Strange Coincidence

It's so strange how when you thought you saw someone so like a person you know of, but never imagined it would be him/her coz he/she was supposed to be in another continent. Then turns out it was him/her all along.

Me: Hey, I thought i saw you in The Curve shopping mall last week
Joy: Ohmigoodness... Was that on Sat?? U saw a girl with black 3/4 pants?
Me: Erhm.. I didn't see the pants. She wore a sleeveless maroon-ish top. Long black wavy hair like yours and just as fair as you
Joy: Hmm.. Dun remember the top but the hair sounds about right.. Btw I was in Msia.. I was at the Curve on Sat..
Me: You were??????????????
Joy: I didn't call anyone when I was in Msia bcos I was only there for like 2 days.. What a coincidence..
Me: I saw you at the centre court. You looked bored. Hehe..
Joy: Hehe.. Bored coz I couldn't buy stuff.. I was enroute to Melbourne
Me: To quote tweety bird, "I tot I taw Joy.. I did! I did taw Joy!"
Joy: Hehe.. I thought I wouldn't hv time to meet up with anyone, so didn't contact friends, only saw family

Imagine that.. Such a strange coincidence.. She flew in from London then flew to Melbourne 2 days later, yet I saw her in The Curve when she was in KL. Wow.. If only I had the guts to go up to her that time and ask, "Are you Joy?"

Grace Reincarnated!

Do you remember Grace, the grass baby? I kept her in my office sometime last year, but she only lasted for less than 60 days when she died of 'dandruff' - fungus began growing over her head.

She's alive again!! This time, it's the version 2, bought in Cameron Highlands. Oh, and this time, she's wearing red ribbons on her head. Tee hee hee..

Grace version 2

Everyone, please welcome back Grace! This time, she must live longer! Fighting!

Gummy's Song

Months ago, Gummy wrote a song and thought a tune would be nice to go along with it. We'd envisioned that someone famous would sing it, that the song will travel around the country. She would be so famous and I would be awfully happy for her! My childhood buddy's song woh!

I remember telling her that I would get someone to write it for her. After months of futile wait from a friend, I searched for a songwriter over the Internet and found Jasemaine Gan. She was really kind to offer to write the song but because she was busy with her own demo recordings, she asked if it would be okay if she let her friend write it, whom apparently started songwriting not too long ago. So I said "Yes, please!"

A few weeks later, Jasemaine got back to me with THE song, composed by her friend. I listened to it and I personally felt it was really good, what's more knowing that it was more difficult to write a melody based on the lyrics when it should be the other way round. And for a beginner, it was reaaaaally good! The more I listened, the more I fell in love with it. The whole thing was just so lovely - the bittersweet lyrics, the sweet voice and the soft melody. The more I couldn't believe that I was actually listening to a song that Gummy wrote. *Grin*

Gummy's dream would not have come true if not for them - Jasemaine and her friend, Jean. Thank you so much, both of you. I truly appreciate what both of you have done for Gummy, and I hope that Gummy will like her 2-months early birthday gift. Tee hee hee.. I really do wish that both of you will succeed in your music careers. I hope that someday soon, both Gummy and I will be able to watch your performances. We will definitely be cheering for you!

If you're a recording producer, please sign a contract with them, okay? Jean can be contacted at bluewish_9058@hotmail.com . Now back to Gummy's song! *Grin*

The Weekend In The Highlands

Happy Diwali and Selamat Hari Raya! How are your holidays?

We went up to Cameron Highlands with Chef & Xiao Ping for the weekend. We stayed the night in Heritage Hotel in Tanah Rata, courtesy of Chef's time-sharing vacation deal. The trip was indeed refreshing. The flowers there were so colourful that I couldn't resist snapping lots and lots of pictures of them especially at the Ye Olde Smokehouse!

The colors of Cameron Highlands

We stopped by at Kasimanis Strawberry Farm for a peek too.

Not sure if they are really "manis" as claimed

The one thing we were unhappy about was most of the restauranteer's attitudes. When we decided to try out the food in certain empty (as in REALLY empty) restaurants, especially at Ferm Nyonya, we got shoo-ed off instead coz they were fully booked for tour travellers. How does the tone "If you can find an unreserved table, then you sit la" sound to you when all the tables there were reserved?

Breakfast in Rosette Cafe really pissed us off. I was particularly interested in a set menu which has these :-

Mango juice
Fried or scrambled eggs & sausages, turkey ham or beef bacon
Toasts or bread rolls with strawberry jam and butter
Coffee or tea

We had the impression that I could choose either fried or scrambled eggs, I would have sausages as well, and I could also choose either turkey ham or beef bacon. But later on, we were told that it was either fried or scrambled eggs, and then either sausages, turkey ham or beef bacon. is my English really that bad? If it is, then Inspector and Chef would need to go for English lessons too coz both of them tried to correct the owner's punctuation mistakes. But she raised her voice, said that she had been doing it for years and had no problem with it. Either our English is indeed bad, or the guests are pretty ignorant about it and just accept what is given onto their plates. And then she yelled, "You tell me what you want la then!". So I pointed out that I wanted scrambled eggs, sausages and beef bacon. I did get them, but only 1 piece of sausage (so much for plural!) and a measly, slightly raw beef bacon. *Sighz* Chef was so pissed off that he wrote a complaint note and left it on the cutlery holder for the next customer to read. Don't ever go to Rosette Cafe!

We had great service in Restoran Cameron though, so great that they do deserve the name. We were looking for a place for dinner and watch the Man. Utd vs Liverpool match and noticed that the restaurant has a telly. We asked if we could watch tv there. The owner said that his Astro got cut off, then asked if we wanted to watch football, he could use his friend's Astro card instead. We were stumped. Hehe.. But it was good. We were there for almost 4 hours to watch the game, ordered wonderful dishes and even had steamboat, all for less than 60 bux in total. Now that's where I'd recommend you to go. Restoran Cameron in Tanah Rata. We went there for the next day's lunch as well, their western dishes were yummy too!

Before we left Cameron Highlands, we stopped by at Cameron Bharat Plantation's Shalimar estate somewhere towards Ringlet and was awed at the scenery there! We couldn't resist walking all the way down to the ground level!

Look at the cute lumps of tea bushes!

More pictures!

From top to bottom, left to right :-
1 - View at the front of our room's balcony
2 - Heritage Hotel entrance
3 - RM1 polyester aeroplane that Inspector bought while there
4 - Tea bushes in Cameron Bharat plantations
5 - Steamboat in Restoran Cameron
6 - A heart made out of pink matchsticks, found at Ye Olde Smokehouse. I wonder if the person who made this managed to declare his/her burning love for the other half
7 - The rain on the car window on the way home
8 - Souvenirs for families and friends

Despite the bad restaurants, we had a great time there. Wouldn't mind going there again in the near future. Hopefully the next time, we'll be able to try T Cafe coz it's highly recommended. Just that when we were there, it was closed for "Baking and Washing in Progress". How cute!

Vomit = Pregnant?

I had indigestion problem last morning, vomitted several times and had a massive headache after that. So I decided to stay at home instead and slept the whole day.

Later at night, the parents-in-law came over (they live just across from ours mah!) and fussed about whether I'm pregnant. "Got fever or not?". "You vomit what?". "Go urine test la". "First one is the most important. Must jaga properly". Poor Inspector had to ask "You're not pregnant, right?".

I told Mum about it this morning. She laughed and then asked, "You got miss your period ah?". AIYO, I'M NOT PREGNANT LAR! She told Sis who then came online and told me, "Jie, faster born baby la".

Should I go knock my head on the wall now?

O' Tanglungs

The Mid-Autumn Festival is one celebration that I'd try not to miss each year. Until now, the child within me still finds joy lighting up lanterns. Otherwise, I'd be happy enough lighting candles all over the place and then scrap off the wax. *Grin*

This year's celebration was extra special because we got to celebrate with both of our families together in our new place. It was a very last minute planning, otherwise we could have been able to invite our close friends to join in. Mum prepared most of the dinner - vegetarian noodles, curry chicken, braised mushrooms, steamed yams, prawns and fruit salad. I had only managed to prepare longan jelly and red bean soup, in which both weren't sweet enough and had to be improvised by Sis. So 'pai seh'.

Not forgetting the traditional way of celebrating the festival, there were the many kinds of mooncake flavours, the 'piglet' biscuits and peanuts to munch on while sipping Chinese tea. Too bad we didn't manage to buy those Batman look-alike nuts and the sweet white cakes. And oh, one should never forget lanterns as well, coz that's the highlight of the festival, don't you think so?

We've had a plastic chicken lantern that lays eggs. Sis got this for Bumblebee.

So cute, no?

Sis managed to buy a piece of the really old school lantern, the ones made out of colourful glass paper. Apparently not many shops sell this now.

Pretty glowing fish.

Of course, there's the common ones made out of crepe paper, that you can easily purchase anywhere.

Bright lights in a row.

Sad to say, we weren't able to stay outdoors for too long because of the haze. It was slightly windy as well, which unfortunately, burnt one of the crepe papered lanterns...

Holy smoke!

Despite that, we still had fun. Hopefully next year's celebration will be a much better one, and without the haze.

Random Notes

Aiyaya... I brought the office laptop home yesterday but I forgot to bring it out this morning. My access card and drawer keys are in that bag. I couldn't access the car park and the entrances this morning until I issued myself a temporary card much later after that. Then again, I still can't stuff my bag into the drawer nor make my usual cup of Milo coz the cup is locked in the drawer. Argh! So now I can't really do my work and I don't know what to do till evening.. There goes my day la....

On a much happier note, I think I gained some weight. Just the other day, I weighed myself in my parents' place and saw that I had gained about 3kgs. But Sis said that the weighing scale a bit 'cacat' already. Looks like I'll have to scout for a weighing scale somewhere else to confirm. But woo hoo!!!! That's great news, isn't it? Perhaps it's the fact that when you cook everyday, you tend to make yourself finish up the food no matter how full you are, isn't it? Well, if this really works, then I've got 2 more kgs to go. Fighting! Muahahahhahahahahhahahahahahaha..........

FRG had just spent half an hour on the phone with me, teaching me his version of cooking sweet & sour pork and buttered prawns. It was him and Chino who taught me the basics of cooking when we were in Sheffield, i.e. peeling the garlics la, cutting veges la and how to boil rice. I promised FRG that if he's around town during Christmas, I will cook him a meal. *Grin*