Year End Dinner

A few days ago, I was chatting with one of the youths. My nephews were back from Australia and I thought maybe I should introduce them to the youths in my church. So I suggested dinner on Friday. It was just a thought and suggestion as I wasn't sure of my nephews' schedule.

Rachel and I were quite busy and I thought the dinner plans will fall off but surprisingly, it did came to pass.

We had badminton in the morning. Most of the youths were there too. After badminton, someone suggested swimming in the evening. We declined because we had dinner plans. After sending the kids back home, my sis and I went shopping in Tesco. 

At 6.30pm we picked up the 1st youth. Then we went over to S2 using the Mambau way to pick up the 2nd youth. The 3rd youth couldn't make it.

We went to the Kesington in S2. 

Our food was delicious. We had crispy mushroom soup, garlic bread and aromatic duck with cabbage for starters, lamb shank, spaghetti carbonara, chicken maryland (I think) & black pepper beef for the main course.

At about 9.30pm we thought of going somewhere else, somewhere different, somewhere like PD. Yeah, it's a 40-minute drive and we had a bit of time to spare. We went to Teluk Kemang, listen to the waves for a while before having a drink nearby and a deep discussion on how old the earth was. :S

We left PD almost 12 midnight and I reached home at 1am. It was quite an unusual day for me but definitely a fun and interesting one.

Something at Chili's

It has been a long time since we last had a get-together dinner in KL with all our climbing kakis, so this Christmas season someone suggested Chili's, preferably in KLCC. We suggested it to our KL climbing friends but they weren't too interested. :(

So anyway, last minute we had to change the venue to Mid Valley because Mctc had to fetch his sister and family from the airport after dinner.

There were 9 of us - Danny,my sis, RW, Mctc, Minch, Maddy, Matt, Wayne the boy & I.

We didn't know what to order so we asked Danny to order for us. The food was quite good, but service wasn't as good as I had expected. Probably because it was Christmas season not to mention, the place was quite pack too and maybe there weren't enough man power on that day. :)

Gingerbread Houses - Trial Run

A few days ago, Anne (Aspirers Youth Leader) asked if I could make a gingerbread house for the Aspirers Christmas party next month. I hesitated because I haven't mastered the cement, also known as the royal icing to glue the pieces together to make it into a house.

I thought maybe I should have a trial run first, so yesterday I called Becky to see if she wanted to help and she was like YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS. I also asked if we could use her kitchen to set up the houses. It wasn't a problem, she said. 

So I made the house pieces and with the left overs, I made some gingerbread men.

Notice my plug? After baking, I tried to pull it out from the socket, but I couldn't. The next day, Mctc helped to pull it out and lo and behold...the plug was a goner. The socket was damaged too. We had to call an electrician to replace the socket and plug.

The next day, my sis and I arrived at Becky's house at 4pm. Liz was there too. Yay! The more the merrier. :D

I made the cement while the others set up the table and arrange the house pieces. I made 3 different houses.

My cement worked. The secret was, to beat it for at least 10 minutes!!!

The girls were having fun decorating the houses.

Here's Becky's masterpiece.

And here's Liz's.

The girls and their men. :D

Becky's doing an operation on one of the men.

Having fun mixing the colours.

It was nearly 8 pm when we were done.

We cleaned up the kitchen and and called Shaphan, another youth, to yam char with us. We passed the biggest gingerbread house to him because we don't know what to do with it. :D On the way to the shop, we called Jian to join us too.

Some random pictures of the youths at the makan shop.

It was certainly a fun evening. :D

Spanish Dinner

"Anyone tried La Bodega before?" asked Danny 2 months back when we were at the Bangsar Shopping Centre (BSC). None of us had. So he suggested, the next time we come up to KL for a meal, we have to try this.

Right, so here we are, not at the La Bodega in BSC, but in Pavillion because ONE of us wanted to shop before dinner.

We had 3 hours of shopping before meeting the KL gang. I was wearing high heels and it hurt so much after an hour of shopping. :(

The entrance of La Bodega.

Danny ordered -

Paella Valenciana Mixta - tuna and chicken

Queso de Cabra Frito Con Miel al Limon - Deep fried goat's cheese with lemon sauce

Gambas al Ajillo - prawns in olive oil and garlic.

Albondigas Sant Climent - Lamb Meatballs in rich brandy sauce.

Salchichas al Diablo - Spicy chicken sausage sauteed with onions,chilli & tomato

Not forgetting the Sangria which he said we MUST try.

There were 12 of us this time. My brother came late. He's not in the picture. It was during this dinner that we talked about wanting to climb again. Someone suggested "Saga Hill" and we all started discussing the dates. We finally fixed it on the 25th June. KB said that she will lead as she has been there before. :)

We left about hmm... almost 10pm?! :)

Another Impromptu Trip to PD

It all started when I saw RW online on FB.

Our conversation went like this : -

Me - Where are you?

RW - at home

Me - tmrw spanish food?

RW - wanna go lake garden now?
2molo got dinner wor... i see u no invite me :-(

Me - now? Im at home weii

RW - if 4pm, we talk, maybe still ok? now too late?

Me - yeah... want to lepak or smtg?

RW - when? where?

Me - now... anywhere.. go pd? :p

RW - just 2 of us? who else? now? serious?

Me - now lah, yes lah

RW - i can pack and go now!! fetch u from ur house?

Me - come..

RW - i log off now lor...

It was late. I didn't intend to swim, so I wore a T-shirt and a pair of jeans. We left my house about 5.45pm?! We took the old way to PD. It was a pleasant drive and we even saw a beautiful half circle rainbow. What a treat. :)

Of all days for an impromptu trip to PD, we had to chose this day, a public holiday!!.

The trunk road was narrow and full of cars. Even the proper car parks were packed with cars and we could see long rows of cars parked at both sides of the road.

We were driving aimlessly, not sure which beach to bum. RW said that her mom suggested to go to Teluk Kemang. I honestly had no idea what and where is Teluk Kemang. We just followed the signboard and after quite a distance, we reached Teluk Kemang and I don't know what made us think that it was THE place, but we saw so many cars there at the parking lot and we went in to look for a parking space. Fortunately, a car was pulling out just as we came in.

Ahh, two signboards confirming that this is the right place. :)

One of the most beautiful sunset I've seen for quite sometime.

Like SERIOUSLY!! It was nearly 7pm at that time. The tide was coming in real quick. The waves were unexceptionally high.

There were lots of people. Oh how I wished we came earlier. It was a nice day for a swim.

The waves kept rolling in. This little boy was having the time of his life.

RW's shoes. She took them off and kept it at a safe distance, but soon the waves came sweeping her shoes off. She put them on a higher ground again, but the waves kept coming. Finally, she placed them on a much higher ground and began snapping pics of the sunset.

We decided to have dinner here. Too bad the stalls weren't at the seaside. We had satay, otak-otak, mee goreng and mee bandung.

RW was so hungry that she nearly ordered a burger while waiting for her noodles to arrive. Fortunately, she didn't because by the time we finished our food, we were full. :)

After Teluk Kemang, we went to other public beaches, but the waves there were not so high. We took some photos and left PD at about 9.45pm.

It was an interesting outing. We should do this more often. :)

Korean Dinner

In my recent Kinabalu trip, there's a climber who loves anything Korean. Every training climb and even during the Kinabalu trip, he was full of "Korean this, Korean that". From Korean movies to K-pop, to Korean girls to Korean food.. you get the idea. :)

Then during our post Kinabalu climb dinner in early March, he was telling us that there's this Korean restaurant which he frequented every week. He claimed that they have the BEST Korean food. We were like, "okayyyy, if you say so". But then, we were also curious about this place. So we asked him to set a date and time and we'll be there.

After much thought over the next few days, we decided that 3rd of April would be the best day.

There were 6 of us from N.Sembilan. We went to Bangsar for shopping first before heading to Mt Kiara. I think we took like an hour to reach there because we weren't sure of the place. Rach's new GPS failed because she didn't use for more than a month. Danny's GPS.. hmm.. I'm not sure, maybe he didn't update it?! And so we had to call our Korean-crazed friend for directions.

So here we are, at Little Korea @Jln Solaris, Mt Kiara. Our KL friends were already there waiting for us. Oh at least 3 of them were there. The other 2 came later.

Since our friend knows what is good here, we let him order.

I must say, it's VERY good. Oh don't ask me to name all the dishes he ordered. :) The price is pretty decent too. :)

Yummy. :)

A group picture courtesy of Desmond. :) He was the only one who brought his DSLR. :)

After dinner, we went to a KOREAN supermarket before heading back home :D

Impromptu Shopping Spree

Two days ago I went for my morning walk with RW. We didn't call Minch this time but she was there with Matt. They came much later and left about the same time as us. We decided to have breakfast at Matt's favourite coffee shop in Rahang. The usual questions were asked by Minch and one of them was what would we be doing after breakfast. I had to do some housework and RW had other plans. Minch suggested going shopping in KL. I was alright with it because I could do my house chores on Tuesday. RW said she doesn't mind going to KL with us too.

So we went back to bathe and met up again in town. Matt had to go to work so he didn't join in our shopping spree. Minch brought Om along too, so the 4 of us headed to the highway not knowing which shopping mall we wanted to invade.

In the end, we went to Mid Valley because it's one place we were so familiar and there were specific things we wanted to check out.

Whenever I shop I always look out for shoes. My shoes last for about 3 months most of the time.

It looks great, but after much walking I get blisters.. sigh.. I wanted this to be my walking shoes. :) Looks like I have to get another pair of proper walking shoes..

We spent more than 6 hours in the mall. It was fun, just to walk around and check out the things there. We saw moon cakes being sold right in front of the Jusco supermarket. This means that the mooncake festival is just around the corner. My, how time flies...

We reached home at about 7pm. I had a lovely time and was so exhausted that I slept as early as 9pm that day.

A Happy Wedding

Last Saturday, my friend Pam got married to Gareth. The wedding ceremony was held in Sheraton Subang at 4pm. She wanted a garden wedding, but ended up walking down the aisle in one of the hotel 's multi-purpose rooms. It was raining and they couldn't have a garden wedding. Nevertheless, she looked positively radiant, and was laughing gaily as she walked down the aisle at 4.45pm. Yes, the wedding started 45 minutes late and Gareth got worried when she didn't arrive on time. :)

Pam and her brother.

Exchanging of rings and lighting the unity candles by the mothers.

Cocktails after the wedding ceremony while the wedding couple and relatives were having (or performing?) the tea ceremony.

The main table was decorated with beautiful purple, pink and white flowers.

There were about a hundred guests. I thought the dinner would start on time, seeing most of the guests were early. After the wedding most of us lingered around the hotel while Pam and Gareth had the tea ceremony, and at 7pm, most of the guests were seated at the dining tables waiting for the bride and bridegroom to take their places at the main table.

Dinner only started at 8.30pm and lasted till almost 11pm. The dishes were surprisingly good for hotel standards. Let's see.. what was the difference.. instead of the usual err..fried (?) chicken, we had the whole chicken cooked in herbal sauce. This makes the chicken very tender and soft, and easy to eat. The broccoli and scallops were quite good and there weren't any balance of this dish at our table. Then we had the sambal fried rice with prawns (they were very generous with the prawns) instead of the normal bland lotus leaf rice. And they put vanilla ice-cream instead of ice in the honey-dew melon dessert. We left the hotel at 11.15pm and reached home after midnight.

Pre-climb Dinner

No, I'm not going to climb Mt Kinabalu this year.

Just before every Mt Kinabalu climb, we will organise a pre-climb dinner to introduce ourselves and to have a final briefing for every climber. Not all climbers knows each other, so this dinner is a a good time to introduce and get to know everyone.

Rachel and I were invited to the dinner. Not sure why, probably the organisers wanted us to blog about this event.. haha.

I think it's a good idea that that dinner is contributed by everyone in a sense that each brought something to the dinner table.

Look at all the good and yummy food. Rachel and I brought meatballs with potato and brown gravy. It was cooked my mom (or Tusi).

Dinner started at 7pm with a word of prayer by Peter Lai, who was also an invited guest since he won't be joining them in this climb.

So many people, so much food. The food was more than enough for 40 people and there were only about 30 of us.

Happily eating..

After dinner, Messner showed them a short video on Mt Kinabalu. It seems some movie stars from HK climbed Mt Kinabalu and was video taping the whole trip. Rachel and I watched this video when we first went in 2007.

After the video comes the briefing. Both Messner and Sirdar took turns to brief them of the coming climb and also to share their past experience.

Sirdar was well prepared to become the model to show the climbers on the importance of proper dressing up in the mountains. He brought a thick jacket with him too, but it was too warm to put in on, so he didn't. Otherwise you can see him in the whole outfit all ready to take on Mt Kinabalu.

Ladies' Fellowship

Late last year, a group of ladies decided to get together for dinner and fellowship. After 2 months of talking about it, they finally decided to have it on the 16th of February 2009. Instead of going to a restaurant, they opted for a pot bless dinner in my mom's house. All of them were good cooks and each cooked her own speciality.

Look at all those oh-so-yummy dishes. Clearly they were enjoying not only the fellowship but they had fun tasting each other's food.

After dinner, my mom taught them how to make cream cracker biscuit cake and Christina taught the group how to make another cake.

Too much food, we had to call the guys to help us eat, otherwise it would go to waste.

While I was there, I sat for a while at the "guys table". They were talking deep stuff about the bible. Then I went to the "ladies table". They talked about things like... "I remember when we were young..." and "oh, I like your wall colour. I will never dare to paint this colour..."

Hmmm....

A Wedding

Today I attended Huong's wedding.

If you know his background and the hardships he has gone through, gosh.. you just gotta admire this guy. He is simply amazing. From a broken man, to someone who's so changed. He's got a very big heart now especially for people who are helpless and needy.

And today is his special day.

He asked Rachel to help him take photos of his wedding. We weren't sure whether he had asked other people to take pictures for him, so Rachel asked if I would tag along with her to the bride's house. Following the Chinese tradition, Huong would have to "collect" his bride from her house. But before he could see her, he would have to do all sorts of things requested by the bride and her friends. Fortunately, he was asked only to sing a couple of songs and one of two other things. The conversations and songs were all in Mandarin.

At about 1.30pm we left the bride's house to go to church where they officially became man and wife. The wedding service was scheduled to start at 2.22pm. Yup, today is the 22nd of February and we suggested to him that he should have the service at 2.22pm.

I sat in the last row, and took some pictures when the bride came into the sanctuary. There were more than 250 people who attended his wedding.

And now you may kiss the bride.

I was too lazy to move from my comfortable chair and so I zoomed 16X to capture Huong kissing his bride.

Friends and relatives congratulating the newly married couple.

There was a wedding reception after the service. One of the best receptions I have had so far despite the heavy downpour.

After the wedding, I went home and had a good evening nap, interrupted twice. Once, to hang my laundry, and the second time, to answer the phone.