dDoinkster Speaks

Makan = eat in malay. :) Went up to Penang with Dax and Evelyn last Sunday for a little getaway. :) Yes,i was the chaperone for the engaged couple. Or a 'spotlight' [third wheel] to simply put it. haha. We had alot of fun, eating and swimming and me checking out all the hot chics in Penang. Man, i have to say...compared to Klang Valley, i spotted more pretty girls in Penang. ;) Definitely going back there again when i have the chance. :P Sigh,i didn't really want to leave Penang yesterday, hoping to stay another day. ;) Had to get back by yesterday evening because of the Bible College of Malaysia[BCM] night class taught by Pastor Ng Wah Lok that Evelyn, Donald, Queen of the World, Andrew and i are taking. If we found out about our day off next week..we would have went next week! ;) Oh well,there'll be other food trips to come. haha. :P So here's some photos from the trip. :) This is gonna be a long photo-post...so brace yourself. :D Started off the trip by stopping at Kampar for some beef noodles. :D Yummy. Think its better than the Ngau Kee beef noodles in Jalan Alor. The soup is much tastier maybe because of the turnip that they put into the soup. :) Pork balls..which was a good addition to the fish balls and the beef noodles. haha. ;) What a way to start the food trip ei. ;) Was suppose to stop at Ipoh for the beansprout chicken but didn't have time cause we had to get up to Penang to check into out hotel before 9pm. ;) Fish balls sold by the stall next to the beef noodles. Can be found at the row of food stalls near the old bus station in Kampar. :) So we got into The Gurney Hotel around 10pm, dropped our stuffs and went out for supper. haha. ;) Yummy char koay teow at the wet market in Pulau Tikus. Really good...they even had sotong [squid] in the dish. After that, went over to Gurney Drive to look for muar chee but because of the rain, almost all the stalls were closed but we found this stall that sells fried chicken skin. Yes,you heard it chicken SKIN. :P they even have bishop's nose [chicken backside] but didn't see it there. haha,man..Chinese really can eat anything and everything. :P But it was really yummy lar...don't tell me about how unhealthy it is cause i know but it was really tasty. haha, like eating KFC [Kentucky Fried Chicken] but without the meat. haha. ;) Next morning, went looking for this stall that sells char koay teow but with a twist near Jelutong. :) They use duck eggs instead of chicken eggs but as luck would have it. It wasn't open because there was a Chinese funeral service going on in the restaurant itself. First time,i've ever seen such a thing. :) So i guess the next round i go back there..i'll definitely go check out the dish. So we went to the restaurant on the other end of the row and got this Apam telur. Yummy. ;) Had this wanton noodles cause there wasn't much choices there..too bad lar. ;) but alot of people ordered this so it was oklar...might say that its on the bottom of the list of good food we had on this trip. :) Then we did lunch with Celine and Nigel who was there while Andrew was out busy meeting clients. :) So we went for Nasi Kandar. Funny name, ain't it? ;) According to Dax, usually there's a long line during lunchtime...haha..ironic restaurant name huh. haha. ;) The crowd was just starting to come in...thankfully,they came in after we were done. :P Alot of selections of food. :) All of them looked good and it isn't really that expensive compared to the nasi kandar we find in Klang Valley. :) So got myself some vegetables, fried egg and a good fried chicken drumstick with all the curry sauce mixed into the rice. Got half a piece of mutton from Dax. Really good. :) That item that i've circled are sotong eggs [squid roe]. Never seen them, never tasted them nor will i try. ;) Looks abit the weird. haha. :) Finally got the muar chee from Gurney Drive for tea. ;) Really good...they even put in fried onions with it. Great combo. ;) Went over to Teluk Bahang's streach of beach for some photos and i wanted to fly my kite which i bought when i came up here with Li Mei and Tze Wan 2 years ago. ;) That was how high my kite went...mostly because the rain was coming close and alot of wind blowing. :) That's how a city slicker who never flew a kite before looks like..haha. Can't help it, i never was into such things when i was little. :D Didn't get the chance so now trying to relive those lost childhood moments of mine. haha. :D It was a wonderful evening...would have been better if the rain didnt pass and blocked out the sun..was kinda hoping to get burnt a little cause i'm getting less tan. :P For dinner, we had hoi chen [oysters fried with eggs] which we wanted to have the first night but it was closed. ;) Ain't much of an oyster lover but this is good..don't think you can find so much oysters on one dish in Klang Valley. Also had this yin yeong without eggs. Interesting...cause i usually have eggs with mine but this was interesting lar...they had char siew [pork] in it. :D Last day in Penang and i looked out the room and saw this little building overshadowed by the other huge buildings around it. haha. :) Had the famous 2 sisters' char koay teow for breakfast. Hopefully, they will pass on their skills and recipe to the next generation so that we'll all be able to have their yummy char koay teow. Interesting shop...has alot of 'DO NOT' signs around telling their customers what NOT to do..haha. ;) Finally had my lobak which i was craving/looking for the entire trip. ;) The famous 2 sisters char koay teow. Was nice but i prefer the char koay teow we had for supper on the first night in Pulau Tikus. :) Penang style otak-otak. Yummy to say the least...think it taste quite similar to the Melaka style otak-otak. :) Dax and Evelyn bought like 40 packs of them to bring home. haha. ;) So to end the trip, we left Penang and went over to Bukit Tambun for seafood...wanted to try this restaurant but it was closed so we had to resort this only restaurant that was open, How Kee. Only vegetable dish on our list. ;) Had bamboo lala as well...dunno what is it called in english but its good. :D Bamboo prawns. :D Yummy dish...the sauce was really good...would have licked the bamboo shoot but it looks like they reuse the bamboo so didn't do it. haha. ;) Sweet and sour crabs. :) Yummy...didn't take a photo of the dumplings we ordered cause i was just too busy enjoying my food. haha. ;) What a way to end the trip, with seafood. :D Not too bad lar..about RM50 for a seafood lunch for 3 people. :) The only thing that we missed out on this trip was assam laksa and prawn noodles. :) Guess we'll just have to come back again to cover those items. :D And more muar chee.. haha. ;) In total, we spent RM140 just on food for the 3D/2N for 3 people. Not too bad, ei? :) Man,i miss that place already...anybody going up there any time soon and don't mind me tagging along? ;)

I want MORE! haha. :) Yummy chocolates from London courtesy of Oja. :D I am really going to enjoy the Kit-Kat. hehe..i hope they'll bring that flavour into Malaysia soon. ;) Taste really good. :D

haha..thanks to Oja after her London trip...i got me a FCUK deodorising body spray. :) Smells good...wonder if i can find this here. :)

L-R [Back row] : me, Yanna, Putri, Alifah, Raimy.
L-R [Sofa] : Zaza and daughter, Jazz, birthday boy, Faren, Oja.

Fun, fun, fun group to hang out with. :D Right, darling? ;) Tak tahu malu punya cewek. You know who you are. hehe. ;) Just kidding,babe. :P

Best home-made teh tarik [ malay for pulled tea] i've ever had. :D Great way to end a hearty dinner. :)

hmmmm,yummy. haha. ;) Sorry, only remembered to the photo after Faren, Raimy and i digged into it. ;) Had some brown sauce to go with it and i think some herbs, complemented the shepherd's pie well. :) *slurps* ;)

Had the opportunity to go over to Oja's place for dinner again. ;) This time is for a suprise birthday party for Faren. :) Oja's mom is a super cook. ;) Great stuffs especially her Shepherd's pie. :) Also her fried chicken, pastas, truffle and many others. :)

Here he is, Mr. Jeffery Yong of Guitar Institute of Malaysia [GIM]. Malaysia's only luthier if i'm not mistaken. :) Went over to his place around 11am yesterday to collect my Ibanez which i sent to him to fix the frets which after a period of usage, service is required. :) Had a great time learning about how guitars are made and the little details that go into making a well-crafted masterpiece. :)

L-R : Clement on keyboard, Shazee on sax, Charles on drums and Vincent on double bass.

Yummylicious time spent with Eugene of alldatJazz.com and his lovely wife, Melani catching GruvAvenue at Avanti's in Sunway. Great time but too bad for the corporate event that was held there. :) Oh well,at least i got to listen to them play. So that's good enough for me. :) Keep a close watch to allDatJazz.com for a review on the gig. :) Thank you Mr. Mazland and the team at Avanti's for a wonderful evening. :) Not too bad even..met a few local celebrities such as Shahrizan Borhan, DJ Burn and DJ JFK from XFresh. :)

Finally got the group photo we took together with Michael Yamashita at 1 Utama. :)

L-R [Back row] : Elsie, Louise, Yik Siew, Christine, me.
L-R [Sofa] : Arvin, Kelly, Michael Yamashita.

This is going to be a wordy post. :D no photos this time. ;) just rantings/venting of a disappointed friend. *note : This is just for me to vent. Don't read so much into it. Thank you. A situation just came to my attention in which i;ve been put on the table and 'framed' for something which i have no knowledge of. I've been said to have feelings for a friend of the opposite gender whom i hang out with often. And the worst part of it was that she fell for the lies and believed the few people that told her that i have the hots her without even asking me about it. They ASSUMED by the actions and through the events that they saw when i was with her, they came to the conclusion that i indeed had some feelings for her. Without confronting me and confirming the assumed matter, they went on to convince the girl about my feelings which never was and she fell for it. Man,honestly..i'm kinda disappointed. I know i can't stop people from talking whatever they want to talk but to have a friend whom you've hanged out with, not stand up to defend you but also fell for the lies and looked back at some actions and ASSUMED again that because of those actions, she thinks i have feelings for her. All happening when another friend of mine was going after her for the past 2 months. So when they got together, those people that ASSUMED that i had feelings for my close friend, kept telling the new couple about how i would react to the news. Sigh,it's getting really hard to be single and hang out with other singles of the opposite gender. Just for being a gentleman and nice, people come to their own conclusions without getting their facts right from the person itself. Worst of all, they go on and tell it to others making the rumors bigger and sometimes believable until the person that's being 'framed' finds out about it and clarifies it with everybody when it doesn't have to come to that when in the beginning, they confronted the person and just ask him/her about the matter. Isn't that easier? Doesn't that sounds so much less complicated? Those people that started it, you would think they would have known better but still they went on with it. Isn't that great? I'm just disappointed. And all this happened in the church! A place where you think people who has went for bible study and all that sort of stuffs would have learnt something by now. What happened? Humans are still humans? Still sinners? Still weak and still making mistakes? Yes,this proves part of it. Even if you're in church and been in church for a while, you still screw up like this. Same goes for me...but at least i make an effort to make sure that if i hear something, i will clarify the matter with the right person and not spread it unless by spreading the truth, it'll help clear the matter then yes. This isn't the first time that i've been wrongly accused of such matter. Well,now the person is going to be my cousin's wife soon so its ok. So because i used to be close to her, people in church were asking if i was with her. Man,has it always been that a man and a woman cannot have a close friendship? Can't be best buddies? Guess not. So too bad. Maybe some will ask,why are you making this such a big thing? Nah,not really a big thing...just venting cause i thought that the friends that i was close to would at least stand up and defend me when rumors come. :) But there were a few that did stand up for me but didn't say it loud it enough. Well,at least they tried. So thank you. :) One thing that i'm thankful for from this situation is that at least now i know who are my real friends, friends that actually know me well, well to stand up for me when i'm being said/accused of something that isn't true. :) Too bad the close friend of mine didn't want to disclose her sources, which i would have loved to thank them in person for knowing me so well when i didn't know about the things they concluded with. :) Great psychics we have here in Malaysia. So thank you to those who came to those conclusion by yourselves. :) Thank you to those that fell for those 'truths' and didn't bother to come to me to clarify the matter. :) At least i've learnt something from this. May God bless you, mercy and grace be upon you for the days ahead. Have a nice week ahead. "Misfortune shows those who are not really friends." -Aristotle, Eudemian Ethics ; Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC)-

Got my invitation to Siew Peng and Roland's wedding this morning after church. :) 'Kena saman' is malay for 'Got fined'...You might be thinking why i say i 'kena saman' [got fined] when it's a happy occasion...well,its gonna take a long time to explain why and i think its a Malaysian thing..so if you wanna find out..just come visit Malaysia and ask a Malaysian why the Chinese use the term 'kena saman'. :) Really lovely invitation card. :) Can't wait for the wedding cause i've been given the honour to play the guitar at their wedding alongside Nelson and Andrew at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. :) It's gonna be great! ;)

*note : The term 'kena saman' [got fined] should not be taken literally nor should it be taken seriously. It is just a joke. :D

Too bad this photo is blur..and all thanks to Arvin for not taking a good photo with my s700i. haha, just kidding,man...i'm already quite contented with a photo opportunity with a man that has been to so many places and taken so many photographs. :) I agree with his philosophy to photography is that every photograph you take should 'force' the viewers to stop and be mesmerize/intrigued with the photograph and story. :) Really really friendly person...so accommodating even though he was swamped by his fans asking for his autograph and a photo opportunity with him. :D We had to be his bodyguards for awhile just to make sure he's not hurt by his overzealous fans. :D

Yeah,was here for the launch of HP's new 9-ink photo printer with Michael Yamashita. The event started around 3pm but we were there earlier to set-up and all. :) I was at Tropicana Club House for a Portraits of Color workshop with Michael from 9am til 12pm before going over to 1 Utama. It was great to see his photos...really good stuff! :) If you're still wondering who is Michael Yamashita...he is a world renowned photographer that has been working with National Geographic since 1979 and recently released a book called "Marco Polo : A Photographer's Journey"

So back to the girls on stage. :D they were fantastic! haha..not all of them were pretty but some were and that was good enough for me..haha. ;) They manage to capture most of the crowd in 1 Utama during their short dance performance but i think mostly were just wondering what were the girls doing on stage. haha. :D

Sigh,some Malaysians really do not understand the concept of a yellow box huh. :) Took this near the Sunway Damansara intersection while on my way with Kelly to 1 Utama for the HP launch of their new 9-ink photo printer with Michael Yamashita. This motorist was so rude, there were cars trying to leave the apartmetns on the left of him..but he ignored them and just blocked their way out...what a dumb@$$!

Yes, was at Alexis Bistro Friday night for Michael Veerapen Quartet with Eugene of alldatJazz.com, Philip and Lionel. The band consist of Andy Peterson on bass, Lewis Pragasam on drums, Bruce Hurn on horns and Michael Veerapen on keyboard. If you think Jose Thomas and Groove Unction was good...take a listen to these well seasoned musicians. They are in a different level all together. :D All i can say is that experience is everything! :) It was really great to hear Lewis Pragasam play again after the last time i saw him perform 'live' at Mont Kiara's Jazz Fest 2 years ago. :) And because of Eugene sitting on the same table as i was...Lewis came over for a chat. Man, that was really great. haha. :) I couldn't believe it when he sat down with this glass of beer and started to chat with us. :) What a great honour to be able to speak to a great local musician such as him. :)

Had this ok tasting ceasar salad while waiting for Michael Veerapen Quartet to start at Alexis Bistro, Great Eastern Mall, Jalan Ampang. Not really that nice lar...oh well,it's not because of the food i'm here, so its ok with me. :D Was joined by Eugene of alldatJazz.com and 2 of his friends, Philip and Lionel.

So we had like four dishes to go with our banana leaf rice. :) this here are the squid and mutton...the mutton was great..too bad for the squid though, could have been better but oh well, it wasn't really that bad. :)

Oklar, the fish cutlet looks abit pathetic alone..haha..but we had other stuffs on the table to finish so didn't want to order so many of that. :D the other is the ginger chicken..The only things that i've found so far that sets Grand City apart from the other banana leaf rice restaurants i've been to...and also the rasam and payasam. :) Good stuff!

Hmmmm,yummy! haha..went for banana leaf rice at Grand City near University Malaya with Donald and Edward just now. Couldn't resist it, was suppose to for banana leaf rice last night with JulietheBiscuit but her tummy wasn't feeling so good so didn't manage to go. :)

Quite cheap actually,well..to me anyway, cause we had fish cutlet, squid, chicken and mutton shared between the 3 of us for about RM29. :) all the rice and vegetables you can eat and all the water you can drink. ;) we were FULL, filled to the brim! haha. ;) :P Mostly i was there for the fried bittergourd which can be seen on the left of this photo near the rice. :) Yummylicious! :D

Don't worry, Julie..when you feel better,i'll definitely bring you there for some wonderful fried bittergourds. :D

Went out to get this for pastor just now. :) Very interesting item for RM22 which can read your myKad identification card. :) Thank God for this item cause if not i would not have found out that my driving licence is expiring next week. :D That would have been bad. ;) Oh, you can get this from the place where you go to get your identification card done,don't remember the correct name for it. :)

Yum, yum..all thanks to Yvonne's craving just now after prayer meeting..i shared this yummy fried beehoon [rice vermicelli] with her. Couldn't finish it though cause i was actually kinda full already but this shop has one of the best fried noodles that i've tasted. :)

Wow,i was at 7-11 looking some fresh mentos mints but i only found this new item on sale. :D Super big from the usual one i've had. Kinda looks like a packet of ciggies, don't you think so. :) But it's still as good...so no complains here. haha. :)