Mango Galangal Something-Something~~~! + Hiatus

Picture courtesy from Michelle & Wu Han

This post is long overdue... heck! This is a mango dessert, served during a recent wedding dinner which I attended in Westin, Kuala Lumpur. OMG, this dessert is to die for! It's mango puree (I think!), with a small cake at the bottom, an almond swirl which you can see in the photo, topped with vanilla ice-cream. The taste is.... is... mmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You know how desserts at chinese wedding dinners usually are.... If it's not the 'tong sui' it's those sweet cakes and stuff. So, when we were served this mango galangal whatchamacallit, oh wow! I think my friends and I didn't get enough of the dessert XD

Thank you for sharing your big day with us, Clara and Rick. Have a blessed and wonderful marriage :D

On a separate note, Oli's gonna be away next week. Going on holiday with hubby *whee!* You guys be good ya. I'll catch you guys when I get back! Will take lotsa lotsa pictures to show you, I promise! HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008!

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You Wanna Sell Your Car?
This phone conversation occurred during Christmas eve, between my mum and I. I had just returned home after a really nice Japanese dinner...

*phone rings to the tune of My Lovely Sam-Soon*

Oli: Hello! Merry Christmas!

Mum: Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! *laff laff* Are you still selling your little car?

Oli: Yes, we'll be selling it. Why ah?

Mum: *laff laff* How much you wanna sell it for ah?

Oli: Errr... how much you wanna buy it for? *giggles*

Mum: *laff laff* Follow market price lah! My car got stolen today! *laff laff*

Oli: WTFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Where?!?!?!?!

Mum: From the LRT lah! Your sis as usual park the car at the LRT, then take LRT to KL. When she came back, the car was gone!

Oli: You sure the car is really missing ke... Or she forgot where she had parked the car?

Mum: The car really hilang la. Your dad went round the LRT carpark a few times oso din find it. We just came back from making a police report... *giggles*

Oli: Wait, your car is like... 12 years old oredi wei....! Still got people wanna steal?!?

Mum: *laff laff* Yalah! Stolen today summore! *laff laff*

Oli: Wah! On Christmas eve summore wei! What a present!

Mum: Yawor! *laff laff* Christmas eve summore! Cookie! Faster give me some number to strike!!! (Cookie's the freaking arrogant cat at home)

Oli: As if your stupid cat would give you number... cheee!

Mum: Your sis suspects it could be those car wash fellas that wash cars at the LRT parking lot...

Oli: Hmmm, possibly. Cos they know what cars go in and out of the parking lot.

Mum: Anyway, if you guys plan to sell your car, sell to me la. No rush now, get your new car first oso can.

Oli: Well, we're going to the showroom tomorrow to check things out. Even if we book the car now, we'll probably only get it early Feb... if we're lucky before CNY lor.

Mum: Can la, no rush. Hai gam seen lah! *click*

Ohboy, what a suprise. My mum's 12 year old Wira Aeroback actually got stolen from the Kelana LRT station on Christmas Eve XD Them fucking thieves probably been eying on the car a long time oredi, zeroed in on it and waited for the opportunity to strike. And if my mum's old car can get stolen, what about the newer cars parked there, right? Ok, so maybe my mum's car was an easier target cos there isn't any steering lock.

How did the mudderfukkers manage to bypass the ticketing counter, I have no idea. Maybe they pakat as well, hor? But to all those who do park your cars at the Kelana LRT station, do take extra precautions ya.

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Christmas Greeting~
Here's wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! May the celebrations be bigger than ever, and the new year brings with it more wonderful and happy times for everyone :D

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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Games We Played For Christmas

Guardian Angel/Mortal
We played this game in the office recently, to coincide with Christmas. It's called "Guardian Angel/Mortal". The rule of the game is simple: You pick a name from the envelope, and that person will be your mortal. As a guardian angel, you have to jaga your mortal la. You can do things like give your mortal a massage, buy food or drinks for the mortal etc etc.

It's not about the value, it's all about treating the person well and making sure they're always happy and well taken care of lah. You don't have to reveal your identity to your mortal, the idea is for them to guess who their guardian angel would be.

This game went on for about 2 weeks, and ended some time last Friday. I think everyone enjoyed the game a lot :) My mortal was the N, the Project Manager, haha! My idea was the give him something sweet everyday, be it fruits, juice, chocolates etc. You know the chinese saying, "tim tim mut mut"...

So everyday, I would think of something sweet to leave on his table. I would also include a small note, something that says your guardian angel left this for you, hope you enjoy yada yada. Sometimes I would write the note, sometimes I would get another colleague to write it for me. I was working with Jane actually, to try to trick N into believing that she's his guardian angel :P It didn't really work in the end cos my mortal later revealed at the end of the game that he knew I was his angel because he had been comparing the hand-written notes with some other notes posted on one of our internal boards XD Dang, my mortal so clever~ Ahaks~

As for me, my angel only appeared after I merajuk for 3 days! AHAHAHAHAHA! Yar, my angel appeared a little late, but better late than never, right? One of my other colleague, his angel only appeared at the last last minute too! He was so afraid his angel had forgotten about him, the poor thing.

It was an interesting game overall. Some angels were quite generous. Although the game wasn't about comparing whose angel is better and who got more goodies. It was about taking care of each other and appreciating one another.

P/S: I hope that my mortal enjoyed all the sweetness so far, and may his life be sweet always. And no, the angel game is over so I'm not washing your car :P

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Dirty Santa
Another game which we played was called 'Dirty Santa'. We were all given a minimum budget for a christmas gift, and all the gifts were lined up nicely under the office Christmas tree, which we brought along for the year-end company dinner (bosses took us on a cruise dinner @ Tasik Putrajaya).

The rule of the game is tricky: Each of us take a number from the envelope. Once everyone has taken their number, we'll queue up and grab whichever gift we want in accordance to the number we're holding. You have to open your gift of course, to see what you got ma. Now comes the "dirty" part... The person holding No.2 can choose to exchange the gift with person No.1. No.3 can exchange his/her gift with No.1 and No.2... and the list goes on. And if a person whats your gift, you have to release it, no questions asked. So if you're No. 15 for example, you have 14 people before you to exchange your gift with! Faham?

That said, things got pretty loud on the boat. Lotsa cheers and laughter, because whatever gift you were holding, may not necessarily be YOURS for keeps :P My number was No.15, and *ahem* lo and behold, the gift I picked was from N, the Project Manager (who was also my mortal). I didn't know the bag I picked up was from him, cos the gifts didn't have any names on it. And guess what I got?.... *drumroll*.... A pack of tingles... from DUREX....! O.O (makes me wonder what this guy does during his free time, ahaks!). It also came with a deck of cards, another way of foreplay, perhaps? LMAO!

Of course my chance for gift exchange came, I had 14 gifts to choose from! Wuakakakakakakaka! I saw my chance and jumped at it! I snagged a huge 30" pillow from another colleague. But I got worried too, because there were another 7 people behind me, who might take the pillow away from me!

Thankfully (phew!) those 7 people seem to be more interested in the wine or the big red mug that has been flying from hand to hand, hahahahahaha! The pillow is mine, ALL MINE XD *evil laughter*

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Sr Enda
Sr Enda was recently given the DSIS award, which carries the title Datin Paduka. Congratulations, Sr Enda! All Assuntarians, both young and old are happy for you! It's not like you need that title anyway, you're already a great person in our hearts :D

I've seen Sr Enda in person probably 2-3 times during my school days. Yes, she's the founder of Assunta Girls School and she's a bubbly person. Always cheerful, always smiling. And even though she's in her golden years now (79 this year, wow!), she's still so cheerie, hor?

I'm pretty sure most Assuntarians would have heard of Sr Enda. I'm not sure about the current batch of students now lah, but my seniors and their seniors before them are bound to remember or perhaps even talked to Sr Enda in person during her visits to school :) Sr Enda's visit to the school is marked as a very important occasion.

You can read more about Sr. Enda here.

Sing let all voices~~~~ Unite in joyful harmony~~~

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Worthless Maggots!
That's how our Jabatan Imigresen Malaysia is... hopeless! What the fuck do you promote people to use your e-kiosk for, when none of your machines WORK?!?!?!?!?!

All the idea of promoting efficiency, advancement, paperless... blatant lies!

Citizens still have to do the old fashioned way of queuing and waiting. What the heck you waste tax payers money on those kiosk when you don't even fucking maintain them?!? The kiosk was supposed to ease all the queuing and waiting in line, and speed up the process of passport renewal, you jerks!

On top of that, your stupid system keeps hanging, resulting in people wasting even more time just waiting for you to get the system back up.

Such pathetic-ness and incompetencies. Useless!

The upcoming general election will yield some surprising results this time around... Hmph!

Oli's so pissed today because she had to deal with incompetent fools before lunch! Harrrumph!

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Sohai
I was eating some ice-cream while watching tv just now. Hubby was watching 'Deal or No Deal' and was amused at how the bugger actually managed to open most of the suitcase containing the large amounts of ka-ching. I wasn't really paying attention to the show, but when I did, I exclaimed... "Hey... that's Kenny Sia...!" Hubby looked at me and said "Yeap, he's some blogger right?" "Yea..." I replied. "And I know a lot of people don't like him...! LOSER! WUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"

To cut a long story short, Mr Sia had open just about all the suitcases which carried the big moolahs, leaving the small amounts for his picking. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! No doubt he tried very hard to hide his embarrassment on national television, you really can't hide for long. I think if the ground opened up in front of him, he would jump in. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Kenny Sia ended the game finally by accepting the banker's deal of RM100. He didn't have much choice really, what's left in the game were all really small amounts of cash, the largest amount being RM250 XD. It was finally revealed that the suitcase HE was holding onto contained that RM250. Oh, you could really see the look on his face man. It was very obvious he was trying to put on a fake laugh, but I'm sure deep down inside he wanted to punch himself silly. I mean here he is, on tv, a notorious over-rated blogger, and he's losing face! ROTFL!

Oh, hubby says Kenny Sia's got a "yong sui" look. You know... the type you just wanna give a good punch ;P

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Paprika Honey Chicken!
We tried another roast chicken recipe recently, and it's really yummy and easy to do :D The recipe is called Paprika Honey Chicken. Actually, the recipe asked for smoked paprika, but I couldn't find any smoked paprika at all in the herbs section, so I just used regular paprika.

This is actually the 2nd attempt with this recipe, the 1st attempt I made this dish for my parents, who suddenly decided one fine day to have dinner at our place, harhar! So they were my guinea pigs, ekekekekeke! In the 2nd attempt, I actually tweaked the recipe a little by adding some thyme for extra flavour. Test test lah, you know. And it turned out quite alright too. I think the next time I try this dish, I'm gonna add some rosemary, my favourite herb~

This recipe is meant for a whole chicken, so if you're gonna try it on half a chicken, you gotta adjust the ingredients a little.

2 tbsp paprika (smoked paprika if available)
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbps softened butter (you can use unsalted butter)
2 tps garlic salt (or 1 tps salt + 1 tps garlic powder)
1/2 tps pepper

Preheat oven to 325°F (about 170°C). Rinse the chicken off with cold water. Pat dry thoroughly with paper towels (otherwise the paste won't stick).

Mix together the paprika, honey, lemon juice, butter, garlic salt, and pepper. Spread over the entire surface of the chicken and place on a shallow baking pan.

Bake at 325°F for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. You may need to adjust the time depending on how big your chicken is. The chicken is done when the juices run clear (not pink) when a knife tip is inserted into both the chicken breast and thigh, about 165-170°F for the breast and 180-185°F for the thigh.

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No More
I thought things would change

Looks like they will never change.

I give up.

There's no more hope.

It's hopeless.

Cannot be saved anymore.

The end.

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A Heavy Price To Pay
Everything has gone up. Inflation is a definite happening. I've been kinda cheesed off by the chicken rice stall located in the kopitiam just opposite my office, as they've taken the opportunity to increase their prices, even though the rise in flour has absofarkinglutely no deal with them X(

A plate of normal chicken rice used to cost RM 3.80 here. If you add liver/ gizzards, it's RM 4.30 a plate. Then they increased the price by 20cents, RM 4 and RM 4.50 respectively. And within a couple of weeks, my colleague ordered her plate of chicken rice + gizzards, it cost her RM 5!!! WTF?!?!

So we questioned the young lad "Why the sudden price increase?"... "Oh, everyone oso increase price ma"..." But chicken rice has nothing to do with flour..." .... "Price of chicken went up ma, newspapers din report only!"

Mudderfukkers...! I'm not ordering chicken rice from them again. In fact, all the hawkers have increased their prices, regardless whether they use flour or not! Crap! The worse part is, each time the hawkers increase their prices, it's per bowl, thus making their profit margins even higher than before the price increase. It's not that I'm insulting their business, more like I'm cheesed off by their business ethics.

Furthermore, look at the crime rate these days. The situation is getting far worse than any of us can possibly imagine. Rape, rob, murder... each case seem to be getting far worse than the next. As the country steps deeper into globalisation and further inflation, there's bound to be groups that can't keep up with the development. And these groups would feel they're being bullied and marginalised by the government. Anger and frustration will start to build in them. Questions will be thrown around, fingers will be pointing. People start to go crazy and get violent. They lose control of themselves and turn to a world of crime. Since they are suffering, they think perhaps other people should suffer with them too.

It doesn't help when it seems the people of this country are taking care of the government, rather than the other way round. We have to look out for ourselves. The streets are abuzz now with the upcoming general election. Will things improve, or will it spiral downwards? We can only hope and pray for a better tomorrow.

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Rambut Baru~~~


Ta-da! As promised, I ambik gamber of my new hairdo~~~! Cantik tak :P~~~ Siapa kate tak cantik, lu boleh pigi mampus. WUAKAKAKKAKAKAKAKAKK!!! Just kidding~~~~!

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Curlzzz~~~!
I spent about 5 hours in the salon on Saturday, HAHAHAHAHA! And I walked out with a new hairdo :P~~~ Yup, I've got some curls back on for the year! A little different from the previous style (you can read about it here and here) as my hair now is longer and the curls doesn't start so high. I belum ambik gambar, once I ambik I'll post it here ok ;)

This time around, I went to another salon just next door to the previous one I went to. I went into Wings Hair Salon @ Uptown, PJ. They do a lot of hair styling for 8TV news (sponsors). A friend of mine also recommended them to me, and I think they did a nice job for her curls, so I thought let's give them a shot.

Since I didn't have any particular stylist in mind, a tall lanky chap approached me and we talked a little about what I wanted to have and he threw in some of his suggestions. Before you know it, he was snipping away and preparing all the weird whatchamacallit gadgets to prep my hair.

This time around, I opted for a digital perm as the stylist suggested that the normal conventional method of perming might be a little damaging for my hair, especially the ends.Like the last time, I told him I wanted to get the package: perm + highlights + treatment.

Stylist: Wah, your hair very straight hor? *snip snip*

Oli: Yes, that's why I need some bounce! Haha! Gotta put some life in it!

The stylist also explained to me the difference between digital perming and the conventional perming. Man... the machine used for digital perming is so so strange. When he put the curlers on and stuck the end to some cables, man... I felt like something out of sci-fi XD

After the curls were done, the next step was choosing a nice colour for the highlights. This time around, I picked a reddish-mahogany shade. "You want something a little on the 'see-mun' (read: polite) side eh?" he smiled cheekily. Yea, sort of I guess. I wouldn't want a colour that was too jarring you know. Aluminum foils out, colour colour, some heat machine over my head again. After the colour has set in, it's time for a good rinse and some hair treatment.

I think the whole process was a good 5 hours. A lot of waiting time, partially because it's a weekend, and also because I didn't make an appointment, I just walked in, harhar! Had I walked in later, they probably won't be able to serve me due to the crowd. My bad.

Am I happy with the result? Yupyup! I like what the stylist came up with and I like their service too :) I also bought one of their styling products to help maintain the curls a little longer. I would recommend Wings Hair Salon, and also the stylist, Vincent. He's the tall guy in Wings, fair, very friendly and gentle. The boss is Vinxx, and my friend said he's also not bad.

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