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.