Jogoya

HK came up with this idea of going for Japanese food for his birthday. Or maybe it wasn't him. Forgotten who actually suggested it but I was kind of reluctant to go with the flow initially. Maklumlah, this Jogoya thing costs about 100 bucks per person and I got like a few birthdays to celebrate this month. Futhermore, did a few shopping sprees and some unexpected expenses came up..hah...financially tight la in short.

But after some persuasions from him and the rest, and some unavoidable temptations, I gave in. So there we were, all lined up in front of the all famous Jogoya even before it opened for business last Monday evening. And I thought we were early, mana tau, there was already a whole long line of other people waiting in queue. "That nice meh?" was the first thing that ran through my mind. And, yes, indeed it was.

Thanks to HK and his booking a couple of days earlier, we managed to get in with minimal disruptions and got a table some where in the middle. A table for 11. Cool decos. Dim lights. And so our madness begun. We tried almost every variety that was laid out that night. CK took oysters after oysters the whole night. WY was all about king crabs. She sapu-ed every single type they have there. Pa went for soft shell crabs. The whole night you'd only hear him asking, "Where's my soft shell crab? Still not here yet?" Dia, on the other hand, went for another type of sea living animal. Fishes. Cod fishes. Bawals. One after the other. SK grabbed a few "gui ling gous" during dessert session. And HK, wow! He took almost everything edible there. Even when the rest of us were stuffed till we can't breathe, he was still feasting on the dishes that the waiter kept bringing to the table. Geng! I take my hat off to you man.

All in all, I guess we spent around 3 hours there. And it was definitely worth it. Tasty till the end. Nothing like any other Japanese food that I've tried. I think if I was not that stuffed, I would have continued further. After all, we qualified for the VIP dishes. Boy, do I really feel like a VIP man! I guess words can't really describe the food and the ambience surrounding it. Pictures might not really get you to imagine it either. So, the best way is to try it out for yourself. And believe me, that 100 bucks is definitely worth spending. Give it a try! And make sure you make bookings in advance. You'd be amaze to see how many people lining up to get in.

Alright, no more buffet for me for the next few months. Damn bloated now.

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Friends

You'd be miserable with or without them.

Yeap. And they have a wierd way of messing up your life.

On the days when you needed them so much, when you were feeling lonely, when you needed someone to be there or someone just to listen, they were no where to be found. Calls get unanswered. Messages unreplied. And outings get rejected. You end up being more depressed than ever and wondered what good does it bring by having so many friends.

Then on the days when you needed time to be on your own, just to rest or to do some personal stuffs, your phone never stops ringing. From friends every where. Some party some where. Some catch up later. Some yamcha after that. Then movie the next morning. Or shopping the next afternoon. Then dinner again. Then another party comes by. All from different group of friends. And when you are too busy entertaining this group that you somehow or rather left out the other group, they'll start to call and ask why haven't you been calling lately? Why have you changed? Why don't you want to hang out with the group any more?

Do you get what I mean now? Life sure is isn't simple.

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Another total madness

Went for another trip down to Malacca today. Yes. Another time. Shocked the hell out of my parents and a few of my colleagues. "What? You are going there again? You memang chill la, friend"...Hah. This was not a sudden decision. The trip has been planned a month ago I guess. Someone got to know about some free tickets to Dusun Paradise - an orchard full of all kinds of fruits. And we get to eat them as much as we want for free. Thanks to the free tickets.

So we went there today. Only that there were not many fruits around to eat. It was just not the fruiting season la. We saw the fruit trees, we saw the descriptions explaining them but not the fruits. There were not really alot of varieties anyway. We saw chempedaks all the way. Manggoes all the way. Passion fruits all the way. Bananas all the way. Papayas all the way. Okay la. There were other fruit trees also. Cherries. Durians. Pineapples. Starfruits. Jambus. Guavas. Langsats. Etc etc.

The only thing that made the trip fun was the aboriginal show from Sabah and Sarawak. It would be rather bored if it weren't for the traditinal dance that we joined in for fun. On stage. In front of all the audiences. But we couldn't follow in their steps, so we made up our own. Boy, it was tiring. Hahaha!

So after making rounds around the orchard in buggy cars, snapping pictures here and there, playing with little animals and plucking fruits, we left at 2 pm. Came back for a late lunch and realised that it was rather stupid to go all the way there for nothing.

Youngsters. That's what we do. Doing stupid things for nothing. And enjoying every moment of it. Hah!

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Taiping/Penang trip - Part III - The stuffs we captured

Here's what we did on the trip. For those who couldn't imagine what I wrote previously, maybe the pictures might help.

Have fun!

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Taiping/Penang trip - Part II - The 'games' we play

Yups. That's what trips are for. To have tonnes of fun. And we certainly did. Although with little bumps along the way.

So, we went in 3 cars. All 10 of us. I guess the whole department would have already known. No matter how hard we tried to keep it hushed. Cause all of a sudden a whole bunch of people took leaves on weekdays. Prompted their curiosities la. So, we headed to Taiping on the first day and stayed for the night at Legend Inn. What's there to do in Taiping, you ask? Well, not much. But since one of us is from there, so we went for it la. But basically, we bonded with nature while we were staying there.

We were taken to Burmese Pool. It's a waterfall la. With rocks and streams and everything. We packed some goreng stuffs and picnic-ed by the rocks. There was a point where I slipped and fell into the water. And someone managed to record it. Ish! Since I was wet, I continue to lay on the flowing water. Cool and refreshing. Accompanied by little fishes as well. Ahhh!

The next morning,, we were still in Taiping. This time we were brought up to Maxwell Hill. Nah, no hiking up hill. City people like us would rather hire a jeep up. Around 30 minutes. Another refreshing and chilling moment. Early morning breeze. With a bird's eye view of Taiping town. We played swing there. Walked on a suspension bridge. Competed to run uphill. And definitely joked around. But the journey down was horrible. With everyone felling pening and a few vomitted. Real city kids la us.

Then, we continued our journey to Penang island. We booked this apartment at Sri Sayang Resort, Batu Ferringhi. The first day was spent hanging around Gurney Plaza and Gurney Drive. No nice view la this time. It was low tide and the breeze was not strong enough. Making our walk rather hot. We snapped pictures here and there. Got lost on the roads awhile. Quarreled abit about directions. And made it back to the apartment rather early. No night activities we planned for that night as we were all very tired.

The apartment was rather dodgy. With the flush not working, the air cond not strong enough and the shower abit cacat. Looked more like a run-downed place. No way I'm going back there again. 2 nights there was enough. So, the first night was spent by arranging rooms, taking turns to use the washrooms, watched horror movies and some even brought study materials to study for exams. Hah!

The whole of the next day was spent eating around Penang. The only place we hung out was yet another mall. Perangin Mall. Where we spent a total of 2 hours of window shopping. Then it's eat, eat and eat. And ya, I managed to try out their trishaw ride. Cheap. Only RM 2.50 for like 15 minutes around Penang. Syok! Then we went to the pasar malam at Batu Ferringhi to......buy DVDs! RM 4 per piece. Let it be CDs or DVDs. All kinds of musics. All kinds of movies. All kinds of series. If you can't find it in one stall., feel free to try your luck at the next stall. You will definitely get the one you want. Someone bought over 100 bucks worth of DVDs in just that one night. Take your own sweet time in finishing watching them man.

What's a trip without some booze? As expected. We finished the whole bottle this time. Unlike the Lumut trip. This time we played arm wrestlings instead of batmans and spidermans. Losers drink. Everyone turned red and dizzy by the end of it. And yet, we still had the strength to talk about love and relationships. Hah. Another heart-to-heart talk that night. Surprisingly, everyone was still sober enough to pour out their own opinions. Right on until 5 am where we really cannot tahan and crashed immediately. Leaving all the stuffs behind in the hall.

We slept till about noon before checking out and went for that must-have seafood at Bukit Tambun. Then it's goodbye and we went our separate ways home. Well, all is not over yet where we still had more stories to tell on the ride home. My car was filled with stories about various fishes and fishermans. From tengirris to dolphins to sharks to islands to sampans and cruises to different seas to baits and fish nets. Hahaha! Coded story. Shhhhh...

It was during this trip that all true colours emerged. Some of them can be really crappy. Some really can be naughty and play like no ones business. Some can be really serious. Some loses their patients very easily. Some egoistic people. Some really caring ones. People just aren't who they are at first sight la. But still, we call each other....friends.

We were still talking about the trip when we got back this week. Almost everyone was asking us about it. During lunch. During tea-breaks. In between work. And you can definitely see alot of Tambun biscuits on the tables. Each of us at least got 2 boxes back for our fellow bosses and team mates. Our car was really packed with nothing else but boxes after boxes of Tambun biscuits. But everything was gone within 2 days. Nice.

Unfortunately, pictures are not in yet. No time to upload them. Will post them up when they are all done.

One memorable trip. The first and the last one, perhaps?

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Taiping/Penang trip - Part I - Food

The trip worked out. Without much 'casualties'. And all participants showed up. 4 days 3 nights. 10 persons. 3 cars. It's too long to write in detail every single thing we did, so for the first part, I'll talk about the main purpose we went up north. FOOD of course. What else could Penang be famous for right?

So, here goes.

• Nam Heong coffee shop in Ipoh - I seriosuly have no idea what this place is famous for, but people from there says it's good. So, we went for it. And it is indeed good. Expecially the egg tarts and this chicken siew pao. Highly recommended. It's crunchy and it's fresh. A totally must go if you happen to be in Ipoh.
• Hokkien mee in Taiping - my friend lives there, so he knows where to bring us. There's no name for this place. Just a stall by the road side managed by an old couple. Another thumbs up. Taste nothing like any Hokkien mee in KL. We ordered plate after plate cause it tasted so damn good and there were 10 damn hungry kids to feed. And it was damn cheap. The aunty there sort of got confused with so many orders that she had to repeat them so many times.
• Duck rice, Taiping - This is one of the most expensive meal we had. Forgot which shop it is already. Basically it's by the main road. Ya. I know. Which main road rite? Sorry la, you know I'm bad at directions. I guess the expensive part is not the duck but the side orders we placed. The soups were suppose to be yummy so we ordered a few. We had 'tien kai', 'sang yu', 'chu tou' and some chicken essence one. And their orange juice is fabulous. Can't describe here la. You got to try them out yourself. Then, you'll know what I mean.
• Char kuey teow, Lorong Selamat, Penang - now this one has been on the papers. The aunty who made it famous is real snobbish and they have different pricing for locals and non-locals. Obviously people like us are considered non-locals and are therefore being charged at a higher price. It was nothing special anyway.
• Gurney Drive, Penang - locals don't find the food there nice. But there were plenty of varieties. That's their main attraction. So, lets see, we had : fried oysters, pasemburs, laksa, ikan bakar, fried chicken skin, otak-otak, fried tauhu etc. Yea. All unhealthy stuffs. But we loved it.
• Yam rice, Bukit Mertajam - another friend knew of this place. We went for it. It's situated in a corner coffee shop. Didn't get to know the name of the place. But it was something special. It's actually rice with yam on top plus meatballs and all kinds on pigs' intestines. We didn't have enough of it as well cause the portion of it is rather small. A few of them shouted hungry not long after that. No fret. There were other 'menus' planned out.
• Cendol, Jalan Penang, Penang - This is absolutely good. I had two bowls myself. People were actually queueing up for this. The cendol's sweet but not too sweet. Just right enough for our taste buds. Yumm.
• 'Pie-tee', Jalan Penang, Penang - Just situated at the cofee shop next to the cendol. Cute cup-cake sort of like delicacy filled with turnips and tomato sauce. One bite finishes it all. Just a small one la.
• New Lane, Penang - Something like Gurney. All kinds of stalls along this road. Mostly what you can see in Gurney is here la. But we tried stuffs other than those tried in Gurney. To name a few: porridge, satay, lobak, chee cheong fun, fried oysters (again), 'pat pou' drink etc
• Seafood, Bukit Tambun - This was our last place to eat. We went there for lunch on the last day. It's actually a fishing pond turned into a restaurant. So, we got this table by the pond with a nice view, with water under us and fishes swimming around and soft breezes blowing, as it was cloudy that day. All kinds of seafood were ordered and we took our own sweet time munching on soft shell crabs and just enjoying the moment and the company. For 8 dishes of seafood and 2 plates of soft shell crabs, we were charged for less than RM 200. Plus raw oysters as well. My friend ordered some kind of weird looking seafood which I forgot what it's called. Look yucky as well but tasted not bad. I will know how to tell you when I see one. All stomachs filled before the drive home.

Nah. No fancy restaurants on this trip. We got all our food in hawker stalls. By the road. By some tempat terpencil. All sweats and dirty but definitely worth all the long drives. At least, they were special stuffs that we don't get them often in KL. And they are really damn cheap man. We were laughing our heads off. Yummy and cheap. Hah! We had a few meals in one day. Real fulfilling.

I shall detail my activities there, other than food, in the next entry.

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Up high...

I'm currently on the highest level in my office building. In a huge meeting room with dim lights and nice couches. The blinds are all up and I get a clear night view of the Damansara residential area. The street lights of some highway far away. The lights from the huge houses below. The car lights passing by. Soft jazz music playing from my laptop. And I'm obvoiusly not working la. Waiting to go home and in the meantime enjoying my likings - night views and jazz musics. Wouldn't it be perfect if I had a glass of red wain in my hands?

Seniors have all left, leaving me and another colleague behind. No way I'm gonna be a lousy teammate right? So, we shall leave together. As I watched the cars pass by, the flickering of some street lights below, and listening to soft slow music, life can treat you well at times. Tonight is one of those times.

All right. Got to head home and pack for tomorrow.

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Trip blues

Never have I gone for a trip that's so confusing, so frustrating and so irritating as this one. And it's just the planning stage. We had more than 10 persons for the Malacca trip with my pals and there was no such trouble. Now this with less than 10 people and it's already getting on to the nerves of almost everyone.

First there's this uncertainty of attendance from a few of the participants. Guess what? The trip is tomorrow and up to this point, we can't confirm the number of people who's going to join us. Hence, the uncertainty in accommodation and transportation. Then, there were some misunderstandings among us and someone got real pissed that the person pulled out. But, that person is having second thoughts now and we are kinda waiting for that person's final decision. In the meantime, all planning has been put to a halt. Great. All these just because of one person.

Next, some alternative suggestions caused someone else to be mad. Saying why isn't that person informed about anything that deviates from the original plan. Come on, it's just a plan. One that is subjected to change. And I don't really understand why this trip have to be so formal. With plans here and there. Places to visit. Time allocated for each place. Amount per day for general fund collection. Amount of petrol to fill. Amount of Touch 'N Go to top up. Car allocations that cannot be changed. This whole thing sounded more like school kids going for vacation or something. And there's a schedule for everything. You should really see our itinerary man. Or that costing thing that one of the organizers did. A costing sheet for a trip. Can you possibly imagine that? I appreciate all the effort but you people are taking it way too seriously.

And now, a few people are fed-up with all the arguments. Some people need to be pujuk so that they won't continue to have hard feelings. And more arrangements have to be made. Just by planning this trip is already tiring. I don't know what might happen when we actually go for it tomorrow. I never had to experience this kind of 'hardship' for any trip that I went before. It's even more headache than working. A trip is for you people to chill man. That's the main point in going for a vacation.

Just got back from a pre-trip meeting. A last minute one that is. And yeah. Some conclusions have been made. Seems that everyone has got to agree on something to make this thing work out. And I seriously hope that this trip will be a successful one. No more 'hiccups' people.

I shall bring back more stories and pictures next week.

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Happy tang lung festival

Mid-autumn festival this year was really spent with family and friends. I had voluntarily agreed to offer my place for the celebration this year with my friends. Since all of them were restless and looking for plans for Saturday night. So Piggy came up with this idea that we should play 'tang lung' at MY house. And I said yes.

And it is with this 'yes' that I made ALL preparations by myself. Okay. With some help from mum. Went to buy fresh stuffs from the market. Came back and cleared the house. Got the food ready. Made some extra dishes and my very first red bean 'tong sui'. And my dear friends were an hour late for the 7pm dinner. As usual. Something would be terribly wrong if any of them was punctual. Hah.

Their arrival was sure a loud one. And the noise didn't stop until they left. They sapu-ed all the food that was laid out. Maklumlah, para MPSJ sekalian. Making loads of jokes and craps on the dining table. English lessons konon-nye. Thank God I don't take lessons from you all. You know fully well what I mean.

Then we rekindled our childhood activity of lighting tang lungs and candles out on the porch. But I guess when you are in your twenties, you'd get 'rather' aggressive. We burnt down a few lanterns. Singing and swaying to 'yue liang dai biao wo de xin'. Actually, the guys did that. Hah. I should have post the video up la. It sure was amusing. And not to mention, we had mooncakes. Yummmmm...

And so it ended. This year's mid-autumn fest. Entertaining. TIRING. No full moon. And I got both my friends and my family with me this year. There's nothing more I could ask for. Lolz.

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Quote

"Who doesn't long for someone to hold,
Someone who knows how to love you without being told,
Somebody please tell me why am I on my own,
If there's a soulmate for everyone...."


Nah. I didn't pen those. Got it of a friendster's comment. But it works for me.

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I'm beginning to find it interesting to work in office...

Alright. I'm back. Been busy with work the past weeks that I don't even have time for myself, let alone blog.

Life has been quite happening lately. I'm beginning to like working in office. Not that I'm workaholic, but rather I have friends around who work along with me. People of similar age, people who speaks the same kind of 'language'....people who clicks. Wanna know what we usually do?

I'll let you in on some:

1) If possible, sit near to each other for more convenient gossiping (about anything and everything)
2) Sought help from each other in times of trouble (either work related or private ones)
3) Disturb each other during slacking hours ( and I mean real disturbing )
4) Play online games together
5) Regulars for lunch, tea and DEFINITELY dinner on late nights
6) Pep talk once in awhile whenever anyone of us is feeling low
7) From colleagues turn friends where we hang out for movies, drinks, sports and some clubbing...and a upcoming trip
8) Keep each other company during times of need

I guess if you have been browsing through my friendster, you'll get the idea who are they. Yea. My current gang. Sort of known to be as a gang in the work place. Cause we hang out together too often.

I can be very eager to stay in office because of them. And I don't seem to dread working late too if they are aroud. Isn't it a miracle of what your friends can do to you? Working has been fun nowadays. I've always said, sometimes it's not so much about the work that you do, but rather it's about the people that you work with. That's what's important. Although we don't know each other for that very long, I mean, compared to my other friends, they can be considered new friends in my life, but I do see them the most these days. Every other day. Every other night too. They are an amusing bunch.

We work together. We play together. We eat together. We car-pool together. There are times where we can spend the whole day doing everything together. They can be pretty insane too at times. "Dangerous" people. Hah!

Time amazes me sometimes. On the way it moves. It leads you on and on. But never going back. Never bringing you back to amend the mistakes you made. Never bringng you back to re-live the days that you treasured so much. So, as the saying goes, "Make the most of every moment you have now, as you will never pass this way again"

I appreciate them. So I am just going to cherish every moment I have with them now. Cause you will never know where life will lead you in the future. Even if we do part, and I mean we WILL part someday, at least, we had fun before. I am going to have all the fun there is now.

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"Dream" came true...

Was out to the movies with my little bloop one evening. We were too bored and decided to just buy the tickets to the next available screening for that night. It turned to be a romantic movie. Yea, all right. It was Jay Chow's "Secret".

The cinema was empty when we walked in. Obviously la. Since it was weekday and the movie has been on screen for quite a while now. A few minutes later, a young couple walked in. And then, another couple walked in. Then another. And another. Very soon, almost all the front seats were taken by couples. I turned to my goldfish and joked, "Ahhh, how I wish a cute guy would be seating next to me. Why la am I seating next to you in a romantic movie?" She jokingly answered, "It's still early and you are already dreaming."

A few minutes passed, the movie have not started and the whole row where we were seated were still empty. I crapped with my sis and we giggled. Then, a couple of young guys plopped down next to bloop. I smiled at her. She whispered to me,"Jie, your dream came true." "They are not next to me. Those beside me are still empty. How about we switch places?"

And just after I finished my sentence, a group of guys came in and guess what...they took the seats right beside me! I turned to bloop and we both burst into laughters. "Wishes" do come true, huh? And nah, they were not cute la. Ahah!

P/S: The movie was okay la. Not really very romantic. Not touching enough. And Jay's acting wasn't what I expected it to be.

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All mixed-up

No idea what my mind wants me to do. No idea what my heart wants me to do. Been wondering what I really want to do. Or whether it's the right thing to do. Or whether I should do the things that I want to do. After finally getting a clear picture that I should do the things that I want to do, my actions don't quite coincide with my decisions. I end up doing things that I don't mean to do in the first place. Or I failed to put into actions the things that I thought of doing. At the end of the day, I wonder why I did or didn't do certain things. And I kick myself for not knowing what I wanted to do.

Confused la in short.

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Totally worn out

That would be me. After going through one crazy, mad and rush week. Stressed. Lack of sleep. And emotionally unstable.

Been leaving work around 12 to 1 am for every night the past week due to a rush job that I was involved in. Not only that, I have to be up around 6 everyday for training. That left me around 4 to 5 hours of sleep every night. It was a consolation that I had some of my gang around to keep me sane. Hah. But I was still stressed up.

Then I did a mad thing of going down to Malacca TWICE in 12 hours. On the eve of Merdeka. Once to accompany a colleague back for a sudden emergency and another time for a planned trip with my friends.So there goes. I celebrated Malaysia's 50th year of independence in Malacca with my colleagues. And then went to all the tourists attractions there again the next morning with my friends. Nice. That night which we stayed over there, I slept like a log. Dead tired. All I can think of is the bed. The bed. The bed. Nothing else.

So you can imagine how worned out I was this whole week. Physically and mentally. Each time of late nights brings emotinal distress to me. And then friends comes into the picture. When I realised that I couldn't find anyone to let it out, I get lagi distressed.

I 'predict' that the coming week is going to be something similar. Without the Malacca part. Hah.

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Fireworks

I ditched my team in office and went out to Putrajaya to catch the fireworks display while they were working their heads off to meet the deadline in the coming week. What a 'team player' I turned out to be. No doubt, had been feeling guilty about it but I definitely didn't regret doing so. Hah! Yea. I was glad I went.

The display was really breathtaking. With team Italy on the line last night. The convention centre was swarming with poeple. Of all ages. Of all races. My view was rather blocked by some big burly guys in the front. But I still managed to catch the full view through tip toeing and peeking through here and there.

It was a musical fireworks competition. And last night was a romantic one. You know. With sentimental Italian music playing while watching meteor like fireworks showering down on you. Not to mention they had this something like twinkling stars and love shaped ones. And full of vibrant colours. Awwww! How I wish someone would just propose to me at that very moment. Hehe. But it's hard to describe in words. You need to be there in person to feel it yourself. The feeling is just different.

And after that, someone felt like going on the ferris wheel. So, we walked all the way to the fun fair that they had there. Putrajaya is really damn huge. We walked like forever just to get to the fun fair. Not only that. We couldn't find the exact way in. So we went through the lalangs, crossed some muddy area and jumped over some longkang just to get there. How adventurous. Someone fell. Someone got soaked with water. And we laughed all the way.

Fun fair was rather boring. Usual rides. But way expensive. Just for the fun of it, we went for the bumper car ride. Very bumpy. Very aggressive. Hurt my knee in it. All ganas people. Sigh. Releasing stress I guess. Hah!

Then went for supper. Till like 3.30 in the morning. Surprisingly, my dad didn't rush me home. So I took the opportunity to stay longer. Notti me. It was definitely a worth going outing. The guilty part subsided when I got back from it. Fine. I shall work more in the coming week la then. Just to make up for the little guiltyness that remained.

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