Workliday

I'll be off to Bangkok on Monday to Thursday on a workliday (work + holiday). My boss gave us an incentive trip for the management staff and also at the same time we will be holding our sales & marketing meeting over there. Well, the verdict is I can't be too happy about the trip unless I finished my presentation. Will be flying on AirAsia (what else?!!) tomorrow at 1pm so stay tune as I will be back on Thursday!

Ciaoz.

My Worst Day Ever

Wednesday was my worst day ever. I woke up on the opium bed in my living hall at 7.30am feeling dizzy and smelly. I just came home after a night of drinking at Zeta Bar in KL Hilton. What I thought to be a night out of a few drinks and some dancing appeared to be the venue of my 1st encounter with drunkenness. Yes, I officially announced that 23rd of January 2008 was the first time I have ever been drunk. Haha what a conincidence, being drunk at 23 years old on the 23rd! I had no idea I was drunk, because one minute I was sitting on the couch after 3 glasses of Chivas and 3 glasses of Henessy, and the other minute I realised that Jessica and Greg was helping me to his car. Apparently, Greg told me that I said I'll never puke in his car and then the next minute, I was doing the you-know-what in his car! Lucky, he had all the bags ready for me and I didn't dirty his car or else he would have killed me by then. I puked twice and then before I knew it, I reached home and I just climb onto the opium bed and lay dead.

It was a horrible feeling. I had stomach ache the whole day, my food couldn't digest properly and I have to take 2 packets of Eno. I felt dizzy and the only thing I want to do is to sleep and the feeling of throwing up. But I managed to catch Alvin & The Chipmunks at 1Utama in a half dead condition. I love the movie. So cuteeee.... After this incident, I told myself that I'll never get myself drunk again. All these while, I was quite proud that I can hold my drinks pretty well. I can drink 7 glasses of wine and still drive home myself and I can drink a few glasses of a mixture of liquor and still walk out perfectly fine. This time it was embarrassing. Greg just told his colleagues that I can hold my drinks and then after 6 shots, I'm out. Why should I drink and suffer?!! So for now, I'll be alcohol-phobic for these few days!

Happy Thaipusam!

May the Lord Murugan be with you!

Why is tomorrow a public holiday? Why?

If you know Eiling in 2007, she would not even doubt a public holiday given by the government, she would not even think of working on a public holiday no matter how much the company is paying, and she would not even wish that the public holiday is a working day. However, if you ask me today as of 22nd January 2008, I really wished that tomorrow is a working day. If I have the keys to open the factory, I would! Now, many of you must have been cursing me for wishing tomorrow is a working day.

You will not be able to imagine the amount of work I have. It's too much and it's only me, myself and I in my department now that my assistant has left me. I picked up more than 20 calls a day, answers more than 5 enquiries on chocolates a day, and there's always new responsibilities that are some sort related to me that I have to carry out. I have a weakness, I'm bad at delegating work because all of it seemed so important that I have to attend to every single one of them myself. The Colours & Fragrances boutique in Genting First World Hotel will be officially opened on this Thursday and some VIPs will be attending the ceremony. So if you're wondering what does that have to do with me, it does. I don't know how, but I was assigned to make sure that everything is okay with my Fidani counter and also at the chocolate boutique. Apparently, they will be taking the VIPs on a tour around the shop. Anyways, the chocolate boutique is just situated opposite out perfume counter. So I asked my Interior Designer to create some Valentines' Day and Chinese New Year atmosphere to the shop.

View From Outside

View From Inside the Shop
This is what you'll get if your boss wanted CNY and you wanted Valentines. Looks like a great combination, huh?

We went up at 11am and I only reached the office at 6.30pm. I was hoping I can still do some work at the office but they locked the factory! How could they do this to me?!! I need start on my presentation for my 1st Quarter Sales Conference cum company trip in Bangkok on next Monday. Honestly, I have not even started a word. I'm so dead, but being a last minute queen as always, I think I can overcome the challenge.

My ID have been so nice that he treated me and his buddies that went up together with us to a nice lunch at Gohtong Jaya, on the way up to Genting Highlands. We went to a shop called Restoran Guan Kie. We had a plate of vege, beancurd, pork ribs and cod fish. The food was nice and it was worth coming again. All of them have to wait for me to snap a picture of the food before they can begin eating. Haha it was so funny because they kept asking me whether have I snap the picture before they can start taking the dish. I told them to get used to it if they want to eat with me. LOL

The Restaurant
Why do they need two signboards showing the same restaurant name?

Fermented Beancurd Fried Pork Ribs

Beancurd in egg sauce

Stir-fried vege

Cod Fish at a whopping price of RM99

That's all for today folks. I need a rest. I feel so dead and I'm heading to Zeta Bar tonight. See you there!

Alchohol Overdose

When is too much too much? Let me answer, when you drink from these amount of bottles in 3 days.

My collection of wine bottle corks

I'm not kidding you. We had a group of 5 on Wednesday and then a group of 10 on Friday and we actually drank all these. Not to mention another bottle of Longmorn 16 single malt whiskey. can't believe all of us are really wine "kakis". There were 2 consultants, 2 owners of Jaya Palace, 3 from the liquor company, 1 doctor, my friend from IBM and me.

Longmorn is actually a product of the Chivas Brothers and it is positioned as a super-premium whiskey costing £50 a bottle. The existing Longmorn 15 years old have been replaced by Longmorn 16, also known to connoisseurs as the "Hidden Jewel of Speyside". The simplicity design of the bottle is truly the perfect expression of a luxury malt. It combines the use of glass, metal, paper and leather to give it a very stylish finishing. The taste verdict, it was fruity with a touch of woody taste and it was quite smooth. Well, seriously, I'm not quite a malt nor whiskey drinker and I have never liked whiskey, so I don't really know how to appreciate a good whiskey. Well, at least I can say that I have tried premium whiskey - Longmorn 16!

It was not only alcohol all the way. Like I mentioned the other day in my "Damn F*cking Good Food & Wine" post, we had good food. The food on Friday was fantastic. We started off with the Lobster and Salmon sashimi. Boy, the lobster was huge. Then we had the sharks fin in pork broth, and then the Australian abalone. After that, came the suckling pig with man tou buns steaming hot on the table, and then lobster porridge and some other dishes. We finished off the meal with "Coconut Suit Kap". Dear, it was heavenly. And even for plain water, we had the Aqua Panna bottled water from Italy. It was crazy, I know...

Lobster Sashimi

Man Tou Buns still steaming hot from the stove

Australian Abalone

Lobster Porridge

Dessert - Coconut Suit Kap

Feeling hungry? me too. Me will have dinner now. Ciaoz.

My Scents

Recently, I realised that my DKNY Be Delicious is running out and since my mom is in Dubai, I had asked her to get a bottle of Christian Lacroix C'est La Fete for me. That particular bottle of perfume that I mentioned is not available in Malaysia as I have searched high and low for it including the duty free shops. I first came across this bottle when I was in Dubai July last year. i was buying perfume for my Dad as he always love the classic Aramis, abottle of Loewe Solo and then a bottle of DKNY Be Delicious in green and red for both of my sisters. The sales girl was promoting the new Christian Lacroix fragrance to me but at that time I was really into Be Delicious so I didn't buy. She was so nice that she gave me 3 sample vials for me to try.

Honestly, I have never came across such good customer service when buying perfumes - not that I am a regular customer of perfumery shops but Paris Gallery in Ibn Battutah Mall in Dubai has the best customer service. Their range of perfumes is huge! The sales girl was so patient in showing me around the gondolas full of perfumes and she gave me quite good discounts. They even had a butler that brought me and my mom a glass of wine while we sit at the counter and the sales girl brings over the perfume for me to choose. When I was at the cashier counter, she offered me dates and then a cup of coffee while waiting for the bill. Wow, I was awed by the good service. Maybe because of that, I had swiped RM600 on perfumes. I had been trapped.

When I was back in Malaysia, I tried the sample bottle of C'est La Fete. It was awesome. It has this fruity and musky smell but not too overwhelming. It's a very unique scent. I was searching high and low for it but no one had heard of the brand. Christian Lacroix is famous for it's designer clothing but not the perfume. Even in Dubai, my mom had problem finding it and she only managed to find it at the airport shop when she was departing. I first fell in love with perfume when my friend introduced me to Davidoff Cool Water when I was in my secondary school. However my first bottle was Esprit For My Dreams where I got it for 32SGD in Singapore. Then my boyfriend got me a bottle of Davidoff for my Christmas present. When the DKNY Be Delicious was launched, I changed. I began to like the apple scent so my boyfriend bought me a bottle when he was in Singapore. I've never stick to one scent. I like to have a few scents to play around and to suit my moods. When I felt sexy, I would use my sis's Victoria Secret Very Sexy For Her, when I feel I need to stay fresh, I'll use the Body Shop Beleaf or the Mint Scent Emay bought for me for Xmas or when I need to feel confident, I'll use the Christian Lacroix C'est La Fete. on normal days, I'll just spray on the Be Delicious so that I'll stay delicious at any time of the day. LOL

I have just came to realise that I really have an extensive range of perfumes including those of my two sisters' collection. We realised that we really need to clear all these before we can buy new ones. And I've just decided that I need to take some of the cheap one to spray my room in the office and the toilets.

My new scent - Christian Lacroix C'est La Fete

Escada Sunset Heat
My mom bought this bottle before she found the C'est La Fete because according to the salesgirl, this is the nearest scent you can get to the one I wanted. I say, it's far too different.

My First Love - Davidoff Cool Water

My previous love - DKNY Be Delicious

My First bottle of perfume - Esprit For My Dreams

Body Shop collection

My two sisters' DKNY Be Delicious

My two sisters' Victoria Secret Very Sexy For Her and
Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue

Ziling's miniature Christian Dior Chris 1947 & Forever and Ever

I think we do really have many bottles of perfume. this is what you get when you have 3 girls living under the same roof but with different tastes in perfumes!

Chocolates Fit for a Sultan

What chocolates would you buy for a Sultan's birthday? Godiva, Patchi or Leonidas (boutique chocolates you can find in KL)?!!! Rubbish. You don't get these brands and it will only be an insult to the ruler. You think he can't buy these chocolates himself? Or do you get Godiva to have a diamond encrusted into the piece of chocolate? That would be stupid because it will burn a hole in the pocket and the diamond will be too hazardous if he swallowed it!

Last week, my chef received an instruction from my boss to get ready a birthday gift for the Sultan of Kedah for his 80th Birthday. No wonder he was so busy the whole Sat morning trying to add the finishing touches to the gift.

I wanted to capture some pictures for the photo archive and then to keep a record of the chocolate structures that we can do but unfortunately the boys went to deliver the chocolate without notifying me. So when I asked the chef, he quickly called them and asked them to make a u-turn to come back to the factory for me to take the pictures. I felt so bad having them to make a u-turn.

Let me reveal to you what Fidani Chocolatier is capable of doing.....don't blink

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The crown is hand-crafted from Fidani's Finest Chocolate

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The Fidani Treasure Box

With a message written in chocolate

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Now you know what we are capable of doing in Fidani Chocolatier. Do you think you can get this elsewhere? Muahaha.... Our chocolates are definitely fit for a king!

Damn F*cking Good Food & Wine

After gym at 7pm, I was rushing to Jaya Palace, the newly opened chinese restaurant at the LYL building beside the Naza Motors along Federal Highway for a dinner. This dinner is a rematch bewteen me and Mr. L who apparently was out drunk by me the previous dinner we had at Il Divo in Sri Hartamas. I was introduced to this wine drinking group by Mr. W, one of my best customers when I had a booth in Bangsar Village in December last year. Not only he had bought RM1k worth of chocolates from me, but he had also bought me cheese and nougat.

According to Mr. W, Mr. L was embarrased to be out drunk by me because he's a seasoned wine drinker and there are 2 others who are excited to meet the girl who out drunk him. So I met another 2 new friends at Jaya Palace, one being a MD of a wine importing company, and the other an advisor whom has been in the wine industry for more than 20 years. The waitress ushered me into the private room of the restaurant. The restaurant is quite impressive with elegant interior design and the private rooms are equipped with plasma tv, sofas, private toilet and also 1 or 2 waitresses personally serving us. Damn, I feel like someone important! haha....

What was the real highlight of the dinner was the food and wine! We had salmon yee sang, cold crab, really big oysters and abalone for starters. Can you imagine we had 4 dishes for starters?!! Then, came the best dish of all - Sharks fins soup. The speciality lies in the broth of the soup as pork is used and the sharks fins are in combs. Not shreads, but the whole comb of it! I have had 5 combs. It was crazy. Everyone had 2 bowls of it since there were only 5 of us. After that came the suckling pig, peking duck, fish, fried frogs and lotus leaf rice. The dessert was the mango puree with pomelo and strawberry. What a way to end a meal! Throughout the dinner, we had different wines to go with the food. We started with a bottle of white wine and then red all the way. I can't remember any names except for the bottle of Xisto from Portugal, rated 98 points out of 100 given by some wine expert I presume. The food & wine was really heavenly. I had never had such good sharks fins in my entire life and I think the dinner minus the wine would have cost more than RM2k. We had 6 bottles of wine in a night till 12.30 midnight!

This morning, I experienced the lack of sleep syndrome. I felt so fatigue and lethargic that I wished that I could lay on my bed and just sleep the entire morning. Moreover, my tummy wasn't feeling well. Must be either the cold crabs or the oysters - couldn't be the 5 combs of sharks fin I had.... I was also as busy as bee today, meeting the box supplier, the printer and then Mr.Nelson, the owner of Nelson's - the famous corn in cup?!! We have some dealings but it'll be kept a secret till it comes out in the market. Right now, there are already 60 outlets nationwide. That's good for a company that relies on corn and waffles.

That's not the end, I was also invited for a dinner in this same restaurant this Friday by the MD with a RM3.5k menu! This is a must go dinner. Another round of sinful indulgence!

My ABC Runneth Over

It was a Sunday and I had all the time in the world to boil my soup. Actually I was already craving for ABC soup on Saturday but I couldn't possibly be using ABC soup as the soup base for the steamboat! Anyways, let's backtrack a bit. The soup on Saturday was good. I had used a lot of pork ribs for the soup and also an extra secret ingredient. It's not MSG or Ajinomoto ok? The ingredient is one of the secret in making good soups as told to me by my grandma since she used to be a hawker in the Pasar Besar Ipoh 2 decades ago.

In fact, I grew up in Ipoh town (now it's a city) with frequent visits to my grandma's stall in the wet market. She was famous then selling the fishball noodle with crispy "fu pei". We were quite arrogant then because it was selling like hot cakes and we always run out of fishballs. I grew up watching how my aunts and uncles helping my grandma scraping the meat off the fish and then making it into fishballs. Damn, I missed those fishballs. It was the best! Everyone (the older generation la) knew my grandma in town back then. I had some friends there whose mother is selling vegetables and another friend whose mother was selling nyoya kuih.

Maybe that's why I grew up not hating the wet market but in fact loving to go there. When I was in my primary school age, I used to follow my grandma to the market where she meets up with her friends there for breakfast and a chat till noon. After that, we'll head home and get ready for school. That has been my daily routine for a couple of years until I went to the morning session. During those times, I would pester my grandma to buy me marbles, balloons and toys from the market. There was once that I got so curious watching people ordering the soya milk mixed with cincau and I demanded I wanted the same thing. So she bought a cup for me. I triumphantly finished the whole cup and not more than five minutes later, I vomited all of it at the drain behind the stall. After that I had a phobia drinking it until I went to high school.

When I was 3. They said I was good looking! As a boy or girl?!!

I still have the same stare till today. I'm a natural!

Well, after two paragraphs of my childhood days, I'm still ain't telling you what the secret ingredient is just in case I want to revive my grandma's legacy. Hmm.. maybe I should call it Grandma Fishball Noodles - best in Ipoh & KL and some say JB. LOL.

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Getting back to the ABC soup, I fell asleep in the afternoon and when i got up at 5.30pm, I realised I'm running out of time to boil the soup as I wanted to have a Japanese dinner at Sushi Zanmai in Sunway Pyramid at 8pm. So I quickly went and boil the soup.

Diced potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and onions

Fresh chicken from the market

After I had boiled the chicken and pour away the bloody (no pun intended) water, I fill up the pressure cooker with water. Actually I think I am supposed to follow the guide line but I was a bit greedy and I filled a little more. Then I close the lid and started boiling the soup. It was fine and I had it boiling for almost 2 hours. When I had let go all the pressure from the pot, I lifted the lid up and then the soup kept oozing out like a shaken bottle of champagne! I don't know how to stop it but to allow it to keep flowing out from the pot till it stopped. It was a mess! It's like the soup had exploded from the pressure cooker. I had to clean up the stove and the counter. I managed to squeeze a bowl full of soup from the cloth!

Tomatoes & Onions blown out from the pot!

I had more than enough of ABC soup so much so that it had runneth over!

In Celebration of Freedom

There must be a reason to celebrate right in every party? Well, this steamboat party at my residence is not in celebration of me "getting married" or "getting pregnant" like what my naughty friends have suggested yesterday. It's more like a gathering for my sisters' friends and mine too. Knowing that my mom will be coming back from Dubai on Wed after being 2 months there, we gotta hold a party before she gets back man! I'll definitely be cleaning the house like mad these few days so why not dirty it and once and for all clean it properly after that?!! So a steamboat party seemed viable with lots of free booze on the house.

Let's do the headcount: Eiling, Ziling, Yiling, Jon, Hue Gee, Wan Hoong, Greg, Boon, Jill, Fernie, Rong Jiang, Jill, Param and Kenneth. Total = 14 heads + big mouths

Initially I thought there were only 10 of us, mana tahu extra 2 pulak. But lucky I have prepared the food fit for the whole village because they really can eat man!

Beware: This is a post full of pictures!

The Food

Fishball, Meatball, "Fu Pei", Salmon fillets, Quill eggs,
Golden Mushroom, clams, prawn, squid, lots of vege, noodles and acar.

Yiling's home-made Manuka Honey Roasted Chicken Wings

The People

Me (the hostess) & Gee sipping our wine.

My group - Jon, me, Gee & Hoong

I had to open another table using my beloved Solitaire antique table
due to lack of space at the main table.

My sisters & her friends at the main table.

Hey how come my eyes looked so small here?!!

The Booze, Games & Quizzes

Hue Gee brought a bottle of red wine, Boon brought a bottle of muscat and a bottle of red wine and I the hostess was kind enough to offer a bottle of Absolut Vodka, Bacardi and 4 liters of table wine for the party! Applause...applause....

Guys and their booze. Booze goes well with machoism?

My new concoction - Red Bull Vodka/Bacardi

Blackcurrant Vodka

Stanley table wine. Thumbs up!

During the dinner, everyone had a go at the IQ quizzes and there was so much crap you can ever imagined. Then after we cleared the dishes and table, they all started to play some games. Ziling's friend, Boon, suggested some party games that we can play. It was fun though minus the gross stuff that you have to endure.

Balance a tequila shot glass into a tall glass of gazzy drink with ice. Everyone will have a go at pouring the liquor into the shot glass. Anyone that sinks the shot glass will have to drink the whole damn thing!

The game gang

Then they had this deadly idea of playing this game where there will be 3 words chosen to play. For example, during the first round each one will have to say the word in sequence. A will say "Frog", B will say "Doink", C will say "Jump". Then D will have to go back to the first word "Frog", E will have to repeat the word "Frog" as this is the second round. Then when it comes to F, he'll have to say "Doink" and then the next person also will have to say the word "Doink".

Basically it's like that - Frog (F), Doink(D), Jump(J), FFDDJJ, FFFDDDJJJ, FFFFDDDDJJJJ and so on. It's fun if you play it fast and the members need to do some mind calculation how many times to repeat the same word as the round goes on.

The punishment for the one who uttered the wrong word will have to drink the gross stuff which consists of a glass of whatever they can find in my house. That night, they had acar mixed with vodka, barcardi, ribena, wine, vinegar, lemon, tau fu fah and whatever you can think of!

Yucky glass of gross stuff

Fernie had the honour of drinking it!


This following video is the WHO WHAT HUH game.

The punishment is also the yucky glass of gross stuff. Can't remember how it was played because many were confused and so the glass was finished quite fast. The wonder is no one complained about having stomachache the next day!

Finale

Most of the people left by 11pm and there were only 6 of us left so we decided to camwhore a bit before we call it a day as Yiling and I have a music class at 8am the next day. Yiling set the camera to a timer mode on top of the TV and this is our best shot!

Three girls, Three guys and a living room.

Thank you to everyone who made the effort to come. It's really a nice gathering bringing friends from all ages (from 19-26) to our home so that I could share my sisters' friends! Haha...