Bamboo Wallpapers

Lot's of paperwork to be submitted and and new programs to handle. Oh ya, and a few traveling, roadshow and meetings along the way. Semester breaks are the busiest time for the lecturers actually (at least for our case).

I had some wallpapers of bamboo leaves, shot at my very own garden. I kept them in my computer for 'rainy days' like this when I don't have much to write. Here they are.




I wanna have a break at UK by July, but there're still piles of work to be cleared. Sempat ke tak?

Le Meridien Lunch

I spent two days meeting at Le Meridien KL. Nothing exciting really, but I find the lunch blog-worthy. Lunch at Latest Recipe Restaurant. Below is the list of food I'd gulped.

Appertizers:
a) 3 fresh oysters with lemon and spicy sauce.
b)1 bowl of vegie salad sprinkled with generous amount of grated cheese.

Main courses:
a) 8 pieces of sashimi
b) 2 helpings of tepanyaki prawns with delightful prawn sauce
c) 1 california roll with fish roes
d) 1 plate of various curry - squids, eggplants, fish cutlets, with some fish crackers

Desserts:
a) Four types of erm.. cakes, I think. I like the presentation, so seductive that I must have these four even though I was full.


b) 1 helping of yummy ice-cream with walnuts and macadamia.

I spent one an a half hours on my lunch, and I'm not the only one (yeah... I'm not the only one that can't resist the temptation of the yummilicious food).

It's quite expensive though (I was told). But I had it for free. Cooool...

Busy

Not at office. Meeting Kat KL. Bincang Halatuju Biotech di Malaysia.

Mr. W Is Back For Holiday

Mr. W our ex-colleague who's continuing his study to PhD level at Georgia Tech is back for holiday. Unfortunately, the day he chose to visit us at the office was not quite right. Most of the staff are either on holiday or on official trip to Sabah. Kesian dia tak ramai yang ada masa dia visit.

We had wonderful tea time at Kedai Kopi, which is situated by the side of Tasik Shah Alam. Puan F., who rarely go for makan-makan with us was excited to see her ex-office room neighbour. Oh ya, Dr. Z from our neighbouring institution was also there.

One thing I love about this Kedai Kopi Cafe is their banana fritters. Very crispy, and goes well with their sambal kicap. Yummy.

Since Mr. W didn't manage to meet the rest of my colleagues, he just want to say 'Hi' to all of them. I mean my colleagues who read my blog (you know who you are). Sorry Puan A, larling awak rindu tapi x dapat jumpe. Kesian dia.

Glutinous Rice Dumplings (粽子)

The glutinous rice dumpling or 'Zhong Zi' is a traditional chinese kuih wrapped in bamboo leaves or huge pandan leaves. Me and my wife had the chance to help my mother-in-law in the preparation yesterday afternoon.

Here are the ingredients we'd used. Bare in mind that they're great variations in the ingredients used and ways of wrapping depending on various locality and nation.
First the salted duck egg yolks.

Stir-fried mushrooms and chestnuts.

Stir-fried kidney beans (i think so) with various spices

Some stewed meat.

And of course, the glutinous rice. Stir-fried.

Some bamboo leaves as wrapping.

First of all, fold two leaves together to form cup shape.

Scoop some rice in to fill the side of the cup. Then stuff in the ingredients one by one.

Then cover the ingredients with another scoop or two of rice, flatten them before folding the leaves to cover the stuffing.

Then, the wrapped dumplings were tied to the strings.

Tadaaa.... you have a bunch of dumplings. Then boil them or steam them for an hour or so. But we used pressure cooker, which only took us 20 minutes to cook.


Nice and yummy......

Lotus (Part 2)

Some wallpapers of the lotus in my garden. If u want photos of higher resolution, feel free to email me.





P/S. Danial, jangan jelessss.

Lotus (Part 1)

I don't mean the Lotus, the Lotus Exige S 2006.

It's this lotus. My very own home grown lotus. It's flowering.

I got so excited that I took more then 160 shots of the flower. But the everything happened too quickly that it only takes two days from blooming to completely withered.



Part 2 will be some wallpapers.

MarryBrown & Ogawa

MarryBrown and Ogawa have nothing in common. It's just that we had visited these two places during lunch time. We decided to have lunch at MB before Datin go shopping at Ogawa shop. I managed to 'berkenalan' with the lady boss, Kak Nor.

Puan S and I ordered the chicken with mushroom sauce. Datin ordered the fish & chips, while Puan A ordered fish fillet. On top of the usual 10% discount from Kak Nor, a set of curly potatoes was given , free. Thanks Kak!


The coffe looks good, and the FOC curly potatoes is yummy, i.e. crispy out side, very soft inside.


The Ogawa shop is just next to the MB outlet. Datin was eager to buy the Magic Belt, claimed to be able to help toned down big bellies.


After some negotiation and bargaining, Datin did the purchase. Banyak duit yang dia bawak dalam handbag dia.


Bila Datin buat bayaran tu, baru Josh perasan, e'eh datin tu separuh daripada saiz taukeh tu. Kalo Josh berdiri sebelah, mau satu pertiga je daripada saiz dia. (Aik? Saiz Datin lebih besar ke??)

Datin kata, 'Saya beli ni untuk husband saya.'

Oooo... baru Josh faham, Datin beli Magic Belt yang boleh kuruskan badan ni nak bagi kat Datuk yang sememang-memangnyer dah kurus kering. Pandai Datin buat ayat. Kan?

Tagged by MIM.... Aiyoooo....

I was tagged by MIM. Why on earth, out of billions of bloggers, and I was chosen?? (hahaha... jgn marah MIM).

The RULES:
Name 4 Things That Need To Be Invented
Name 4 Things That Should Never Have Been Invented
Name 3 Things I do not know about you
Name 5 Snacks you enjoy

Name 4 Things That Need To Be Invented
1. A super thin and super light weight DSLR camera, preferably foldable. Sometimes the bulky camera is troublesome if you go on back-pack holiday.
2. Cure for sinusitis and rhinitis. I had been suffering for more then 20 years, and had gone through surgery.
3. A mattress that does not wear out or sink in in the middle, while providing soft spongy comfort. The reason is, one have to change their mattress in every few years if they want to avoid back pain.
4. Foldable cars, they're taking too much parking space.

Name 4 Things That Should Never have been Invented
1. Computer viruses. Though I have never had any virus problem using my iBook, I have to send my company computer to the ICT staff every now and then.
2. Plastic bags. They're the major killer for turtles. They cause world pollution, and degradation rate is way too low.
3. Weapon for war. Don't u think war using parang, spears and alike is more interesting??
4. Paper cups and plates. Why can't they invent wafer cups, so that they can eat the cup after they had their drinks?

Name 3 Things i do not know about you. (or you do not know about me?? I got confused.)
1. I used to take part in art competitions during my school years. Posters, mural paintings, you name it. And i always got my self within the first 3 if not consolations.
2. My dream was to be an architect. I got the offer from a well known U in Australia. But my dad can't come up with enough money for my education. I ended up in local u taking a course which is not my choice.
3. I'm a good kisser. (hahahaha... self acclaimed).

Name 5 Snacks you enjoy.
1. Can cheese cakes be considered snacks??
2. Dark chocs (and bitter sweet chocs too).
3. Kuih cincin from Sabah.
4. All sorts of nuts, including coconut.
5. Empeng buah melinjo.

Gossh.... i spent more then 40 minutes doing this. Thanks a lot MIM (hahahaha.. jangan marah..)

Now who should I tag?? or anyone want to volunteer??

200 meters, Turn Left.

Finally.


"In 200 meters, tern left to the ramp."
"Turn right."
"Drive forward for 6.2 km, turn right."
"Reached destination. Reached destination."

Me and my wife are loving it. Not cheap though.

Inah's Treat

A few of us bloggers went out for dinner the other day. My initial plan was to have dinner with Shah and Beruang Madu, and pass them some chocolates from Pinky. But Beruang Madu informed that there's this sweet girl, Inah, intending to give us a treat. So, there're five of us instead of three. But who's the other person joining? Inah's partner in crime, Shahril, of course. It's my first time meeting Inah and Shahril. What a sweet 'couple' (Inah dan Shahril partner in crime je kan?)



By looking at the environment of the place and they way they serve their drinks, most bloggers (and readers) would have already knew the place we went to. Yup, it's William. And it's my first visit. Interested with what we had for dinner? here're the pics. Erm.. don't ask me the name. I had no idea. Please read Inah's blog and Shah's blog for the name.





The food was great, and with the company of a bunch of great people, the dinner was memorable. Thanks for the treat, Inah! Terima kasih daun keladi, kalo boleh nak hari-hari. (betul ke ayat nih?)

We went to abg bear and Shah's place after the meal, with one intention in mind, to listen to the 'bunyi misteri tarik perabot' from upstair. But the 'thing' decided to rest that night. No weird sound was heard.

One note worth mention. I'm not tall, dark and handsome like my photos suggest. Photos can be very deceiving. I'm a petite person standing at 164cm. Kecik je. Kan Inah, kan?