Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Mercury retrogade or purely coincidental...?

Hubs's family are in town (in KL) to celebrate my twin sisters-in-law and nephew Denzel's birthday. For the birthday boy's bash, we decided to throw a pool party and invite the rest of the extended family for a get-together. So between myself and Hubs, we sorta organised ourselves into him contacting the caterers and me getting the birthday cake.

Since Denzel loves his dinos, my sister-in-law decided on a customised dinosaur birthday cake for him and I asked around friends for contacts of independent/home-based bakers. And so there I was, yesterday, making phone calls running down the list of contacts but no one seems to be picking up!

And freakily enough, I also tried to start my sister's car yesterday, to warm up the engine and re-park the car - my sister is currently on a business trip to Beijing and before she left just this past Sunday, her car battery went flat and I could only get it sorted out on the following Monday morning, the engine just would not start despite having a brand new battery! It was like the whole universe is against me or something.
 
Later last night, when I told the birthday boy's mummy about how "black" my day was, she went like "Oh yeah! Probably that's because mercury is in retrogade and anything that is related to communication, travel and learning during this period will be affected." When I did a google search on this, numerous astrology sites seems to agree that this phase is not ideal for making important decisions, correspondences or any form of messages, new business ventures and even getting electronic equipments. But of course having said that, neither should we govern our lives by planetary movements.

Well, the show must go on and I really don't like to give last minute notice. So I tried again this morning to call those few bakers and phew! today I am luckier. Finally managed to nail down one of them to make the dinosaur birthday cake. And I also tried to restart my sister's car by resetting the car alarm (all thanks to Google and helpful hints posted on the world wide web) and it was a success!

Happy days are here! :)

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Bonding time...

For the first time yesterday, I really spent time with my youngest sister. I mean we used to live together most of our lives but we never spend time with each other like how we did yesterday.

It started with breakie before a movie, followed by lunch which led to Starbucks and ended with dinner. Close to 11 hours of being with her and the experience was amazingly comfortable. It was coming home again to myself.

Mostly we talked about her work and some of the challenges she's facing. But in between those, were deep conversations about what she and I have been through separately which we knew about but never talk or share with the other.

I have yearned for this for the longest time. Ever.

And it's all about being love, doing love and having love.

I'm loving it.

Monday, February 27, 2012

A little storm in the teacup of my life

I've got a confession: I'm a drama magnet. For a while, I refused to believe this but after last weekend incident, I just gotta concede to this realisation.

Hubs think that I am a drama queen (OK, at this juncture, I gotta make a distinction between a drama queen as oppose to a drama magnet. A drama queen creates her drama while a drama magnet attracts hers, logical enough?) but I beg to differ.

In my lifetime so far, I have encountered some pretty unusual situations that most of the time I wondered how did that happened to me. For instance, in 2002, I got a job in KL that required me to relocate to the city. So here I was on the highway and until today, I still remember the spot when the accident hit. This was just after the Pagoh exit on the way to north when I was overtaking another car on the fast lane and I heard a loud "POP." The next thing I knew, my windscreen had cracked into many tiny lines that I could not even see the road in front. I had to turn on the hazard light and slowed my car to a stop and called for rescue.

Six month after that incidence, I made a date to go for my first clubbing in KL with new found colleagues. Till today, I have no idea why I decided to take a look at my driver's licence because that's when I found belatedly that it had expired for 6 months. I tried to renew it but couldn't because apparently it had been "renewed" but I just don't have that piece of paper with me. I had to make a police report that the card was stolen in order to get a new one. This incidence puzzles me till today because I seriously have not gone and renew and lost my driver's licence.

Then came 2004 which was a quite a bad year for me because my new car was stolen. The same went with my handphone as well, and it happened not once by twice within 3 months of each other. I still find it hard to believe that I'm a victim of car-theft because when my mom heard about it, she went like "Are you sure? Even your dad who has been driving around for donkey years has nothing of this magnitude happen to him!"

In 2007, just three months before we got married, our old condo was broken into and all cash and jewellery that we received prior to the wedding were stolen. And we didn't even know our condo was broken into because the thief removed everything carefully - before the theft, money were still in their angpow packets and the jewellery in the boxes, and they left the empty packets and boxes as if they were untouched. We realised that the thief(s) had intention to come back because they took our spare house keys as well. The only humour we saw out of that incidence was they were smart enough to leave the Indonesian rupiah behind but took remnants of Euro and USD that we had spare from overseas trips.

Since then, there have been a few spates of unfortunate incidences here and there but nothing of this magnitude until last Friday. I was woken up by a call from my mother, on behalf of my twin in the US, asking if I was OK. Apparently my twin had received a "distress email" from "me" that "I" was robbed of cash and cards while holidaying in Madrid. "I" had no money to settle hotel and transportation and "was" held at the hotel because of "my" inability to pay. I tried to log into my account after that and blardy hacker locked me out! The perp even initiated some changes on my email settings that made it difficult for me to recover my account. Like WT(F)!

For the next 1 hour, I had to log in a complain to Google that my account has been compromised, created another backup email to receive instructions from Google on step-by-step recovery, thought long and hard what sort of private information that I may have left inside my Gmail, changed all my banking passwords to be on the safe side, and answered numerous sms-es from concerned friends about the hack job and asked Hubs to inform his side of the family that my account has been hacked because his aunt in Australia had panicked and thought that we were really in trouble.

Kudos to Google for the speedy reply because within that hour as well, I also managed to recover back my email. Up front everything seems intact, but I know the perp has seen everything. I felt a bit uncertain if I want to continue using that account until Saturday when I saw all my contacts in the address book has been wiped out. So there I was again, creating a brand new account, keying in my contacts again (luckily I had most of their details on my phone as well) and informing everyone of my new email address. I had thoughts of deleting the old account altogether but that would mean this blog will go as well. After extensive search, I found a way to overcome this and now I'm blogging from my new account. Hurrah! Finally a silver lining. :)

At the same time, I did some amateur investigative journalism of my own. From the Last Account Acitivity link at the bottom left of the Inbox page, I managed to find out the perp IP address. I did a search on all the IP addresses below and found that it was registered to a "fred young" and when I googled the perp's name, there was a host of information of the numerous scams that the perp is involved in.

One of our friends actually replied to the "distress email" (I believe he wasn't naive nor gullible) but did so out of concern and curiosity. THE PERP ACTUALLY REPLIED BACK! Of course this was before I recovered my account and I have since saw the reply and man! it is insidious. The perp asked for Euro 1880 to be banked into a western union account somewhere Europe created under my name. It wasn't my legal name, of course but it just shows that these guys are really out for money.

Anyway I'm really thankful that nothing unfortunate happened, but this has certainly been an eye-opener for myself, family and friends alike not to take things for granted.

Back in the groove!!

WELCOME ME-SELF BACK!

Well, I certainly miss that. Back in the days when I was working in a proper office, clocked in at proper times, had a manager title printed on my name card, had lunch at a fixed schedule, was answerable to every requests and whims of my boss, and you know the works, I look forward to stepping into office, the morning after a working trip. Because my team secretary and Angie is her name, now she is one no-nonsense lady but I love her efficiency, she will make it a point to greet us managers "WELCOME BACK!" the moment we step back into office. It's so uplifting that I decided to start this post this way. :)

To be honest, after almost 3 months hiatus, with only 1 (or was it 2?!) blog posted in between, I was dragging my feet, scratching my head, surfing the net, and did every other darn thing except logging onto my blogger dashboard and get back in the groove of blogging again. It didn't help matters that I also took leave from my freelance job that I half-wished this can go on forever and ever.

Wait a minute.. was that a mini writer's block that I was experiencing? Haha. In all honesty, I have gotten lazy. Now there's no excuse because events that happened to me recently made me realised that the human mind is REALLY REALLY capable of being reasonable.

Now what do I mean by that? You most probably can identify this better in this scenario - you are working and you have subordinates reporting to you. Ask yourself how many times have you allowed yourself to be "bought" by reasons of lateness, the massive traffic, the customer has not got back to me and etc. etc. and sorta let off your subordinates from delivering what they committed to do? And now think how many times have your treacherous mind tricked you into thinking "it can't be done because of the circumstances that i am in" and in return you have stop living out your hopes and dreams? Well I certainly had and realised that there was choices involved that made me become"reasonable" with myself although I blamed in on my circumstances.

So excuses no more.. It is "JUST DO IT!"

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Eats: Chillin' out at Luna Negra - UPDATED!

(The first part of this post was originally published on 23rd August 2011. I have since updated it with a review on the food)

We came here to meet one of Hubs's buddy-cum-sidekick when he first started living in Jakarta, over happy hours. They were having a 1+1 Bintang promotion @ Rp 35,000 (roughly RM 12), pretty decent if you ask me. I like the decor - gave me a swanky yet laid back English pub feel.

Luna boasts of an extensive 35 different types of pizza and 17 types of pasta. Specials of the day are presented in a moveable blackboard, as seen in bottom right of picture No. 4. Pretty cool huh! So far, I heard the food is good, especially the pastas and pork chop. Hope to be back one day to sample their menu.


Luna's special concoction of iced tea. Refreshing for a hot afternoon
Main dining area.
The impressive 30 meters Whisky Bar.



UPDATED!

I finally came back here again last night (6th Feb 2012) for happy hours and to sample their food this time. Yay!  First up was a pizza dish with toppings of ham and button mushrooms. I took a bite of Hub's choice and thought it was good. The crust was thin, with generous servings of ham and mushrooms plus mozzarella cheese. Hubs who has previously tried their 4-type mushrooms pizza thought that was better than last night choice.


While we were having our happy hours drinks and yep! the 1+1 Bintang promotion is still on, I spied something interesting that was served at a neigbouring table and told Hubs about it. Hubs on the pretext of checking out their live lobsters, walked past that table, took a sneak peak and came back with "let's order that"

And so here it is...


It was fresh fettucini with crab and fresh tomatoes. After all the necessary photo moments, I pushed off the carapace to reveal steaming hot pasta that was generously coated with the fresh tomatoes sauce. To get to the crab meat meant slowly picking through the body parts, claws and legs, and heck to manners, I'm eating with my hands. ;p Overall I love the pasta, as the crab was fresh. The only small fuss was that I found it a tad salty. If it was less salt, I think it would have a been a very lovely meal indeed!

***

Luna Negra
Bapindo Plaza, Ground Floor,
Jl. Jend. Sudirman, Kav. 54-55, Jakarta
Phone: (021) 2995-0077
Fax: (021) 2995-0078

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Eats: Simply Mel's @ The Sphere, Bangsar South

We came to Simply Mel's after hearing rave reviews about this place from Hubs's cousins. In fact they wanted to host Christmas lunch at Simply Mel's but unfortunately the restaurant was closed.

Simply Mel's is a family-run business and at the kitchen's helm, is the lovely Melba, otherwise known simply as Mel. The restaurant exudes a warm and cosy feeling with numerous displays of the owner's Malacca Portugese heritage.

The menu is an extensive showcase of various well-known and loved dishes of the Eurasian community. Being married to an Eurasian myself, the dish that I first fell in love with was the Devil's curry, eaten to my heart's content at every family gathering. So of course, without doubt, we ordered this during our visit. The curry was very homely, with a tinge of sourness and just the right amount of spice.


The Chef's special of the day that night was Baked Fish, and Hubs insisted we order this as well. For me, this is the star dish of the meal. I so *heart* the chilli paste that was used to baked the fish which in my humble opinion was better in taste compared to the Devil's Curry. Unlike other version of baked fish, Mel's version had the fish pan-fried first before baking which gives another dimension to the overall dish. I thoroughly enjoyed the fish and ate it till bones were left. ;p


For the greens, we ordered sambal kangkung and needless to say, another well-done dish.


I can see that the restaurant is really a labour of love because in between busy times, Mel took time to visit every table to explain their dishes, the Malacca Portugese culture and even informal afternoon tea classes that teaches Kristang language to the younger generation. I certainly agree with Mel that while the Malacca Nyonya has done very well in promoting their culture through food, the Eurasian community is still lacking behind and it's heartwarming to see Simply Mel's as one of the few that has taken on this mission.

For dessert (we normally are not dessert people, but decided to try anyway), we had The Last Polka Horlick ice cream and Mel's Sugee cake.


I ordered the Horlick ice-cream for nostalgia sake. As a child, I used to love (and still do!), to chew on Horlicks sweet-tablets as a snack. And the ice-cream brought back fond memories of those days. It was fine in texture, very creamy and with just a hint of Horlick, leaving me wanting for more! Just like the sweet-tablets. :) 


By Mel's recommendation, Hub's had the Sugee Cake and it was really good. We never particularly like sugee cake because some versions can be rather oily. But Mel's Sugee Cake is surprisingly light, and the addition of almond nibs gives a very good bite to the overall cake.



























We came home very stuffed that night, obviously over-indulged ourselves but it was all worth it. We definitely will be back for more.

****

Simply Mel's
Unit 1-1A, 1st Floor, The Sphere,
No. 1, Avenue 1, Bangsar South,
No. 8 Jalan Kerinchi 59200 Kuala Lumpur

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Recipes: Meatball curry

This dish is one of Hubs's family favourite and really easy to make. My first attempt in making this dish a few years back was not very successful and I never had the opportunity to try again with work commitment and all. However, being in Jakarta, we do miss home cooked curry every now and then, hence I decided to try this again. It turn out well this time around, and I foresee there will be more request of this from Hubs. :)

Meatball Curry

For the meatball:

500gm of beef mince
1 egg
1 potato, boiled and mashed
1 onion, minced
3-4 stalks of coriander leaves, minced
1 red chilli, minced
salt and pepper to taste

- Combined all the ingredients in a large bowl. Stir to mix well. Roll the mixture into small balls i.e. golf ball size

For the curry:
2 tablespoon of meat curry powder
1 tablespoon of chilli powder
1 onion, sliced
1 stalk curry leaves
1 star anise
1 cinnamon stick (about 3cm)
3-4 cloves
3-4 cardamom 
2 potatoes, cubed
1 tomato, cubed
Water or stock


- Mix the curry powder and chilli powder with a some water until turn paste.
- Heat 2 tbsp oil and fry onion till soft. Next add in curry leaves and spices and fry till fragrant.
- Add in the curry powder mix and continue frying for about 15 minutes. If paste dries up, keep on adding water to make a watery paste. 

- Add in potatoes, and cook for a futher 10 minutes.  Next add in the meat balls, and add just enough water to cover. 
- Bring curry to boil for 20 minutes. Do not stir the curry as this will break up the meatballs. Instead, carry the pot and give a couple of swirl to mix.
- Add in tomatoes and cook for another 15 minutes. Allow curry to sit for at least half an hour before serving. 


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