A Weekend Diary..

I just wish I could blog with more photos, and less words. [Hehe, that's a sign of laziness].

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I'd been gone for too long from my blog now. I'd always thought I'd find time to post something up at night after work, but there was always something else to do. Been over and about in the past week, with lots of to-do-lists. But now that I'm sitting here and trying to list the things that've taken so much of my time, I don't seem to know where to start off with... And speaking of which, I should by now have lots of back-dated entries to post on. (Yes yes, I hear you, El Cerdo photos not up yet). Hmm... Stay tuned while I try to keep up then!

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Ah, well, for now, I shall just do a brief one about the most recent weekend.

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So, what exactly has Sher Lin been up to lately?

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Friday, the 27th of March - Sher Lin has had a blast outing with dear colleagues at Green Box Karaoke, Sg Wang! It must've been the stress at work, 'cause somehow, all of us were having so much fun singing our lungs out! We did songs ala rocker style, the slow R&B style, the Mamma Mia musical craze style, even did songs ala the Bollywood style! Gawd, ridiculously funny. So much fun we had that we didn't notice time was passing us by fast, as in real fast. Wish we had had more time, but let's look forward to another round soon! Lily, if you're reading this, don't worry about missing out, just join in our K-session in future!

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[No photos to share here, yet]

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Saturday, the 28th of March - Sher Lin wishes she hadn't miss out on the supposingly remarkable KL city view during the significant-once-a-year-event of Earth Hour. : (( Sadly, she had. How disappointing is that. The more disappointing piece of news was that, while she has missed out on the much anticipated thing to do, she was actually spending her Earth Hour at a restaurant in Subang that conveniently not jointly participating in the massive event. Darn. Dah lah tak boleh tengok, nak rasa experience pun tak boleh. And I wasn't sad that I couldn't spend my hour in darkness (I could easily experience that over at my place when the blackouts happen as frequently as they like to). No, that wasn't it. It was because I couldn't take part in this massive joint event that the whole world is practically talking about. Then again, I'd better be committing myself to save the earth on a daily basis in things I do, like saying no to plastic bags, or commuting by lrts (which I'm already doing anyway, like I have a choice, haha), switching off unused and idle power sockets, also by simply not wasting water! Yup yup, that should do it, small efforts count!

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[Again, no photos to share yet too!]

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Sunday, the 29th of March - Sher Lin has waken up early on a Sunday, particularly so, for Qing Ming. It's an annual affair where we do grave sweeping for our departed loved ones. Official day is not until this coming Sunday, but most has already crowded the memorial parks and graveyards last weekend. Here are some photos I managed to capture with my mobile phone :

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[Ahh, finally, a part where I can share a few snapshots. Here goes... ]

A further view of Nilai Memorial Park's landscape.

Talk about car-pooling for saving the earth, huh? Look at the jam-packed & crowded cars parked throughout the park!

You'd see on the left, there are tables and tables of offerings leading up to the temple of Da Bo Gong. We'd pretty much needed to scout for an empty space along the tables to lay our offerings & put them in place.

This is one temple we didn't miss out on either, the temple of San Sheng Dian.

This is the entrance to the columbarium where my late grandpa's ashes has been staying put at for the past 6 years.

I miss my grandpa dearly, even more so on this particular day where we speak of him and the fond memories he left us with. For one, I'd always loved sneaking up to the table at evening tea breaks & eating Pagoda/Cap Tangan groundnuts with him while he gulped it down with a can of Guinness Stout, grandpa's all-time favourite combination! If you'd asked me, I like the fact that he's at a better place now. I don't know that for sure, really. But I certainly choose to believe so. 'Cause for all I know, in my eyes, he deserves to be at a better place. : )

Alright then, that covers about it for my weekend. Hope your weekends were eventful too! Catch up later!

For The Umpteenth Time...

Sien-nya.

If only I could sit around and live like there's no tomorrow. Then there's so much lesser to worry about...

Just received my credit card statement today. Die. For the umpteenth time for the past two years, I've been repeating this thought to myself. "Spend less, save more this month! Next time I'll leave the cards at home!". Everytime I see the bills, every month, every pay day, every shopping & purchase, every credit due date. And people say when you start earning your own money and paying for your own expenses, you're officially poor. So true. You'd think you can spend on plastic, and pay later, thinking by then your next salary will be out to cover the expenses. Wrong! Any financially-wise person will tell you, that's a stupid move! Yet, I never learn. I need some serious restructuring of thoughts and planning, else I'll get nowhere any sooner.

I also miss the piano back at home. Not like I can just walk down a fleet of stairs from my room to the living hall and play whenever I want to, whenever I feel like it. That's a flexibility I miss. And I find my harmony getting worse after losing the touch to it after years of 'no-piano-playing-at-all-lifestyle'. Try humming a second or third voice to a song now, langsung tak boleh. I hope I don't lose everything I've learned in the younger days, that's gonna be a real waste! Waste of dad's money, of Teacher Wendy's time, of my years of practice! Guitar - that's something I should start to seriously pick up. And I don't just mean by meddling with the few common chords. What I mean is to play a complete real song, the whole song, without stopping. Hmm... Let's do that. Shall I put this as one of my to-do-lists of 2009? We'll see!!

Waving My Virgin Goodbye

Haha! I bet the title has pretty much caught your attention!
And no, before you get carried away thinking about it, let me just re-state and clarify. It's meant to be Waving My 'Virgin Goodbye' (with the inverted open/close commas, okay). =D Anyway, here's the story. We were in Midvalley for lunch, met up some friends for a movie session. Then we saw Rynn Lin Yu Zhong (林宇中) performing at the centre court where Biotherm was having a promo-booth/kiosk throughout the weekend. Am assuming he's one of the spokesperson to be invited to perform. So there I was, standing at the 1st floor, looking down at him performing, he looked up, I waved, and he waved back. Then I caught myself thinking, 'Oh man, this is not me, I don't even wave when I see Lee Hom, or Jay Chou, or whoever big shots I'd seen, to date (even if I do feel excited), and here I am, waving my 'virgin goodbye' to him!' And I'm not even his biggest fan. I do listen to his songs la, but not that big-a-fan ma. Oh well, what's done is done. Haha. But he's a nice guy, I presumed, courteous enough to have actually layan-ed and waved back, and not being a stuck-up coming from the entertainment fame. And he sings pretty well live too, and has quite a number of good songs in his portfolio as yet (shall try to post a video later, since I'm blogging off from the office, I can't access my youtube now! :( )


As promised - Here's one of the songs I like by Lin Yu Zhong 林宇中, titled '遠遠'. Enjoy!



Oh by the way, off-tracking a lil' from my story, am counting down to Earth Hour this Saturday. I'm looking forward to the scenic view of KL in darkness in the convenience of my own home, through the window. Do make an effort to do your part this coming Saturday, 8.30pm-9.30pm for an hour's duration. Make an impact, make it count!

Money Tree, Oh, Money Tree..

Right. I haven't been posting often enough. So I'm sitting here in front of the PC, trying to think of something to blog about. Hmm...

I've got million and one things running through my head every now and then. But to put all thoughts into one post is a mission so darn impossible.

Matta Fair's here this weekend. I want to travel so badly, yet I'm short of financial capabilities. There's a lot of those contrary perceptions going around in this global phase of credit crunch. For one, if you've got cash now, it's best to go travel, with the major drop of prices and competitive promotions. The safest way to go (if you're a low-risk person) however, is to keep your cash for tight safe-keeping, in case the economy gets worse (which likely will, anyway). I wish I have a money tree, you know, like the one you see in Sims, where you can water it, it grows, then *ding* cash grows on it, and you harvest them.

GP Sales are here too. Again, I wish I have a money tree. I don't understand how the economy is bad when you can still see people crowding the shopping malls, with bags and bags of goodies on hand. Where do all these people get their money from?! But yes, the average Malaysian still spend the way they do before the downturn. We're still not changing the way we live, the way we spend, our habits. We're either ignorant, or we've been secluded from the outside world for a very long time.

Man... you really know how ungrateful you were as a kid, when you're pining and worrying about your own financial needs now!

卓文萱 [Zhuo Wen Xuan] - 一个人勇敢

Love this song by Genie Zhuo Wen Xuan! I think her vocals have really grown more maturely throughout the years. Enjoy!

Looking Forward To...

"I'm leaving on a jet-plane, don't know when I'll be back again.."

Haha... Not exactly, I'll be leaving with my dad, on my dad's car, back to Kuantan, and I know exactly when I'll be back again. I'll be back on Monday. It's a PH on Monday, so yay, a longer weekend to rest! So people, if you're wondering 'Why no updates?', it's because I'm away for a good, long, well-deserved rest back home. Hehe.

On another note, I'm feeling hopeful that my hand allergies are giving me less troubles today! Way to go, it's finally in the healing process, which I've desperately been anticipating for!
Hope the medication I'm taking works well, will need to go back and see Dr. Ting next week for a follow-up check up.

At this point of time, I'm looking forward to a few things that's gonna happen in the coming days and months. It's good to have something to look forward to, you tend to feel motivated and inspired to pass each day better (not that my days were actually that terrible before la...) but for the least of it, it makes me feel there's more to life than the usual-routined-mundane-everyday-life. It's more like you have a target to reach out to, and not just sail back and forth with whatever that life's throwing you, it gets boring sometimes, it does. So, list of 'to-do' in the coming days :

1) BC's Bday Celebration (cum gathering) happening this March!
2) My sis's Bday Celebration happening this March too!
3) LeeHom's Music Man concert happening this May! (Yes, long way to go, but can't wait, :D )

My Version of Happily-Ever-After

I know for a fact that Valentine's long over-due.
I, for one, didn't had a good Valentine experience this year. But I'm staying positive that tomorrow will be a better day. Haha. But Valentine's over-rated anyway. It's so commercialised that it's almost a sin if you're attached or coupled and yet not celebrating it. I'm pondering & reflecting on whether this represents a good or bad side of human nature. That we're somehow so in-synched with this whole trend thing, someone started it, commercialised it, and suddenly it's a trend by book of laws that we should all follow. How amazing.

Today, it got me thinking after reading Kim Ong's blog (I have her in one of my blogs list I follow, that's if you're interested). It got me thinking about what defines happily-ever-after in my terms. In this particular entry on Lovemedo, I'm extremely agreeable on what contestant Huay Sean thought. That she believes in destiny and happily-ever-after for her is when you hold hands when you're both 80. Simplistic, yet reflective. The fact that I thought about that too, made me very fond and close to what her voice within resembles about true/real love in this current age.

So here I am, speculating and imagining my own version of happily-ever-after. I've certainly and definitely outgrown the Cinderella version of it. I used to look forward to the big 'W' of my own someday ('W' - Wedding, that is) so much that I imagined myself taking care of the very details with absolute care and attention! But now that I'm in a real relationship for years myself, I think I've tend to eventually realise what calls for a better celebration than the big great wedding itself. It's still a dream as yet, but with less dream-y anticipation note in it. Either I've grown realistic, or I've grown old. You choose. Haha.

Here's what have changed in my years of growing old (or realistic, depending on which u chose earlier). I don't look forward to retirement travel plans to Europe anymore (I think this was somehow affected by the global recession stress that all over the world is experiencing recently), I only want us still holding hands to walk an evening walk in the evening breeze in the taman area that we'll be staying at. I don't look forward to getting married by age 26/27 anymore, I only want to make sure I get a partner that can last me a lifetime. I don't look forward to having surprises for every celebration or occasion (birthdays, anniversaries, valentines, etc) anymore, I only want my partner to remember that I have a habit of drinking hot Milo kosong every morning, and I don't take veges like brinjals & lady's fingers. These would do. Simple and everyday things like these would do.

Now, 60-80 years down the road from today, if I'm still maintaining this blog (right, as if the technology advancement of this age will stay stagnant), I'll share my achievables or non-achievables with you. That's if, I'm still having a vivid memory, and not suffering from Alzheimer already. Haha!

Statement of 'Virtues'

Okay. For once, I'm gonna say it out loud!
I hate scrutinizers, who's satisfied at the expense of others.
I hate fakers, who think they could put up a stage show so perfect that no one sees through them.
I hate hypocrites, who betray worlds of their own, just to feel on top of a self-proclaimed success.
I hate people who treat you nice only with an underlying intention.
I hate people who's pretentious, thinking they could cheat and lie their way into people's trusts.
I hate people who think they know it all, and assume everyone else knows less.
I hate people who is calculative and 'put you on the table', just to justify themselves, even towards people they call 'friends'.
I hate people who tries to be authoritative and lead, without even knowing the slightest clue.
I hate people who draw conclusions, even before they draw the opening.
I hate people who are self-centered, as if the earth stops spinning without him/her on it.
I hate people who kacang lupakan kulit, remembering you only when they're in need, and forget you when they're not.
For all these people out there, know that you'll be lonely someday, and know that you have no true friends with you.

Gastric - 1, Me - 0

It's been quite a while since gastric last visited me.
I think I must have been a little careless with myself, so it's now back to 'haunt' me!
But heck, I've been eating real regularly, have no idea why!
And my tummy feels so bloated now... I'm making myself a cup of ginger tea later!

Oh, and guess what.
Thanks to my ignorance & carelessness (again), I'd conveniently 'touched' (direct contact, that is!) that chemical which had given me allergy spots on my hands in the recent months! And man... I think I'm getting those evil little spots again. I'm feeling the symptoms already. Crap x 10!!! Why, oh WHY are you so careless, Sher Lin? Have you not learnt your lesson enough?!
I'm gonna be giving myself one hell of a big round of applause for being the 'smartest' ever person on earth! (Or maybe FTS [fan tai shui] has not really ended for me just yet!)

I'm throwing that stupid cloth away first thing in the morning when I reach office tomorrow! Urgh!

Garden Lifestyle Store & Café @ 1 Utama

I'm not really doing a review, or an ad. But I would definitely say this place is worth visiting - food worth the money, ambience & environment worth the praise of its interior (and exterior) design!

I was caught unprepared as BC & I only decided on lunch there last-minutely, so I didn't had a decent camera with me (so all photos below courtesy of my N73ME's camera). I'd foreseen myself taking only a few shots of the nice ambience, but I ended up taking loads of them! We had thought it all made it very fairytale-like and dreamy that reminds us of a garden reception wedding! Yup, go on and feast your eyes... =)

A white grand piano greeted us at the entrance of the café .

You could even dine along the corridor leading to the entrance, but wait 'til you see what nice really is on the inside...

From where we were seated, these were the few shots taken...

Now, on to what we had... yummy...

Wild Mushroom Soup - $9.90

Iced Honey Lemon - $5.90

(We don't know if it was the ambience that created that wow effect, that even the Iced Honey Lemon was comparatively nicer too!)

Braised Lamb Shank - $28.90.

(The lamb was super tender, I tell you. I didn't even had to use my knife! Definitely recommended!)

Spaghetti Vongole (with clams) - $15.90.

(A little too oily, but very tasteful!)

We had picked up some desserts too. You should really drool at the variety of desserts they serve. Check them out...

Should also check out the random pieces of "garden-y" art decos which you'll find on sale at almost every corners in the café.

Not convinced yet? Give this place a visit yourselves at :

Garden Lifestyle Store & Café

Lot LG-308C Lower Ground Floor,

One Utama Shopping Centre, PJ.