared by my mom. It consisted of mixed vegetables, shrimp salad, escargot with onions, four season roll and steamed mushrooms. 

As many years previously, this abalone soup is prepared by my grandma. Yummy soup that only get to drink once a year ^^

For the first day of CNY, the family is vegetarian and our breakfast will start with a sweet soup (must begin the year with something sweet) and consist of vegetarian dishes and rice. Every year we have almost the exact items. The acar (bottom right photo) is another traditional dish in my family. Everyone will get together to prepare the dish. When I was younger, I was the official pounder (for peanuts, sesame seed etc.). Now I have been promoted to vegetable cutter. 

Another tradition in my family is the yee sang which involves a lot more fish than vegetables ^^

Of course what is CNY without firecrackers and lion dance? Was driving around for visits and saw this house with lion dance in the progress!! First time seeing a house performance that involved a pole. 

More fascinating is this vegetable that I came across while helping my mom do grocery shopping. Apparently it is a hybrid of broccoli and cauliflower. Regardless, it's pretty!! 

.

*enjoying the last few days of CNY*

The Little Things

It was a Friday night..... most people would already have packed up from work and all set to enjoy the weekend. But a little party of workaholics (by force not choice obviously) was looking at a long night ahead. In that group was an executive, a designer, a copywriter and an intern. As dinner time came round, the designer and intern went to have dinner while the executive was too stressed to eat and the copywriter was full from his tea time. They asked the executive what to get for her dinner, and she just requested for a simple chicken rice as she knew that regardless of the environment, she will have to eat or she might faint. So they went to get dinner while the rest stayed back to continue with the work. 

When the designer and intern came back, the intern asked with glee holding a plastic bag, "can you smell what this is?" The executive shook her head and so he move the bag closer to her nose. Immediately a smile broke across her face as it was her favorite noodle dish! To top it off he said, "and there's no mint ^.<" (she has an allergy to mint). With that, the executive was refreshed for the night. The intern's girlfriend must be in such a blissful relationship ^^

Irony is when later that night, the designer offered the executive mints, She politely declined and the intern chided the designer for offering things that people are allergic to. The intern was with the company for a short 3 weeks while the designer and executive were working in the same department for 9 months. 

It is usually the little things that will carry people through life happy. 

p/s - the night finally ended at 3am 

Cake of 2011

In a blink of an eye, we had to wish 2011 good bye. It has been an eventful year in many many ways. One difference this oops last year was that I baked a birthday cake for most of my friend's birthday... only a few unfortunate ones happened to be at times when I was too busy to take time off to design and bake the cake. Among the cakes baked were cheese cake, moist chocolate cake, coffee butter cake, and the last cake of the year is a sponge cake decorated with a Manchester United Logo using fondant. It definitely takes the cake (pun intended) as the hardest project this year. 

First step was to find out how a MU logo looks like (no I am not a football fan ^^). Next was to turn the coloured logo into black and white outlines (thank goodness I had some simple lessons from a graphic designer). Next was to get it printed. The next step is to get a plastic sheet, clip it to the printed design and cut out the design. 

The outcome is as follows. Very important to think which part you are going to cut out first so that it would not be destroyed. Best is also to cut out the smaller parts (such as the letters) and cut from one direction (I did from top to bottom). Be sure to keep all the cut out pieces! It is still needed ^^

Once the template is ready, the real challenge is getting the design on to the cake (of course you have to bake the cake first). For this cake, I choose to use fondant as the decorating medium. Using the templates, each of the pieces are cut out of rolled fondant. It takes loads of patience for this part! After the fondant is ready, I coated the cake with cream to create a smooth surface then place the logo on the top. The sides are piped with green frosting. Using small rosette would be best to create the grassy feel to complete the cake's theme ^^

After 5 hours laboring in the kitchen (not inclusive of template cutting time), voila! The cake is ready ^^

It is far from perfect, but sure looks a lot better than I expected it to be. At least it is obvious that it's the Manchester United logo. The best part? The birthday boy loved it. He was so reluctant to stick the candles in and was hesitant to cut the cake =D Even the one with the most complaints was impressed with the design. At the end of the day, appreciation makes the time, patience and energy put into creating a cake worthwhile.

*thinking of next cake design*

GSC Maxx: MI4 Ghost Protocol

When I first got invited to the special screening of Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol, I was mildly interested. After all it was on a work night and I have very little resemblance to an owl... more of an early bird ^^ Then I found out that it was at GSC Maxx and without hesitation the invitation was accepted. Who can resist Tom Cruise on that extra big screen? *wink*

The expectation of the GSC Maxx hall was high with talk of the huge screen and it being the largest digital hall with 555 seats (was tempted to count if it was exactly that number....) and additional 4 spaces for wheelchairs (how thoughtful ^^). Usually this is a recipe for disaster as the higher the expectation, the harder the fall. Much to my delight, it managed to meet and exceed all expectations.

Walking into the hall was one of those moments that make you pause to capture the moment. The hall had a high ceiling and the layout kinda reminds me of an amphitheater. My seat was towards the left side of the hall   and thankfully a friendly attendant guided me and my friend to the seats through the walk way and hence avoided the very embarrassing cinema moment of going "excuse me, thank you, sorry, excuse me (repeat)" if we made our way to the seat from right side of the hall.

I would admire the hall longer but the screen started playing trailers and such which captivated my attention for the next 2 hours or so. At first it looked strange. Then I realized that it was what can only be described as crystal clear. The colours were vibrant and the image was.... well.... flawless. It did not have those pixels or vertical lines that can happen in certain cinemas.

Recently they upgraded their sound system to Dolby 7.1. Not sure how it compared to the old one, but this one sounds great. It is all about the little environment sounds that makes it more realistic...soft opening of the door, gush of wind and so on. Coupled with the sharp images on screen, it was almost as if you were there with the Impossible team. Many scenes left me hanging on the edge of my seat as they did quite a lot of "hanging around".

For the price of only RM15 per ticket for Digital 2D movies and RM 20 per ticket for Digital 3D movies, the experience is well worth it. Some of the scenes were breathtaking, especially the part where Agent Hunt scales the tallest building in the world. It is realistic enough that I was glad to be seating or I might fall as my knees turn jelly ^^

The movie itself was also awesome. It was full of action and had the right balance of suspense and humour. It had the crowd actually laughing out loud and gasping in shock. At the very last moment it also had a scene which showed another side of Agent Hunt. Can't say much without giving too much away. Best is if you watch it on your own. One hint, as the opening credits are playing, pay attention to it! I found it to be fascinating as the movie progressed =D

Final verdict? Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol in GSC Maxx rocks ^.<

GSC Maxx:
10.08, 10th Floor,
Berjaya Times Square,
No. 1, Jalan Imbi,
55 100, Wilayah Persekutuan,
Kuala Lumpur.

Ticket purchase and reservations can be made through their website or on their phone app.

*humming to MI tune*

Ben's Grocery Store

One of the gang complained that it has been awhile since everyone went out for a meal. So when the guy from KT came back to town I organised (well I initiated and he did the rest of the organizing ^^)  a food outing. After looking at many many possible places to go, we decided to go to Ben's General Grocery Store (yes the guys went "what????" when I suggested the place) in Bangsar Village. It is western sort of restaurant with an actual grocery store attached. The grocery store has quite a number of interesting stuff! Might go back to get some herbs some day. 

Moving back to the restaurant. As it was a quite impromptu outing, we did not do any reservations. Since the mall is not one of the more crowded malls, we thought it would have any trouble. Boy were we wrong..... on the bright side, we discovered that they actually have four parking floors :) So after being stuck in a jam IN the parking area, we finally got a spot and went up to the restaurant only to discovered that it was full. The friendly host put us on the waiting list and said will call us when the table is ready, in about 15 minutes. After wandering around aimlessly looking at Christmas decoration and music CD, we went back to the restaurant to see if the table was ready. Since it was not, guys being guys were hungry and grouchy. So they decided to go somewhere else to eat. If that happened, this post would be here today. Just as we wanted to go Nando's for lunch, the host waved at us excitedly. We have a table! 

After placing our orders, they came back with a bottle of chilled water and glasses. Apparently it is very common in Australia. I just like the bottle ^^ 

We ordered one of their specials which is roasted chicken with 2 sides. We took a whole bird. It was nothing to shout about, but not too bad either. 

Not sure if it was because they were hungry, they polished the chicken even while complaining that it is too dry and not tasty enough. 

This is their B.I.G lasagna. It is basically beef lasagna so I cannot comment on the taste. The others said it was delicious though.

This is their mushroom lasagna which I am definitely going back to eat again. Layers of various mushrooms alternated with cheese and lasagna sheets topped with fragrant pesto sauce and served with salad on the side. The flavours complemented each other to give total satisfaction to a mushroom lover such as yours truly. The mushrooms were cooked just nice, with texture and taste intact. The cheese was not over powering and the pesto just gave it the finishing touch. Yum! (Though I would recommend that it is ordered to share rather than as a single course. Some things are best enjoyed in small portions) 

One other highlight of the place is their milkshakes. It is lovely! Plus they have Nutella flavour! A definite must try!

Oh! They also have wood fire pizza that was quite nice. We had the margarita pizza. Unfortunately, it was devoured before I could even whip my camera out. Next time I want to try their mushroom pizza with truffle oil..... sounds delicious. 

Service was reasonable. Food was great. Company was awesome. Combination of an excellent outing ^^ 

*thinking of next visit to Ben's General Grocery Store*