Thoughts from the weekend

OK, excuse this very random post. I had lots of little random thoughts over the weekend so I thought I would just group them altogether.

First off, I had a very tiring weekend cos i was scheduled to work last week =(. I just found myself sleeping more and more of late. Possibly my body telling me i need to recuperate?

Secondly, I've been thinking of doing some serious shopping - yes, i figure retail therapy is good for my soul. Just found out that most shops are now having their 'Final Sales' (usually 50%- 70% off).

So people, this is the time to exert a lot of effort into picking out potential bargains! But remember to never to buy something that isn't up to your usual standards just because 'it's so cheap now'.

Besides retail therapy, i usually cook to de-stress.

I'm currently really excited to learn how to make my favourite dish - Pork with yam.

The ones you see here are made by my wonderful dad. This secret recipe has been passed down for generations. He'll be teaching me how to make this dish. It's a tedious process i tell ya. =)

One of dad's signature dishes

Thirdly, it was Christine's birthday yesterday.

"Happy Birthday Lai ma!"

So, Michael, Celine, Diana and myself brought her out for lunch to celebrate. We had lovely siao long pau (3 baskets full), duck ala beijing style with mantou (but heaps yummier), spicy stir fried chicken, steamed buns, crispy rolls, 2 servings of fried rice, a bowl of "zha jiang" ramen among the 5 of us.

I couldnt walk after the meal. It was just too much, but worth every cent cos it was a damn good meal =).


I love this spicy chicken dish.

Our favourite: duck ala beijing style with mantou (sorry, i'm clueless as to the name of this dish, i just know if you wanna order it, the number should be 63).

The mantou that comes with the duck.

Place the fried beancurd skin, duck meat and drizzle with some gravy on the mantou.

MmmMmm..another melt-in-the-mouth dish. =)

Crispy yam roll. Now, you know how much i love yam right?

Lastly, I'm just so happy i could sing all day :p

Yes, I'm singing praises for this product by BED HEAD - TIGI.

SMALL TALK is a 3-in-1 Thickifier, Energizer, and Stylizer. Blah, blah, blah.
Thickifier – adds body and volume. Energizer – gives life to limp hair. Stylizer – defines, separates and controls.

Remember how i was so upset after my trip to Perhentian? My hair was so dry and unruly that it was almost impossible to style.

Now, thanks to BED HEAD, my hair looks and feels greaaaaat =). I absolutely love the blueberry fragrance too - it reminds me of grape-flavoured vitagen actually :).

My Perhentian adventure - Part 3

Day 3 - Rain rain go away...
Men and Cindy decided to give snorkelling a skip as they were both suffering from quite severe sun burn.

So Mon and I went for our morning snorkelling session. We decided to skip the afternoon half cos we wanted a good r & r by the beach with absolutely nothing to do.

We snorkelled around Perhentian island area. We went to our 1st stop - Shark's point in the hope to see some sharks. I was snorkelling by myself, when my guide stopped me and asked me to wait at a certain spot with him cos he said, "this is the highway where sharks go pass everyday...wait here for them with me".

*sweat sweat*

It was very inviting, and yet, i was nervous to death. Cos i really have no bloody idea how i'll react when i see one (or more than one sharks!!!).

Anyway, we didnt see any.

Was kinda relieved, but disappointed at the same time.

Next, we went to look for sea turtles. And yes, we did find one. The area where the turtles reside has clearer water and the temperature felt different as well (can't remember if it was warmer or cooler, just different).

After that, we were brought to a spot to see corals. Was kinda sad to see so many dead corals though. =(

After that bout of snorkelling, i felt sick again. Felt like vomitting, but i restrained myself.

(Maybe it was my breakfast, i cannot have eggs in the morning. It makes me sick. Or maybe it's the seasickness that i still have not gotten used to).

So by the time we were at our next stop, i couldn't go into the water. i had to rest. I had no intention whatsoever to puke into the sea and see those fishes eat my vomit. *yucks*

After about 10-15 mins of rest, i jumped into the water cos i couldnt resist myself. There were so many fishes swimming around and they were so pretty. =)

I was pretty woozy by the time i reached Cocohut. Decided to sleep it off after lunch.

So i went to lie on the beach, reading my novel till i doze off. While the girls hang out in the common area as it was about to drizzle.

The girls hanging out with Eric (Hendrik) while i was out sunbathing.

Thanks to the constant rain, our clothings were constantly damp.

Most memorable moment:
The four of us running in the rain to jump into the sea and we hung out in the rain doing some major singing! We serenaded everyone who was able to hear within 10 metres radius with songs from the 80s and 90s. We especially love songs like Eternal flame, Superwoman, Close to you, and even The Sound of Music.

I think we sang for over an hour.

It was quite embarrassing actually. We were totally ignorant to the fact that others could hear us as the beach was totally deserted due to the rain.

When it stopped raining, we were still singing and we forgot that others have started milling around the beach area again.

It wasn't till one of the guys working in Cocohut exclaimed, "Wah. Kamu ni pandai menyanyi. Sudah lama menyanyi. Tak sejuk ke?" ("Wow, you gals can really sing. It's been quite a while already. Aren't you gals cold?"), that we realised...

Damn shy man!


Tan or not?

Indra made this for me as I was still feeling very woozy. It's lime juice with asam boi. Yum!!

Our dinner.
Teochew style tofu soup. Butter garlic fried prawns - super fresh!

Sweet and sour fish fillet.

Foo yung style omelette with prawns.

It was raining again in the evening...We couldn't go anywhere =(. We decided to hang out around the common area to chill for the night.

Hendra (or Indra for short) entertaining us with his magic tricks.

Indra, his bro Eric, and Niah.

This guy on Indra's right is really a Mathematical genius. He formulated quite a few magic card tricks which we found impressive. Hehe..i'm gonna try these tricks on some ppl! Can't wait. =)

Just in case you're wondering, I was still feeling as if i've had a major hangover or something. Hate that feeling!


Day 4 - So long, farewell...
On top of our mee goreng, we were given extra french toast due to the fact that we're skipping lunch (gotta rush back to Kuala Besut).

Indra sending us off..

Byeee Indra, thanks for your help! You've been great. =)

Saying goodbye to Pulau Besar and Cocohut.

My Perhentian adventure - Part 2

Day 2 - Sun, Sand and Sea

I was the first to wake up. Breakfast's at 8am. I woke up at 7am to shower, but i didnt bother washing my hair, eventhough it stank of ciggy n smoke from the night before. Why wash it when I'm gonna get my hair wet the entire day?

Back to the waking up so freaking early part. Since there were 4 of us, we had to share the toilet, naturally one of us had to wake up extra early. And since i'm likely to take the longest I had to go first.. Dun you just hate that?

All 4 of us..still blur from the night before..Me with my limpy, greasy hair from the night before :P

Our breakfast...
Gotta give them the thumbs up for whipping up such delicious mamak mee goreng!

And there's kuey teow goreng as well

It was a WET morning. Yups, the perfect time to sleep and not wake up at all. I just love sleeping on mornings like this.

Somewhere over the rainbow....

Off to Redang for our 1st snorkelling trip (cos we missed the one yesterday). Please ignore the messy, unruly wind-blown hair. :P

Ooh..Redang looks so beautiful!

Niah, our shy guide.

While waiting for the rest, i did some cam-whoring. Love this new navel stud i got from bkk.

Am currently contemplating to extend my tattoo. But no idea how yet..

My very first outdoorsy trip with the girls. They didnt wanna go on a shopping trip with me anymore cos they reckon i walk too much. :P

After spending about an hour in Redang, we hopped over to Marine Park for lunch and more snorkelling.

Our nasi bungkus - omelette, sambal squid and fried chicken...with sambal belacan. Shiok!

We weren't keen to snorkel here cos the water wasn't as clean as redang and the other islands.

We did some sunbathing and swimming around and got really burnt!

Next, we island hopped to Lang Tengah.

It reads "There was a time when sex was safe and diving was dangerous"

I love the water here, and the fishes were aplenty and mostly interesting. Carmen pointed out a school of baby barracudas swimming around the 2 of us.

Mon says "Take this picture, put it our your desktop and imagine that you're lying on the beach...chilling!". Ahhh..what bliss!

Oh, did i tell you about our crazy boatmen who drives like a maniac? Well, he's absolutely nuts. He loves to fly the boat and run on bumps and send us screaming for help. And he loves to sing Isabella at the top of his lungs.

He actually informed me that he'll allow me to drive the boat if i wanna. And i did..You should have seen the faces of the other passengers, they were all suddenly quiet as i took on the role. hehe

We drove to a kampung (village) opposite our pulau for roti canai and teh tarik.

Wonder why there are so many sheeps around...

I wonder how it'd be like to actually live in a kampung like that. How long will i be able to survive?

Back to Cocohut for our BBQ dinner.
We had BBQ squid, fried mee hoon, sausages, and fried chicken.

This ikan bakar was fantastic.

But i couldn't enjoy the food as my head was swaying due to motion sickness. After being on the boat for the entire day, I couldn't acclimatize myself with land anymore.

I felt sick.

It was taking me forever to get over my wooziness.

Nevertheless, we proceeded to Long Beach to club. This time round, we took a sampan there as there were only 4 of us (the guys left for KL after dinner). And gosh, the ride was even more rough on a sampan.

I didn't drink (good girl eh?) cos i was really sick.

I'm pretty glad i had a booze free nite =)