February Update

This month has come and is almost gone ... in a flash, no less. It's been a month of, as usual, extreme ups and downs and I think I'm going to give myself a heart attack or a nervous breakdown one of these days. I guess I'll start with Chinese New Year (I've omitted Valentine's Day, as I really, really think that it's a pointless day, and NO, it's not the cynic in me yammering away, rather it's just an over-commercialized day).

Peonies galore basking in all their glory, accompanied by a varied hue of Cherry Blossoms. I LOVE it! :)

Of course, no Chinese New Year deco would be complete without the required 'Choy San' or God of Prosperity accompanied with the lucky bamboo / prosperity bamboo. Just for your information, it's the first living thing that I've bought for my home and it's thriving, thank you very much. ;)

I reckon my Chai Sen is pretty chuffed as the lucky bamboo seems to be shooting skywards!

February is also the month of SIL and BFF's birthday! :) I'm taking BFF out to Umai-Ya tomorrow for their famed buffet lunch. He's quite snooty about Japanese fare this one. So yeah ... expensive tongue. For SIL's birthday, we made a beeline for Delicious @ Dua Annexe. Gorgeous food and loads of fun there I tell you! :) Make your way there if you haven't already. Also, there was this fancy schmancy place on the ground floor called 'Dish'. It's apparently the classier (translated = more expensive) version of Delicious and if the reviews are anything to judge them by, it's well worth the moolah you'll spend. Anyone wanna take me here for my 30th? ;)

My crab tart was yummy ... the salad though ... was tarty ;) due to the heavy splashes of red wine vinegar. Brrrr ...

So ... yeah ... It was also Freddie and Suyee's wedding at The Legend Hotel's Chinese Restaurant (which for some reason, I can't remember the name of at the moment, except that it was small, cramp, mediocre and ... blah in general). But I loved the floral arrangements as well as the entrance hall.

The grand entrance to the restaurant leading to the dining area on the LEFT (?!) of the columns. Architect should be shot. Or have his license revoked.

This chrysanthemum was absolutely GORGEOUS! I think this might be one of the few flowers to make it to ink on my skin. ;) JULIAN! Pay attention, please my dear artist! :)

Freddie also had the 'Bride Pickup' session the week before. To say that it was a FIASCO would be putting it mildly. Although the 'sisters' thought that they had us in the bag with their ... less than amusing (chewing on a dude's banana in public is a little ... hmmm), we turned the tables on them with a crap load of beer, fake and real currency (in rupiahs, rupees and the like). We ended getting the head of games sister in this sorry state:

There was BEER galore ... our little brotherly trick for the sisters ... heh heh heh ... I must say that the groom's decision was a stroke of genius!

Hah! The Head of Games 'sister' thought she could outwit, outlast and outplay us? Here she is knocked off her ass at 12:30pm after downing loads of beer! ;) Jen, you ok? ;)

The groom made the bride wait ... 2 1/2 hours. Ha ha ... it was hilarious ... and by far one of the longest sessions of 'chip san leong' EVER in my life. Nearly 2 1/2 hours. OMG. o.O

Rakuzen Japanese Restaurant

I seem to be on a spree of Japanese food consumption ... and I'm certain that it's good for health ;). Lily and I stopped by this place after she had a little medical emergency in the office and we had 2 hours to while away whilst waiting for the MRI appointment.

Even the chopsticks were the expensive disposable kind. Good 1st impression. ;)

It's called Rakuzen Japanese Restaurant and it's located in those single row of shops fronting the SJMC / SDMC in Subang, SS15. I ordered the Salmon Teriyaki Bento @ RM25 & an ala-carte Chicken Teriyaki. It was ... GOOD.

The edamame was fresh, lightly salted and the peas themselves were fresh and steaming hot. Good stuff.

The bento came with 3 humongous cubes of Salmon Sashimi, which was fresh, chilled and good to the last ... er ... drop? ;) The wasabi wasn't the cheap ass Sushi King variety and was smooth and smoky. I'll let the photos do the talking next ya? ;)

The chawanmushi was light, fluffy and tasty. Very nice.

My Bento Box ... or tray in this case. Food came out fast, in 10 minutes or so, despite the place being filled with the lunch crowd. Salmon looks small in the photo, but I was stuffed by the time I had finished. And thank God it was all tooth-achingly sweet with the teriyaki sauce. It was just ... nice. ;)

The pièce de résistance: the glorious sashimi.

Details:
Rakuzen Japanese Restaurant,
No. 13, Jalan SS15/5A,
47500 Subang Jaya,
Selangor.
Tel: +603.5880.4717

Inspired!

I browsed through Ms. Redd's new project after we watched Julie and Julia in Singapore at Ben's place.

I am officially inspired. Photographically speaking of course. I will start taking and posting 1 photo a day (aside from a smattering of posts of course.).

Thank you Redd for being inspired and in turn, inspiring me.

2010. Good, better, best!

It's been a good 1 month, I reckon from the last post and I'm going to do my best to post at least 1 update here a month.

At least.

So what's been happening ...

I really do think that the only mall that made an effort in their Christmas Decorations has been The Curve (winner, hands down in my book) and the Pavillion. The other malls ... were rather er, tacky, lackluster, sad and down right disappointing. I don't get it, religious and spiritual reasons aside, this is the season that people go all out in Christmas shopping and spend ridiculous amounts of money (more on this later) on their loved ones. You'd think that the marketing people would spend more time and money on their Seasonal decorations. Suria KLCC was downright DISGUSTING and TACKY with their little village scene. Even the baubles on the village roof was made of volleyballs / netballs painted over and they even had them hanging down. OMG.
One thing I found amusing was that Pavillion had anatomically correct reindeer and I had to suppress a giggle when little kids kept asking their parents why Rudolph had something hanging down between his back legs. ;)

Scenes from Pavillion and me and my SIL.

It was also the time that I had to make my trip North to Penang to er ... solve some issues caused by recent activities that I had nothing to do with. So I, along with Jason had to calm some clients who were rather irate with us. Not a good thing. Hate being in that position. But once clients are calm, Jason and I moved on to Lorong Selamat for Sisters Char Kway Teow! With giant prawns to boot! Oh, if you ever need to get to Penang in 3 hours or less, call Jason. He gets the job done. ;)

The food rocked my world, as did the Company. Business Grid was fun with moments of drama, as usual. But 2010 is all about GOOD stuff. So check out the Food!!!

I mentioned previously that Christmas is my favorite time of the year. Simple reasons for it actually. Families put differences aside and come together to enjoy at least one day a year together as a family unit (well, most families at least). Petty disagreements (really, if you look at it, arguments and disagreements shouldn't last the length of time that they do) are resolved or at least temporarily forgotten as we remember all the GOOD things about each other. Of course, I will be human and say that the presents part of Christmas rocks! :)

Scenes from my home decorated for Christmas! Loved the sight of presents under the tree as the fairy lights twinkled away merrily.

Of course, this had to be year of good loot!!! Best present hands down was the poster and acknowledgment of my massive (well, for me at least) weight loss from 120kg to 107kg now from Mama and Papa Lim. Compliments are far and few from them ;). Ranking up there is my ang pow from Mama and Papa Kettler from US. Woot! American dollars are ALWAYS welcome in my book ;). Next, would be Jerry and Serene ... I think if my brother had to be a Greek God, he'd be Hermes. Bloody mischievous! The monkey put my present in a humongous Longchamp bag and wrote on it "Dear Ken, Enjoy your PS3! Love, Jerry and Serene".

Imagine my excitement right.

Fast forward to opening it ... and it's good also la, but it's NOT a PS3. I got an amazing Crumpler bag! In my fave color too! :) So, enjoy the images below oh my stash! :) Wheee!

My stash!

Of course ... no Christmas dinner would be complete without the Skelchy-side making an appearance food-wise. ;) Coming from my side for the potluck at my place: Macaroni and Cheese and Mashed Potato Pie. From Serene: Pigs In A Blanket (YUM!!!)

Food: from the bountiful harvest of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We have been blessed! Thank you Lord!

There are of course other food which was amazing: Godma's Chicken Pies, wine (I KNOW there was wine :X) and a Leica camera? ;) The company was AMAZING!!!! Love you guys! Of course it was a er, little tight in my condo with 18 people in 1,086 square feet. Imagine everyone trying to squeeze in to the kitchen to take food.

More food part 2! :)

Of course, those who know me, know that I'm ... a little freaky about cleanliness and orderly arrangement in my home. At all times, if possible. So it was a great learning for me to do my best to ignore most of my urges to pick up the stray hair, wipe the spilled food ... but really ... spilled Cola on my carpet! Sigh. So after opening a billion presents ... ;), and saying goodbye to the last of my family, I couldn't sleep until I had cleaned up ... so it was about 4:35am when I finally turned off the Christmas tree lights and turned Facebook off (yes, I was chatting with some cousins ;) )

Day after Christmas was Hazlan and Liyana's wedding in PD. It was SO packed and BUSY, this was the ONLY shot that I managed to take, but needless to say the groom was stunning and the bride was breathtaking. Truly. The food was good ... but for some reason, there was this constant drifts of moo moo poop. For real. Oh ... there was also this little panda that we caught napping! ;)

I couldn't help but to put the Little Panda in here ... she's so CUTE in this picture! ;)

New Year's Eve was an interesting affair. Gastronomically speaking of course. ;) On the menu? Something that popped in my head. Pasta? Check. Garlic? Check. Bacon? Check. Italian Hot Sausage? Check. Birds Eye Chili? Check. Result = WOW. The wine however ... now that was something else. It had matured ... a little too much for my taste. Took 1/4 glass and I was already heading to Happy Land. We toasted and feasted to our hearts content and watched amazing shows on replay on AXN. As we waited for the countdown to New Year's we chatted about the year past and what we'd learned, experienced ... it's amazing when you look back and reflect and I really appreciated even more the people whom I have surrounded myself with.

Cheers!| Amazingly-yummy-explodes-in-your-mouth-and-then-some Pasta | New Year's first morning | Dill infused chicken sandwich | Serene nursing a hangover with illy coffee on New Year's Day | Siew Li's new hairdo | new year - new hair | devil curry with rice | Christmas present to myself: complete series of Artemis Fowl

I have surrounded myself with an amazing support system and people whom I love and who love me. I deserve that much at least in life. I make efforts as best possible with my extended family and hope that they feel my love and sincerity. Oh! I also discovered a yummy concoction for leftover chicken: dill, mayo, lemon, lemon zest, shredded chicken and toast. :) Best breakfast that I've ever had in the New Year ... ;) it being the first year and all ... Oh did you see Siew Li's new hair? ;) I've been trying to get her to change her hair ... and FINALLY! She sees the potential! :) Yay! So ... that's pretty much the first update for 2010!!!
Next: My team!

Christmas @ Home ...

So it's December.

My, my, how time has flown by.

It really does feel like it was just yesterday that Mom, Pops and I were in Vegas partying with the best of them in Sin City in 2008. And now ... it's Christmas 2009 and I get to play host to the LimKlan.



So, it is with great excitement that I made plans with Serene to go Christmas shopping for both decorations as well as presents. One of the stops that I made a lot in November into December this year was at Starbucks, and it was on one of those occassions that I managed to score the ridiculously priced Starbucks cup trinket for a Christmas tree. Can you imagine that something that CUTE and SMALL could cost RM32.00/- if you bought it at retail? WTF.


This is one of the very few times that I think very poorly of Starbucks. But the again, if you're drinking something at Starbucks, you're more than likely able to afford it anyway. So I guess my pissy-ness is kinda moot. :P On another note, my annual favourite, Iced Mocha Praline makes it's annual showing and I've been chugging it down like it's going out of style. ;) Go try it out y'all.

I have since wrapped the first round of presents and decorated my home ... and I'm quite chuffed with the results ... I need to take a better picture tonight, so I'll post that picture on here later ok? :) So I've got most of all the presents wrapped up and I started thinking that since Serene already KNOWS all the presents AND the presents that she's gotten (a pair of GAP jeans and a labelling machine), I figured that I need to get her a surprise gift. Jerry of course, had to SIBUK and come and see what he got for Christmas ... thank goodness he had a stomach ache and had to use the bathroom and I managed to hide his present from his grubby hands. He, ladies and gentlemen, will shake, rattle and roll a package until he guesses what it is ... and spoils MY fun of course. So I'm determined that that isn't going to be the case for Christmas 2009. :P So there.

Anyway, here's a photo from my place yesterday evening ... it's too grainy if you open up the real image, so just imagine it sharp as a knife and you get the image that I see every night. It's ... sheer magical, Christmas bliss. I decided to go with blinking lights at the core of my Christmas tree (yes, yes, I'm a Christmas geek) and to have steadies on the outer portion, which made stringing the lights in that little confined space an interesting ... exercise. I had to bend and use muscles that I only discovered in Astanga Yoga a couple of weeks back ... hmmm, everything happens for a reason yes? ;)

So, anyways, back to my story about the Gap stores in Malaysia. Or rather, KL. Serene and I traipsed into the GAP store in Gardens, Mid Valley and she immediately went for and fell in love with the distressed (here's another thing, WHY would you want a pair of pre-ripped jeans and pay retail for damaged goods?) jeans. I kinda banged on the idea of the non-ripped but distressed jeans right next to it and it was JUST as comfortable. So we got that pair for her Christmas present. At the counter, we inquired if they could alter it and they said not a problem, but it would take about 2 - 3 hours as they are short staffed. Since we were on a deadline to send Wawa to KLIA, that was out of the question. So we asked if we could do it another day at the 1U store.

Their reply: "No problem, just bring the receipt along with you."

We then asked: "How long will it take?"

"About the same time, Sir."

"Fine ... that's great. Thanks."

"No worries."

Fast forward 1 week and we're shopping again at 1U and we make a purposeful visit to the Gap store ... and mind you, this was like 10 in the morning ok. There were at most, 8 - 10 people in the store with about 7 - 8 store hands.

Us: "Excuse me, we'd like to alter this pair of jeans."

Gap: "Er ... let me check."

Us: "Um. Okaaaaaay."

Gap: "Sorry Sir / Ma'am. Can you come back on the 21st of December? Because we're NOT ALLOWED to do alterations during sales period and we're also short staffed."

Me: "How the HELL is that my problem? Your store in Gardens said that you can do alterations. There was not mention of a 'date' or any schpiel ...!!!!"

Gap: "Sorry-lor. I think got miscommunicayzion."

Me: ... storms off muttering "Ridiculous."

Lesson of the day: Don't trust GAP store sales staff. Damn liars and cheats. Now Serene has to go do alterations at some other tailor.

I may look and feel great, but don't trust the people that sell me - GAP jeans.

.

So now I'm debating between 2 presents for Serene, and for obvious reasons, I can't ask you for your opinions here now ... so I'll just decide and get it after this when I go get the Christmas stuff for the office. Yeah ... apparently, we're all happy to celebrate and organize all the other religions' celebrations, but when it comes to Christmas, obviously Juggernaughts ain't gonna lift her giant bazookas to do anything and everyone seemed to take the cue from her and ... decided not to volunteer to organize it. So ... it's back to me or there won't be a celebration dinner and then the MD will have a bitch fit. So ... excuse me while I get back to planning ... and I'm so excited!!! Whee!!! Will write more soon!

.

Xoxo,

Ken.

Fitness?

I am going for my first gym outing in YONKS because I've decided that I would like to be healthier and this is one small step towards that.

Gosh. I'm excited. Yoga first, then a little cycling, then dinner. LOL.

Fitness indeed.