Trip to Ipoh

Hellooo...what with the wedding and all that coming up. I can't deny it, it's all about $$$$...and needless to say any holiday out of the country is totally OUT OF THE QUESTION until the wedding end of this year :( But me being me, i just cannot stay quietly in one place. The only option? Cuti cuti malaysia lor! Last weekend was a long weekend, on Friday itself I asked the bf whether he wants to do a road trip that weekend. He asked me where? I thought long and hard (no, not really) and decided IPOH!

On Friday night itself, we made our hotel reservations! This I can say is our most spontaneous trip after so many years. Pathetic isnt it :( On Saturday morning, we started our journey at 10:30am from Penang and arrived at 12:30pm. Yes, we need our sleep :P

This is where we spent the night. The French Hotel....(map location as provided)

        

                         

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Room was reasonably priced (RM148 NETT), comfortably sized, location was good....only gripe, we had to share our car park with the throngs of crowd going to the pasar pagi on Sunday morning =_= and not forgetting being woken up at 6am by the pasar pagi crowd :(

Anyway, the minute we finished exploring the hotel room....we set out for lunch! Where else but to try the famous Ipoh white coffee @ Nam Heong Coffee Shop

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Twice we've been here and twice the coffee shop was pretty full during lunch time. But we were lucky enough to get a seat after a few minutes of searching. There are a few stalls there....the famous one being the egg tart / dim sum stall...I ordered the dried curry mee and of course white coffee (RM1.80 only!) while someone had the PENANG char koay teow! Yes! Driving down from Penang to Ipoh eating PENANG ckt...i was nagging at him while stealing a bite of his ckt and....boy! was it good! LOL (forgot to take a photo)

Went back to the hotel for an afternoon nap and off to the church for Sunset mass at 7pm. Was a bit reluctant to spend my holiday going to church :x but I did not regret it cos look! pretty church!

And there was a "super moon" phenomenon that night...

After mass, we went for the famous nga coi kai @ Lou Wong (beansprout chicken koay teow)

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The place was packed as was our first time there 3 years ago but still we were lucky enough to find an empty table! whee! As you can see, juicy, scrumptious chicken...big juicy beansprouts, smooth koay teow! yums!

Next morning, i was adamant in waking up early for dim sum (which proved to not be difficult since i was woken up by the pasar pagi anyway =_=)

9am and we are already out to....

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Foh San Dim Sum restaurant which really looks more like a palace than anything else. Can you imagine? One big place like that just selling dim sum?? in the mornings! and it was packed full! If finding an empty table in all the other famous Ipoh eateries were difficult, finding an empty table here is SUPER difficult.

Then again, i guess the "Lady Luck of stuffing yourself silly" with food was with me during the whole trip cos I once again spotted an empty table within few mins *proud* Though that didnt come without a slight tussle with an auntie who wanted to hijack my table while i was waiting for the bf to walk over. WTF!

As you can see in the photo above, everyone was waiting like vultures by the side of your table....counting the minutes while you are enjoying your dim sum. Ordering your dim sum from the counter is also not an easy feat! sighs...

Dim sum was mediocre though of a higher quality compared to the dim sum cafes here in Penang but also comes with a big price tag! Would I go back there again? Once in a blue moon ok lah! Just to fight with all the aunties for breakfast dim sum *sniggers*

After that, we got so tired of all the pasar pagi crowds and decided to drive back to Penang after buying all the famous Ipoh titbits. One of them is this famous kaya kok (kaya puff) from Sin Eng Heong

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We were there early and managed to buy lots of these precious pastry back to Penang. At 80cents a piece, it is definitely worth every single cent! Yums! I would go back to Ipoh just for these! 

And with that, that concludes our short Ipoh food trip! :) Which definitely came at a bad time what with my pre-wedding photoshoot coming up in slightly more than a months time...nooooo!!!! Coming up Next....Cameron Highlands food trip!

One-eyed Jack for a Day

Ok let's take a break from all the house reports...

I've been having this stye/chalazion (in Hokkien we call it "bak jiam") for so many months. Close to half a year actually. Hehehe. It's not that I never took any medication to cure it but the minute it cures (pops) another one grows back in its place within the period of few days. I got fed up with it that I finally bit the bullet and went to see an eye specialist last Saturday to have it surgically removed.

I went to the the Oh eye specialist clinic at burmah road and it was my first time there! I was surprised to find a very classical looking clinic with classical looking instruments and hey! Even the doc is "classical looking" :x

The doctor first came in to look at my condition and he tried to clean my lids with a lid cleaner solution and he was so rough :( reminded me so much of how my dad used to clean our faces in the morning. Lol! It's a wonder I still went ahead with the procedure eh? Maybe because I felt kinda "comfortable" with him cos he reminded me of my dad in that aspect. Lol!

But just before the procedure, he told the nurses to treat me with "tender loving care". Lol. That's what he really said! And just before he injected me with the anaesthetics, he told me "bei thia eh" (it's not going to hurt) and one of the nurse quickly came and held my hands. Heehee. I felt so loved. *sobs*

And this was me on saturday...

Yep! I had to live with one eye for one full day on Saturday...this I did not bargain for cos I though it was going to be a fairly simple procedure and I would be running around in shopping malls after that. Apparently not! Anyway the bandage is off now, and my eye is recovering although it is watery and building up lots of eye wax. Heehee. Why, this morning my eyes were "taped" shut when I woke up! Lol! Ok everybody say "EEEEEwwwwwww"

House Progress Report Epi 5 (S02)

Today is the last day of our tenancy at the rented house. As much as we dislike staying there...we have been looking at this view for more than a year, it holds some memories

packing and moving house is a REAL pain in the ass!
 i am never moving again (at least for the next 2 years :P) this is my 2nd house moving in 2 years +/

this is how the bathroom looks like now...everything is coming along pretty well

and here's the kitchen....

so finally we returned our house keys to the landlord...
even though our stay there wasnt entirely pleasant, but i have developed emotional ties to the house :\

here's the bf carrying the last batch of stuff down the stairs...kinda symbolic :)

House Progress Report Epi 4 (S02)

Day 4 of renovation...our contractor told us to buy "stock cock" for the bathroom, or at least that was what i heard (not trying to be a racist here, but he's an indonesian...and try to imagine someone who is not english educated saying that in heavy indonesian accent). And we were both left puzzled as to what the hell is a stock cock...it sounded kinda vulgar to say the least.LOL

Being an IT person through and through, i actually googled for things that sounded almost similar to that. I searched "stock cock" nothing...searched "bathroom stock cock" and finally i get the actual thing. It's actually a stop cock and its the tap thingy that sticks out the walls of your bathroom! NOW i know...so stop cock shopping we went

with prices ranging from rm65 up to rm350. and since we are on a shoestring budget, we chose the cheapest one :B this shiny little fella costs RM68 (discounted up to RM55)

pretty and shiny enough! i insisted on these push lever tap thingy instead of the conventional turn tap. I requested to have all these push lever tap for all the bathrooms and kitchen sink :D so that i can still turn on the tap with dirty or soapy hands ^_^

today being the last day of september...its also actually our last day of tenancy at our rented house. and of course that means, lots n lots of last minute packing! arghhh...the things we accumulated over the period of only 1 year and 4 months...

extended our stay till tomoro...so we will pass the keys to our landlord by tomorrow nite at the latest. with the new house still in a not-so-liveable condition, we had to move in to a friend's house :P thank God for good samaritans

brought some stuff over to the new place just now and saw great progress!

this is how the master bedroom bathroom looks like now!

white wall tiles (with subtle horizontal lines) and a strip of black checkered tiles around the whole bathroom. if you are wondering what inspired this design, this post might help. lol! well at least i can have a piece of the kuching home here with me in Penang :) i initially stubbornly insisted on having the exact same glass mosaic patterns as the strip but it was too expensive (much to the horror of the bf). one strip of the glass mosaic costs between RM30-RM48! just the strip alone would cost us RM300++

and also if you noticed the wall thingy, that was also a compromise :( i asked the contractor whether he could do these recessed wall thingy to put shampoos and stuff....he said "BOLEHHHHH"

"tapi! tambah duit la"
"berapa duit??"
he said "rm200, sebab banyak kerja"

still, i wanted to proceed with it cos i believe it would be a good investment...no need for those hanging bathroom caddies that will grow black yucky mould in no time! EWWW...

but alas, it wasn't to be...cos finally he said since our bathroom walls are not very thick, the recessed thingy can only be around 2 inches deep which would practically render the whole purpose of having it moot! so i reluctantly let go of the idea and that was when he suggested a wall to separate the toilet and the bath area!

the toilet bowl would not get wet so often and i get a wall thingy to put my stuffs! a compromise is reached! :)

this is how our sitting room looks like now...whopee doo, things are piling up!

and here's the kitchen, not much progress except that all the cabinet doors have been completely ripped out.

hello you pretty wall tiles! :)

kitchen sink has also been installed...lookin good!

so tomorrow onwards, we are going to be homeless :( sobs...it sucks!

House Progress Report Epi 3 - We moved in!(S02)

I iz back with part 3! Lookie tiles are all up (in the correct orientation)

whee...proud of our tile choice. at least the kitchen wall tile choice is alright...can't wait to see the whole thing assembled. A little nervous and anticipative at the same time, one wrong move and its forever man! (well maybe not really forever per se) I ♥ the kitchen wall tile so much that i wanted to use it for the bathroom wall too. yes thats how uncreative i am!

thought of taking a artsy fartsy photo of this little tool that helps to see whether a line is straight or not (dono whatsis called) on our kitchen countertop tile...

i love the kitchen counter top tile too (60x60) cos its black with specs of gold...can't wait to see it on the counter! ^_^

and here's the toilet (as of today)

and also, the bf's mom told us today is the last "auspicious day" to move in, after that, it wouldnt be too auspicious anymore.so we were supposed to go to the house and boil some water to symbolize that we've moved in!

so here we are, boilng a kettle of water on top of his PC table which is on top of my bedside table :)

so i guess we've...MOVED IN!!! (symbolically)

cement packs...(yeah i was too free)

the kitchen coutner top with the old cabinet doors all ripped out

that's all folks! stay tuned for epi 4 for more interesting and dusty escapades with ME!

Updates

It's been so so long since I last posted something of a more "personal" nature on this blog. Well although there may be a lt of readers left on this blog (mostly spammers -_-") I do realize over the years that this blog has proven itself useful for me when I wanted to refer back to something :P

Ok now what's new with life...for one, we just bought a home here in Penang. Not sure any of you remembers my almost-weekly house progress report for the house in Kuching. It is now well and complete and empty! Oh well...we'll see how it goes.

But this is the first time ever we had to plan the furnishings and fittings and what-nots in a house! It is stressful and fun at the same time and needless to say hard on our pockets! Ouch!

Been poring through tones of kitchen cabinet design photos like this...


And this...


And this...


And this...



But alas, due to budget constraints, we had to cut some ends. Wahahha. The ones above coated more than we bargained for :p

Oh well, will update again when perhaps most of it is done. Now back to DIY interior designing!

That time of the year

Well well well...i sorta feel that this blog is getting less and less 'personal' so to speak over the past few months with all my cosmetics reviews, food reviews, etc etc. So since there's only a week or so left till we bid goodbye to the year 2010 and only few days till Christmas, i thought i ought to write something more about my life :)

Winter Warmers at QBM

I've walked past Winter Warmers at Gurney Plaza many times throughout my 2 years in Penang but I've never tried it. Once, we almost went in but the menu looks very "snack-like" with light meals like sandwiches and salads so being the greedy pigs that we are, we did not try it.lol

But 1 or 2 months back, Winter Warmers opened its door at Queensbay Mall! Now that's a different story...

Lunch at OXO

Approximately a month ago, my department and I went out for our monthly birthday celebration lunch again :P I can't believe it took me this long to finally sit down and blog about it! oh well....better late than never! 

Read on for more food pics!

Padang Brown Lok Lok

I've heard so much about Padang Brown since I moved to Penang but never know where it is :P So now I can check off yet another place from my "places-to-visit list" :)

Sg Tiram Roti Bakar

When we first moved to Penang, we were always on the lookout for nice food to try and eat especially around the Bayan Lepas area.Among the very first few breakfast venues that was suggested to us was the Sg Tiram "famous" roti bakar

Tek Sen Restaurant @ Lebuh Carnarvon

Last week. I went with my colleagues to Tek Sen Restaurant @ Carnarvon Street for a birthday celebration of sorts for me and another colleague of mine.

Trip Back to Kuching Part 1

Just made a 5 days trip back to Kuching during the national day holiday and the trip coincided with my birthday during the weekend ..muahaha...

Lunch at Snake Temple

Two days ago, someone suggested going to the Snake Temple for lunch. I have been working here in Penang for over a year and i never even knew that there's a little eatery operating from a small coffee shop directly opposite the snake temple. And the snake temple is veryyy near to my office too..lol.

New Fav Japanese Place for Sushi-Sakae Sushi

Uhoh...ive been ignoring my blog again. I have some product review to post but after taking photos, i'm just too lazy to get my lazy butt off the sofa to blog :( It seems that i only have motivation to edit my food pics...hahahaha.

Recently, we just fell in love with Sakae Sushi. I know it is nothing to shout about compared to some true blue gourmet japanese restaurants that you have to pay an arm and a leg or maybe another arm to eat there...the accessability and price of sakae sushi just appeals to us

JL Gourmet @ Prangin Mall

When you talk about JL Gourmet, you think about the mushroom soup. The mushroom soup is really superb!
I can never get tired eating the JL Gourmet mushroom soup :D

Ah Basri Satay (D'Piazza Mall)

Finally! Managed to try out the "famous" Ah Basri Satay. Previously (as in up to around 1 or 2 months ago), they were operating from a wooden shop at Sg Ara (somewhere near Acreville Apartment) but they moved to D'Piazza mall in a proper shop.

Sarawak Laksa in Penang!

Yeah! you heard me right! I had sarawak laksa for breakfast today...in Penang! :D I bet most of you Kuchingites who stay in Penang would be dying to know where right? Lol. When i uploaded the photo to my facebook this morning, almost immediately few of my Kuchingite friends asked me where is the stall. I guess we Kuchingites really love our sarawak laksa.

The stall is at the Sim Food Court (Medan Selera Sim) which is within the Kampung Gedung Apartment.

Durian from Jalan Tengah

It is now the durian season again in Penang! :) Where else to buy superb durians other than from Balik Pulau right? But then this year, we are just too lazy to drive all the way to Balik Pulau to eat durians :P

Because now, we can buy balik pulau durian from Jalan Tengah itself!

The durians are supposedly from Poh Beng Estate of Balik Pulau. We have bought durians twice from the uncle and they seem ok both times. And the uncle will even "replace" your durian for you if there are any bad durians when he opens it. lol

durian lovers, feast your eyes...

oops it is almost August, i believe the durian season is ending soon! must go grab some durians!