Tea Ceremony

I made my own tea ceremony event last Sunday, using the teas that the Bears gave me from their Cambodia trip a few months ago.

They gave me 4 bags of tea but I decided to try 2 of them which includes Kaffir Tea, which is Limau Purut.

Also, lemon grass tea or serai. These teas are loose tea leaves mixed with either the dried leaves, or flesh of the other ingredients made to add a bit of flavour to the tea.

This is what the loose tea looks like.

I bought this nifty tea strainer at IKEA that was perfect to mixed loose tea in a cup.

Forget traditional way of boiling hot water. I nuke my cup of hot water inside a microwave. Its lot faster boiling water inside a microwave, just 2 minutes on high.

The teas takes more time to infuse in water than regular tea bags, but it was worth the wait. I wanted to drink it without sugar, but its tasted bland to me. Just a teaspoon of sugar really allowed me to taste the Kaffir lime and the Lemon grass. This tea is great for making an exotic ice tea. Thanks to the Bears (Dr Shah, Abg Bear) to this wonderful gift. A good way to just relax, calm down and unwind :).

Special Number

Can some one tell me what the hell is a special number? is there a book i should be reading about regarding what number are special? are there popular number and are their number with the lowest caste? is there a number we should avoid?

after a long day today, i went and paid the deposit for my car and needed to get a registration number. my MOTHER wanted a special number, she requested for 343 or some other so called SPECIAL number. A pretty number (nombor cantek), I was clueless on what she meant by it, so I was like yah okay

When we got to our turn at JPJ Wangsa Maju. yes i drove all the way from serdang to wangsa maju... because we bought a car from our aunt there. so when its our turn, the number 343 was taken so i decided 4343, that is also taken, so i decided to go with 4346, because my naza is 343, my mercedes is 348, for me I think it would be nice to go with 4346, because the last 3 digit kinda match with the other.

Guess what, my mom was like, that is not a special number, that is a normal number, why on earth did you get a plain number like that... I WAS LIKE MAD AS HELL!!!!!!!!! you think aaah driving all the way to wangsa maju which i have not been for 8 years is fun ah!!, YOU THINK I LIKE TO SPEND HALF MY DAY ON THE ROAD, YOU THINK I LIKE SKIPPING MY WHOLE LAB DAY FOR THIS AH..THIS HAS TO BE THE DUMBEST THING EVER!!!!

watever lah ma, malas nak layan...lantak lah.. esok aku pegi gi wangsa maju AGAIN to naik MOTOR because parking is next to impossible at JPJ wangsa maju, GEE tHANKS MA!! beli kat makcik yg duduk jauh kat sana semata2 nak tolong family!! BUllshit, dah lah keta kat 7 minggu tak dapat.. kena pi jauh2.. menyusahkan jiwa jaa!!! WE COULD GET THE CHEAPASS 660cc car
but noooooo tak de kelas, manual leceh, tayar kecik, AAAAH PASTU SAPA BAYAR, MA AND BAH BAYAR KAAAAN pastu nanti, senang le nak ungkit kaaaaaaan... kereta di beli parents

menyampah!!!! aAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!

IKEA

My mother, my sister and I went to IKEA today for the IKEA sale. Woo Hoo!!. We were surprised there were not this huge traffic jam at the entrance even though we went at around 11.30 am on Saturday. As we were looking for a parking space, suddenly this "pak guard" told us we could park at this space.

It was the "no parking space" okay but I got the "pak guard" picture so any clamping would have its deadly consequence from me muahahahah! :D.

We bought some small carry on stuff here and there including new glasses to repair the ones that we all broke :D. There were many items that were on sale which is not no longer available because they were out of stock.

Of course, all that shopping causes us all to be hungry. So off we went to the Ikea Restaurant. I have to admit this is THE BEST part of going to IKEA. I just love the food here.

I had the Chicken leg with herb gravvy, carrots and potatoes. The veggies and potatoes were a bit undercooked but still edible. The gravy is just nice, not too salty and the chicken is soft and juicy.

My mom had the Sweedish Meatballs with gravy, with a side of fries and lingoberry jam. This is so good, I love the meat ball and lingoberry combination. YUMMY!!!!.

My sister had the special of the day which is Chicken chop. Fried chicken with special gravy and fries.

We also had the so called Mexican bun, which looks like muffin or cup cakes to me. Both were good, chocolate and I think blueberry.

The chocolate Daim almond cake is something you should NEVER miss. This slice of heaven is so good, you can even buy the frozen ones to take home at the cafe near the check out counter. The mazarin on its life is also a bit of heaven that can be eaten. I forgotten what its made off but I will definitely get these again :).

The price is affordable with the quality and quantity that you get. I love it and the drinks whether soft drinks or hot drink have unlimited refills. Now that is true value :)

Batman: The Dark Night

The Dark Night. I finally got a chance to see this movie a week after its premier. I got the press telling me that this movie has great chance of winning awards. Bloggers and friends telling me it’s the best movie they have ever seen. The Joker played by the deceased actor Heath Ledger will forever be the villain we love to hate that dresses in drag and in a custom made purple suit. How about Harvey Dent or we know now as Two Face. I bet you, that we will change the way we look at him forever after we watched this film. Don’t forget about Batman, rich guy, troubled past, bi polar disease, masochist, and enough brains, brawns and bank account to gain leverage with any other superhero.

Since this movie is about 2.5 hours (you won't feel its as long as that because you are at the edge of your seat most of the time), they plenty of time for other characters, the small parts, to actually have some time on screen. This is what I find interesting. The things a normal person would not do under, would do under intense pressure. Something that makes me kinda think, would I do the same thing

If you followed my movie review in my blog you would know my style to talk about things other than the storyline of the movie. Other people writes in greater and better details of the movie than I can. One thing for sure, I left the movie with a sick feeling in my stomach. Its not exactly a happy ending, but left me questioning things that are going on in my life. These are some of the question that pondered me after watching the movie.

Love

How far would you go to protect your loved one? How would you react if you loved one was being hurt? What would you do if your loved one is being threatened? Would have you chose differently if you had a big decision about love? This movie poked and prodded so much on this. We all go to great lengths with our loved ones.

We would travel far just to see them smile. We would talk on the phone or chat online even though we had work to do. We remember almost all the details about them that no one else notices. We even let them be right most of the time because we loved to see their satisfaction of being right, even though they are not :p. We would always try not to make them upset but sometimes we stumbled and they do get hurt. This movie relieves all of my problems in my past relationships. We can react so differently from who we are when it deals with someone we love whether it would be a lover, a friend, a brother, a sister , or just anyone else.

Secrets

What would you do to keep a secret? How far would you got to protect a secret? To what extent are you willing to do find out the secret? We all have our big secrets in our lives. Some big, some small, some so huge, you might as well start a new life with a new Alias because no one would let you back in theirs. I guess honesty is not a best policy after all.

We need secrets to protect, to protect ourselves and to protect our love ones. It may not sound fair but that is what we must to do survive and live in this world with other human beings. Secrets are what they are, not be talked, not to be written about. I wish I had known and understand that better.

Decision

Its something that we do each day, each decision has its pro and cons. How do we choose? I don’t think we can know that. We could have faith that which direction the we choose is something right for us, at that time. We should not think about the future that much when we have the present to worry about.

Food = Marybrown

I been wanting to try the Marrybrown in Metropoint Kajang for a very long time, ever since Josh did his review in the Shah Alam branch. So I decided to go here for dinner

It was just a small Marybrown franchise with just two counters to place our orders.

See Josh we got not one swing but 4 swing chairs :D

I was not so excited by the food because it tasted just normal and okay.

I wish the chicken was more flavourful it tasted like any regular friend chicken, however the nugget was much more flavourful. I was looking for the coleslaw that Josh had at Shah Alam, but it seem they don't have it anymore here. Overall at least Marybrown is different from the KFC and Mc Donald's I go to often. Yup that is about the only good comment I can make about its food. Still I am thinking of giving it a second chance, I wonder what the burgers would taste like. We had fun chatting till metropoint was closed :)

Food = Durian + Coconut Milk + Glutinous Rice

Early morning today as I came to the lab, a familiar aroma struck my nose. It was durian, our lab technologist pry opened durian at 6 am today and prepared the glutinous rice and coconut milk to go along it
I love glutinous rice, I just never had it with durian before.


This was what Axim and Dr Shah written at their blog or in their or my comment box on how to enjoy durian. You know what, the sweet taste durian with the rich taste of coconut milk and the texture of the glutinous rice goes really well. If the durian came with out the seeds however would make this dessert so much easier and tastier to eat :)

Food = Friend's Birthday Dinner

Last Tuesday was my friend's surprised birthday dinner that was held at Johnny's a steamboat restaurant at Alamanda. This is the same restaurant that I went to when Arel had his birthday party with Hairie and the rest of Arel's housemates.

I really like this restaurant for its steamboat dishes and its special dip sauce.

We all chipped in for my friend's birthday dinner and this Tiramisu cake that was bought at Carrefour Alamanda.

We ordered 2 sets of steamboat for 4 people. There were a variety of meats, seafood, vegetables, mushrooms, rice vermicelli (bee hoon) and eggs. There something for every one :)

This Tiramisu cake was FABULOUSLY DELICIOUS. It was not too sweet, the sourish Tiramisu goes really well and the cake was moist. YUMMMY!!!

The surprised dinner was a blast and all of us enjoyed our night out from the lab :)

Lab Work...... Not Mine :p

I am tired of posting my work and butchering of my mice, so its a nice change to see my friend doing his work for change. Remember the ovitrap in the previous post. Well after we pick them up, we poured the trap and water inside plastic containers and let the mosquito larvae hatched from the eggs. Noticed the all bling hand of our lab technician checking out if any larvae has hatched or not.
This is actually the first time for me to see the larvae this much this close. They look like a bunch of worm :D. If I am not mistaken you can differentiate the each species of the mosquito by looking at their posterior end (the "end" of its end???)

My dear friend had to count each of the larvae from each ovitrap to estimate how many mosquitoes that would be present if the larvae is permitted to go through its life cycle. Well at least he does not have to count it under a microscope using a special slide and some calculation :p.

A Dyeing Change

Yes I know, my hair color SUCKED. I agree with that statement, but I can't just cut it off or dye it again. The week I had it done was the week petrol shot up to RM 2.70 okay, so I had to keep it because I could use the money to fix the hair, to fill up petrol for my car. Anyways the color was wrong for all the right reasons. I can't believe I failed Hair Colour 101 even though I studied it for the past 7 years.

Reasons why my color was BAD!

1. Men should never change their hair more than 3 shades than their original hair color if they want to look "normal" for everyday settings. Unless you are a top model, stylist, fashion designer, a rockstar, a popstar or a porn star stick to 3 shades of your own color. I broke this rule by going 5 level/shades over my natural hair color.
2. Malays have cool skin tones. Cool tones are such as mine, tawny (kuning langsat/yellowish brown) or olive brown (sawo matang). Cools tones means cool colours. If we choose cool colours we look brighter and livelier. Cool color includes ash shades (greyish color) such as ash brown, platinum blond (almost white blond), raven black (natural hair color of most malay), dark brown, purple and red (liptick red). These natural and vibrant colors are for those with cool skin tones. I made a mistake by getting a warm color. Mahogany and golden are warm colors. Only those with pinkish red skin, freckled skin, or just golden tanned skin can have these colors. When I (cool skin toned) chose a warm shade, it looks like as if I got an instant tan and made my face looked very dark and dull.
3. Men usually don't wear red. My shade had a very strong red tint to it that only amplified with black hair because black hair receives red dye very well, in fact its easier to go red than to go brown with black hair. Red is usually very feminine that is why you see more red hair females than red hair guys. Most of the men will usually get their hair dyed darker.

So its time to go back to normal. I chose a shade that is very close to my hair which is a level 4 brown, which is only 1 level above my own hair color which is a level 3 black. Lesson that I have learned. Never follow a bunch of ladies to a salon and stay there for 8 hours. Its damaging to your mind and hair :p

Red Eye over Fruit

Am I pissed off?

Did I cry all night long?

Am I planning a revenge to all those who hurt me in the past?

Did I make a pact with the Devil to drag those that hurt me to hell?

Did I get so hurt that I decided to end life now and that my eyes are the first to go....?

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Come one lah, I am not that naive/dumb/stupid/melodramatic to do such things (but I admit, those thoughts did pass through my mind :D). My eyes were irritated and it was swollen a bit on Saturday. Probably due to scratching it because it was itchy. Luckily it all went away on Sunday morning.

While I was in bed the whole day on Saturday (I was sick so I decided to rest), my mother and my sister went back to Kampung, because to take our rambutans from our orchard. There was so many rambutan this year that my mom could not stuff enough of them in the Naza Ria. They say rambutan can cause coughing. Well UPM medical treatment is free... let the eating (and coughing begin :D)

Sick of This

I was not feeling too well the since last Thursday. My body ached and I had a mild fever. I mean thought I could just braced it through, but I could not take it anymore. So I went to the UPM clinic for treatment. Its free which makes it an obvious choice for me :D.

As I was waiting for my turn I saw this creepy poster of a smokers body. Apparently it was born with both female and male reproductive organs since it can developed ovarian cancer and testicular cancer :-p.

The whole cycle from registration to picking up the medicine took about 15 minutes. One thing that is intriguing to me is that, I kept getting foreigners as my doctor. Last time I came here I got a middle eastern doctor, now I met a Indonesian doctor. Both of them were very nice to me, so no problems there :D.

My face looked liked it was wrapped in plastic wrap right.. Hehe its just one of those peeling of mask that I decided to wear tonight. Also I still had the series of upset stomach so I was just holding my stomach in. I was just too tired after running to the toilet too many times :p. Anyways, I really need to take a deep breath and figure out what is happening around me. There so many things I ignored and left in denial. The issues I had was supposed to be resolved already, but somehow residual problem still linger in me. I decided to tackle each problem head on (well almost all of it). Its going to be more painful, but at least it teaches me to face the problem and figure out a quick solution to it.

William.. Again... Serious ah??

We eating at William again :p. There is no menu in William however if you want something special (expensive :p) there is a black board which all the special menu are written. However the common menu's are not written there so you have to either ask the waiter or waiteress or just look around and see what kind of dishes people are getting :D.

I wanted to try the triple H. which basically either a 3,4, or 5 layer of meat of chicken or beef ham and meat pieces wrapped with a fried egg, with homemade one thousand island and some white sour sauce.

I had this coffee mocha tiramisu thing. I forgotten what was the real name :p. It was really smooth and creamy. YUM!!!

One of us had the pesto pasta meatball carbonara.

Another had the Mee Raja Ayam Pandan. However tonight the noodle was to oily and a bit to spicy.

Who were we that went to William? Why my good friend Amad. Although we only recently met but I considered a good friend that is fun to hang around with :).

Hairie also was there with us, tinkering with Amad's camera.

This the collateral damaged after our feast at William :p. As Axim would say, nothing like dinner with friends to unwind the day since all three of us had a pretty tiring day. Ironically all three of us took power naps in the afternoon because we were so tired. Hmm kinda repetitive to eat at William when hanging out with friends. Maybe bowling and watching the new Dark Night movie at Midvalley would be activities all three of us could enjoy this coming weekend :D. I have to check their schedule and mine so that we would get together. Gosh there goes the so called diet, huhuhuhuh... where is my credit card.. I want look good like our good Dr Chen :D.