it pays but you don't have to pay

free dinner and free movie, who wouldn't want that? but is it possible to have a free dinner and/or free movie? yes it is. how, you may ask? try winning one. or two. or more.

on 6 feb. 2010, i got a dinner invitation from Litefm. i have won two invites previously, one for a japanese buffet dinner at Jogoya Japanese Restaurant, Starhill and the other was at Nipah Coffeehouse, Equatorial Hotel. how do i get these invites? simple. by entering a contest on Litefm. i was lucky to get selected twice. but this time i ask my bf to try his luck. i brushed some of my luck on to him and he got the invites. so we went here.

Good ol' Happy Days Restaurant at Taipan USJ.

the interior is like an old-fashioned American diner.

free food


Zak, Sara and Non

with Zak and Sara of the Lite Breakfast.
oh happy days~

what about the free movie? i won 4 in-season passes from Red.fm to watch Tooth Fairy.


checkout the price. RM 0.00.

so the best things do come for free. it pays to try your luck at entering contests, doesn't it? and the best part is, you don't have to pay anything. ok except for a few cents to enter the sms contest. but what's a few cents or a ringgit as compared to a free movie?

coffee story

You see, at home, I normally drink Nescafe O (hereinafter referred to as coffee). I decided to cut down on the condensed milk intake, thus the O part. My maid usually made my coffee for me. What is there to complain anyway? Unless if it’s too sweet or too dilute or too much coffee or not hot enough, then only I’ll complain. But she's being consistent so I'm not complaining. Sometimes I made it myself. The good thing about making your own cup of coffee, or any other drinks for that matter, is that you can make it to your liking. If you like it sweet, by all means, load up on the sugar. If you like it bitter, use more coffee. If you like with creamer, suit yourself.

Speaking of which, I just made myself a cup of steaming hot coffee. And I think it is the best cup of coffee ever! Damn the taste is just perfect.

Well my family may beg to differ though.

When we were on holiday, sometimes I would make a pot of coffee or milo. for everyone. Over there, we don’t use condensed milk. Instead, we use fresh milk. So go figure. The taste is definitely different. My family thinks that I made the worst tasting coffee ever. I don’t mind the mocking. I don’t mind making the coffee. Seriously. Not one bit. My philosophy is simple. I make it to my own liking. Too bad if you don’t like it hehehe. I think it tastes fine, if not great. Sometimes I wish I could get away with making coffee for them but they would ask me to make one every once in a while. So what can I say? Drink at your own risk.

Ok I better finish my coffee before it gets cold.

Anyway, how do you like your coffee?

glitter-graphics.com

radio gaga

When I am in the office, I would listen to the radio via the web. Even though I need to think and read, I just can’t stand the silence. I don’t know about you but I just have to have a little bit of music in the background. The stations that I normally tune in to are Lite.fm and Mix.fm, with the occasional Fly.fm, Era or Suria.fm. I seldom tune in to Hitz.fm simply because the songs are not the kind of songs that you can listen to when you need to ease your mind. The last thing I want to listen to are some noise and head-banging tunes.

However, what I notice is that, the stations keep on playing the same songs over and over again. And this goes on for days. For the past few days, I have been listening to Mix.fm and I notice that the songs are the same. In one day, I get to hear these songs, among others, numerous times.

1. Stay- Ronan Keating
2. Say Hey- Michael Franti
3. Avalanche- Marie Digby
4. Straight Through My Heart- The Backstreet Boys
5. Gone- Kelly Clarkson
6. Fireflies- Owl City
7. I Look To You- Whitney Houston
8. Sweet Dreams- Beyonce
   

These songs are nice. I love listening to them. But when it comes on air 5-10 times a day, I kinda got sick of it. It’s annoying.

And don’t get me started with the ads on radio.

put to use

I bought this in Cardiff.

It was really cheap. I was lucky to have small feet as, guess what, these are size 4.5, for children. In Malaysia, my shoe size is 5, which I think is normal because most shoes on display are of size 5, so I’m lucky and it’s relatively easy to buy shoes my size. Except during sale because most size 5 shoes are already out of stock.

Anyway, when I bought the shoes, my family mocked me and made fun of me.

“Bila je nak jogging nya?”
“Macam la pakai pun kasut tu. Beli je lebih.”
“Tu nanti beli, simpan je la dalam almari kasut.”

And the list of mockeries go on.

But I went ahead and bought it anyway because it’s pink, it’s cute and it’s cheap. Really. That was about a month ago. I came back here on 2 January, about 22 days ago. And I only wore it last Saturday. The shoes have started to collect dust in the cupboard.What motivated me to finally put it to use?

These are the reasons:

Dinner on Friday at this stall in SS2 PJ was awesome.

Kailan Ikan Masin and Sup Lala.

Butter prawn and udang lipan masak cili kering.

If that is not enough, we then headed here.

Tak kenyang lagi ke dah makan nasi dengan seafood segala??

The durians may look small and pale in colour but they are really good. Soft, creamy, sweet. Perfect.

High makan durian....

The next day, guilty started to creep in. My burp and my pee smells of durians haha. So we went here.
But before that, we had these.

Cendol mamak in Jalan Gurney.

Then we burned the calories off by doing these.

But at night, I had more durians with pulut.

*burp*

picture not so perfect

I have been wanting to blog about this but I was not really in the mood to blog now and I don’t really have the time to blog anyway (don’t I?).

During my recent holiday, hundreds, if not more than a thousand pictures were taken during the course of the 3-week holiday. Too many, you say? I think so too but to justify it, we have not one but 3 cameras (two digital cameras and one of those high-tech high resolution bulky dslr camera), excluding our handphone cameras. Plus, the holiday was for 3 freakin’ weeks, and we went to so many places and there were 7 of us. Most of the time, we would take a family picture at a landmark or a tourist spot. And then each of us wanted to take pictures alone with the landmark in the background. So you do the math.

Anyway, what irks me is that, in certain places, they don’t allow us to take pictures. For instance, we were at McD’s in Lisbon. Guess what’s on the menu? Bacon, ham and pork burger. Yup, at McD’s. We have not much choice so we ordered the Fillete de Pescado (Fillet of Fish). I thought that I just have to take the picture of the menu so I took out my handphone and just when I was about to take the picture, one of the cashiers saw me and said something in their language which means “no taking pictures” complete with hand gestures and what not. Embarrassing? Yes. But do I care? Not really. I don’t even understand what she said and pretended to look innocent and went to sit down.

Another incident was when we were at Madrid de Barajas Airport, Spain. There was an information counter and the name of the airport was clearly written so I took a picture of my mum near the counter. I mean, it’s normal right when you go to a foreign country, you would want to take pictures near the name of the place or if you see something unique or unusual which can only be found there. Like, duhhhh. After I snapped the picture, the woman behind the counter stood up and called me, in her language of course. I was like, huh? She mumbled something and when I couldn’t understand her, she said in English, “You take picture? Show me the picture.” She looked pissed. WTF? So I showed her the picture and then she said, “You delete now.” Huhhh?? In protest, I showed her the picture right in front of her face and deleted the picture and said, “Nak sangat delete? Hah delete!! Puas hati??” Of course she didn’t understand me but I was just expressing my dissatisfaction. I also pressed the delete button extra hard and I did it right under her nose. Seriously, WTF? Shouldn’t she be proud that a tourist is in her country and took a picture there? All I want is the name of the airport. What’s the harm in that? What a great first impression, huh?

There was another time when sis and bil was fooling around in a souvenir shop in London, trying on the hats, the funky glasses and what not and got a sarcastic remark by the owner (who is probably a migrate). He said something like “Take photos only? No buying?” (yes, the English was broken). Somehow I think it is justified because they are not buying those stuffs but then we were not told off when we did so in a souvenir shop in Barcelona.

You see, I like taking pictures and I like my pictures being taken and I’m lucky to have a bf who likes to take pictures as well. Everytime we go out, especially to eat (which is probably the only thing we do anyway), he would be taking pictures with his camera phone. And he loves to take pictures of the foods and restaurants that we go to. So one day, we went to this restaurant in Desa Pandan and he started taking pictures when the waitress said “Excuse me, no photos please.” We were like, huh? And here I thought it only happens in overseas. If I were the restaurant owner, I would be more than happy to have customers taking pictures of my restaurant, my foods so that they can promote it in their blog, facebook etc. It is free advertisement, free promotion, no? I guess some people just don’t see it that way.

And no, I am not gonna tell you the name of the restaurant even though they serve nice foods, ala Cozy House in Great Eastern Mall and Cozy Corner in Ampang Park. Why should I?

1st in 2010

this is my first post for the year 2010. exactly one month ago, i blogged from KLIA before flying off to London. damn how fast time flies, huh? i have yet to blog (if at all) about my holiday but some pictures have been uploaded in Facebook. but of course you have to be in my list of friends to be able to view it.

anyway today i turn 27 (already??). *gasp*hyperventilate* i expect and i aim to achieve more this year as i get a year older. i've few things that i want to do and achieve, which i shall not mention here so as not to jinx it.

i just hope this year will be a much better year than 2009. happy birthday to me! and to those who shared the same birthday as i am, happy birthday to you too.


glitter-graphics.com

Y.E.H

what does Y.E.H stand for, you may wonder. if Y.E.S stands for Year End Sale, Y.E.H stands for Year End Holidays. YEH YEH!! I am blogging from KLIA at 1015hrs, Saturday 12 December 2009. I am about to board my flight at 1045hrs to Heathrow, London and I'll be gallavanting all across Europe (Spain, Portugal, Nice, Monaco and maybe Scotland) until New Year. oh yeah. 3 weeks of total relaxation, holiday joy, winter bliss and christmas shopping. you may not be able to reach me via mobile as i did not activate my international roaming, no thanks to Maxis for making me pay a good RM300.

so sayonara. adios. goodbye~ until next year, chow!!

car problem

this morning started well. until i reached Shah Alam. before exiting at Pusat Bandar Shah Alam, i stopped by at Petronas to get a can of Nescafe. i went back to my car and started the engine but it failed. ok, i tried again. and again. but failed. i drank the Nescafe to cool myself down. tried some more but it still couldn't start. ok this is bad, i thought. it feels like the battery's out. panic time!!! it was 850am by the way. i went in and asked for help from one of the staffs at Kedai Mesra.

"bang, boleh tolong tengok tak, kereta tak boleh start lah."

luckily he wanted to help. he tried to start, but the car refused to start. i called my office and asked my staff to call the court and asked to stand down the matter. in the middle of the panic, i told my staff that it was a sessions court matter. i gave her the summons number and what not as a sessions court matter. a few minutes later, she called me back.

"aku dah call court. court cakap takpe, datang pukul 930 atau 10 pun ok."

i was slightly relieved there. but then she said the court interpreter didn't even bother to take the summons number. and the court interpreter didn't even give his name. tak boleh jadi ni. i called my friend Sara, whom i know always goes to Shah Alam courts. luckily she was there but her matter was about to be called. i told her to stand down my matter for me, when she is done with hers. she said ok. i was a bit relieved.

as luck has it, one guy came to Petronas and parked his car beside my car and asked what the problem was. the Petronas guy told him about it and he tried to start my car. still no sign of the engine to start. he then suggested to jumpstart the car using his car.

oh, they asked me, "bila last you tukar bateri?"

"erm....tukar bateri? tak ingat lah..." (time ni malu ok)

"ada cek tak air bateri? ada isi?"

"erm...air bateri? eh ni bukan zero-maintenance nye bateri ke? kena isi air jugak ke?"

"ni bukan. you tengok ni, kan ada tempat isi air ni. kalau yang tak payah isi air, macam kereta i ni," while showing me his car battery.

uh huh...yeah. like i know the difference. by the way, after he jump start my car, my red baby comes alive again. phew~ i was already sweating by then. after thanking them about a million times, i went off. i called Sara to tell her that i'm already on my way to court.

i went up to sessions court only to realize it was a magistrates court matter. panic again. i quickly went up the stairs and luckily they have yet to call my file.

phew~ what a way to kick start the day, huh? terus tak mengantuk for the rest of the day!

oh, wait until you hear my story about the invasion of the ants pulak. macam-macam hal my red baby lately...

the good Samaritan who helped me.

increase the rate

I want a high, if not very much higher metabolic rate. like seriously, i eat like nobody's business because i just love to eat and a certain someone has been treating me to really nice foods and took me to nice restaurants lately (how can i say no, right? hehe) but i'm too lazy to workout so i could really use a very high metabolic rate so that the calories can burn faster. but then again,

ok, azam tahun baru 2010, eat healthily and exercise religiously.

insyaallah.

*images from http://www.glitter-graphics.com/

weekend project part 20

on raya haji, i decided to make Apple Crumble.

green apples

cinnamon powder

butter

coarse sugar

flour

peel, cut and dice the apples.

put a chunk of butter into the pan and sautee the apples with cinnamon powder until it softens

mix cold butter and flour and rub until it forms a breadcrumb-like texture and add in sugar

once the apples have softened, put into a heatproof baking dish

pour the butter-flour-sugar mixture on top and spread evenly

bake in a preheated oven for about 40 minutes or until crumbs are golden brown.

serve warm.

preferably with vanilla ice cream or custard cream (i don't know how to make custard cream so i used vanilla ice cream).

serve and enjoy.