The Season of Giving and Receiving

When you see this picture, your first reaction will be "What?! It's already new year and you are just about to blog about Christmas? You are so out-dated!" Well, that's undeniable, I had been pretty busy for the last two weeks of year 2009 and am simply loving it.

Anyway, lets get back to Christmas. After all, this is an entry all about Christmas, the season to be jolly, the season of giving and receiving.

About a week before x'mas, I attended a christmas play. The plot is simple but meaningful. The most impressive part of the play are the props, they are all made of foams.



Although my family does not celebrate Christmas but since Malaysia is a multi-racial country, I joined in the fun during this season of giving and receiving. Certainly giving is more fun than receiving when you see the expressions on people's face the moment they open their presents.
Presents for my loved ones.
Assorted chocolates, perfect gift for me.
Limited edition chocolates. Is it so obvious that I am a chocolate lover?

On the day itself, I had lunch with my parents at Station 1 Cafe, the first franchise in Penang. The food are average but the drinks they serve are good.

Our drinks.
Mum had chicken chop with mushroom sauce.
Dad had black pepper chicken maryland.
I can't remember what's mine called.

A dear friend of mum gave my family :
A box which looks like a doughnut box....
But they actually contain cup cakes!
Really cute and too-pretty-to-eat cup cakes.
The cup cakes are chocolate flavoured, yummy!


I personally like snowman more than santa claus. Merry Christmas!

The 160 Hours

I am back after a one month plus hiatus. No more text books and exam stress, yay!

I took a ten days study leave from work to fully concentrate on my revision (well, actually more of last minute cramming of facts and figures). During this period, I did not devote myself to the text books 100%, I did lots of other stuff which I know I should not do since exam is just around the corner. (I certainly hope my boss doesn't read blogs and stumble upon my blog. He might give me a warning letter for cheating the company but hey, I really did sat for the exam).

Since I have ten days of study leave which is equivalent to 240 hours, minus 8 hours of sleep per day, I still have 160 hours to study. So this are the stuff I did during the very important (but I did not fully utilise) 160 hours :

1. Went to the market with granny (2 hours per day). The morning wet market is actually a very interesting place to visit. The bargaining, the crackling of jokes among the traders and the sight of mummies and wives selecting the freshest meat and vegetables to cook a hearty meal for their families kick start my day.
Gigantic jack fruit.
An array of fresh fish and I can't even name one.
A very cute shop that sells home-made soy sauce, chillies paste and pickles. It is the nicest and cleanest shop in the market.
Yummy peanut pancake.

2. Kitchen helper to mum (about an hour)
Some of the vegetables that I chop.

3. Book fair (Went there twice, spent approximately 3 hours each day). The advertisement claimed that it's the biggest book fair in the northern region of Malaysia and I was not disappointed at all.
All this for less than RM 50. What a great bargain.

4. Seafood dinner by the sea (3 hours for the hearty dinner with my family). Nice view, yummy food and reasonably priced. You can check out my previous entry 'Yummy Discovery' for more details on the restaurant.
Fishing boats.
Fishermen mending their fishing nets.

5. Hang out at the shopping mall (about 2 hours each on two separate occasions).
While I was taking this picture, a friendly Caucasian came to me and said ".....free Friday.....". I did not get what he said due to his heavy accent, so I just smiled and left. After much pondering, I figure out that he offered to snap a picture of me with the snow men.

6. Went to Gurney drive for my all-time favourite laksa (about 4 hours since we stroll there). After dinner, we noticed a huge crowd surrounding 'something'. It was a 'silver-man' (street performer). He is the first in Penang, therefore it's a novelty.


7. Accompany granny to the dentist (Waited for grandma's turn from 9am and finally at 10.30am, she was called into the clinic. Went home at 1pm. In total, 4 hours).
The washroom (considered very nice for a dental clinic).

All in, I have approximately 100 hours left to study, minus all the eating and bathing time. Well, luckily I manage to scrape through the exam. I rewarded myself with donuts after the exam.
Cute box.
Yummy but sinful donuts. Of course I did not finish all six by myself, that will be way too sinful.

Saying Goodbye

I am feeling very emo now, the heavy rain out there only make it worse.

It is always very difficult to bid farewell. It had been a long time since I have this feeling, someone or something very dear to you, that makes you thank God for bringing him/her/it to your life. And when you are counting your blessings and appreciating the moments, suddenly have to be separated. Those moments will become memories. Do not frown that 'this is it', it's the end but instead be happy that it was once a chapter in your book (life).

Bro's Convocation

Just completed my first post for the night but still cannot sleep, the caffeine is really working. So I shall post my second entry and hopefully by the end of this entry, I can just doze off on the keyboard.

Last week, my family went to Kuala Lumpur for my brother's convocation. We stayed at our relatives' place and had a fun-filled family gathering.
We paid a little extra for an eighteen-seater coach. The seats are pretty spacious and comfy. There are also individual television installed with a selection of movies for passengers to watch and kill time. However, with the price we paid, we were a little disappointed to not be served any food or drinks.
While waiting to board the bus.
A scenic view from the bus while we were passing Penang bridge.

We went to the night market within walking distance from my relative's house and I discovered some food which could not be found in Penang.
Really greasy and sinful burger. The bun and the fillings are all deep fried and I personally don't quite like it.
Cartoon-characters sponge cake.
Really really huge spring rolls. It is about three times the normal spring roll.
Stinky fried bean curd. It is a popular street delicacy in Hong Kong and I was suprised to find it in Kuala Lumpur. We could smell the stench from afar but decided to give it a try. I find that it smells must worse than it taste.

The day my brother has been waiting for......
What's graduation without a bouquet of flowers ?
Bro in the gown.
A sneak peak of the hall before the ceremony starts.

To celebrate my brother's big day, we went for dinner at a chinese restaurant. The food was delicious but it was a long wait. The chef took his own sweet time to churn out the sumptuous dishes despite the big crowd. In the end, we waited for an hour plus for dinner to be served.
The entrance of the restaurant.
Antique dining table and chairs.
Kitchen door
One of the many ornaments in the restaurant.

Ais kacang for dessert at the night market and that concludes my short visit to Kuala Lumpur.

It's already 2am now and it's raining cats and dogs here in Penang. I am still not very sleepy but I will try counting sheeps to sleep. Good night!!

Out-dated Stuff

I should pretty much be asleep now since tomorrow is a working day but thanks to my low will-power, I gave in to temptation and had a cup of coffee at 9pm. So now I can't sleep and since I am not in the mood to study, I might as well post something here. What I am about to post are pretty out-dated.

Lets begin with my belated birthday celebration. My former college mates who are now working in other states of Malaysia threw me a belated birthday dinner. Although, it was two weeks after the real day, I was pretty touched by their thoughtfulness. My friend of twelve years who could not celebrate my birthday with me because she was on vacation at Hong Kong bought me a clutch bag and a key chain from Disneyland for my birthday.
The clutch bag from Hong Kong.
The key chain from Disneyland.

On the first to the ninth day of the ninth month in the Chinese lunar calendar, Taoist go on a strict vegetarian diet in conjunction with the 'Nine Emperor Festival'. Besides the regular vegetarian food outlet serving an array of delicious vegetarian food, many hawkers will also take the opportunity to legally set up stalls along the road side to give consumers an extra choice to choose from. My family do not celebrate this festival but just to join in the fun, we decided to have our lunch at the longest stretch of vegetarian food stalls in Penang on the second last day of the festival.


Spoilt for choice.

This was what my family had at a reasonable price. Although it was a meatless meal but the dishes are really tasty.
Vegetarian satays.
Vegetarian burger anyone ?
What about some vegetarian pizza ?
Vegetarian spring rolls.
Hill-full pf vegetarian curry puffs.
Vegetarian fried and oily finger food.
Vegetarian dumplings.
Vegetarian cupcakes for dessert.

Came across these unique buildings from the place we parked. The building on the left looks very much like a church and the one on the right looks like a temple. Malaysia is truly a united multi-racial country ?!