One of my many new found talents

Officially as of 7:55pm just now,  I'm an amateur football commentator, but only when Liverpool FC plays. Hubs, who is back in Jakarta since Monday, is lost somewhere in the city while trying to make his way to his friend's in-laws to see friend's new baby. At the same time, Liverpool is playing against Arsenal like NOW. Which means he's missing the match altogether.

And so when he watsapp me: "U watching the game?",  I already know he wanted me to keep him posted on the latest updates of the match. Hence my Parenthood marathon is temporarily put on hold now while I switch to ESPN on Astro to do a live commentary for him. 

Some excerpts of my commentary ;P

Me: Looks like an arsenal player is injured and off the field

Hubs: *thumbs up*

Me: It's koscielny out, miquel in (BTW, I'm reporting this as the players name are being flashed on telly)

Hubs: Who is playing better?

Me: Errr... don't know la. U asking the wrong person

Hubs: Then what are you watching?!

Me: Watching the game la. And doing a live commentary. 

Oooo.. 2nd half just started. Back to the game and my duties. Hehehe 

Bargain hunting at G2K warehouse sale: A pre-requisite for all SAHW wanna-be

In case you haven't figure it out, SAHW stands of stay-at-home-wife which is what I am until we hear pitter patter of tiny feet :)

I rarely go for warehouse or end-of-season clearance sales. Mainly because I'm not much a clothes shopper, I hate crowds and queues (which is why I also avoid malls on weekends and public holidays), there's the dust and lints that makes my nose twitch, itch and sneeze, and yes the digging under piles and piles of clothes, with the agonizing hope of finding the correct clothes size.

And so when Lil' Sis came back yesterday, showing what she bought at G2K warehouse sale which is happening right now as we blog, until next Tuesday, or so I overheard the salesperson telling another bargain hunter, and when she told me the price per piece and her total bill, my antennae were immediately up. And how Lil' Sis got to know about it is total fluke. She received a sms from HSBC on the date of the preview, she went to  try her luck, got in, bought her stash of bargains and she's not even a HSBC customer! I dare say this IS providence my friends! :))

Lil' Sis did forewarned me tho on the crowd.. She told me to go early since I'm free and easy all the time. But shikes, I got an 11am appointment with my reno contractor. Am I kiasu enough to reschedule the appointment and be the early bird to leisurely browse at will and at ease? No, I told myself, I shan't succumb to kiasu-ism and decided to go after my appointment. The last advice from Lil' Sis in a very cautionary tone: I tell you first yeah, you GOTTA dig OK.

By the time I reach Menara Chan in downtown Jln Ampang, oh yeah, it is at that dreaded stretch that Renaissance Hotel, SJK(C) Lai Meng and the British Council sit, I was already battling the school bus crowd on the roads and the office girls lunch crowd at the sale venue. Not forgetting the rabid digging and fishing up pants after pants looking for the elusive size 36. And also the 1 hour queue just to pay. All in the name of beefing up my going out clothes. I have indeed succumb to kiasu-ism (I think) to a certain extent. Hahaha.

Baju Baju everywhere, where's my elusive size 36?

Lunch time bargain hunters! And the 30 and 50 is RM 30 - RM 50. Not percentages

My stash. Total damages RM 70, compared to RM 450 normal retail price. Teehee!

Eats: Mastro Meat Market

Mastro is a one-stop gourmet butcher-cum-restaurant that promises to serve the best meat collection in Jakarta. We came here for lunch on Saturday before hopping over to Roger's.

Mastro has an open concept. As soon as you step in, you can see the meat counter/butchery and dining area, sans kitchen though.  As Cantonese puts it, "yat ngan tai sai" (literal translation "one eye see finish"). And how you do this is, have a look at the counter and select what cut of meat fancies you and inform whether you would like it rare, medium or well-done. 

 For an extra of Rp 45,000 (roughly RM15), I had my Australian wagyu striploin with mash and salad on the side. I liked my wagyu because it was perfectly done to how I wanted it i.e. medium with juices oozing out once the meat was cut. Lovely! The mash was awesome and I can tell it was made from real potatoes - I could still see tiny chunks of potatoes that escaped the "masher". And the salad was fresh and crunchy with a light coating of almost runny mayo dressing. 

Hubs decided to got with set of the day which is "Surf and Turf", baked potato with cheese and bacon bits and salad on the side. The meat when it was first served up was disappointingly well-done although Hubs requested for medium as well. When we pointed this out to the waitress, they did up another one and this time to how Hubs wanted. The crayfish was a tad salty but still OK. Oh.. and we both opted to have the accompanying sauce on the side as well because then we could then taste the natural juicy meat without it drowned in sauce.

Total damage was Rp 431,400, roughly about RM 148, including drinks. All in all, I think I would be back once in awhile when the random beef craving hits. :)

****

Mastro Meat Market
Jl. Wolter Monginsidi No. 36
Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta Selatan
12170

My saviour...

I have been away from Hubs for the past 10 days, back here in Johor to visit my parents. Hence, I have been getting plentiful of unadulterated, peaceful slumber ;p

Alas, peaceful nights are about to end coz Hubs is flying into KL this evening. Which means that it's back to using these to block off those snores.. Well, at least until Hubs gets his sleep apnea sorted out.

These saviours are made of foam and are easy on the ears. I have previously used ear-plugs made of silicone and although they filtered out noise better than these, but I tend to wake up with painful ears caused by compression of the plugs against my ear when I sleep on my sides.

Roger's Revisited

Over the weekend, Hubs wanted to go for cream bath and immediately we thought of Roger's. I would say the last weekend has been a massage weekend for me. On Friday, before I met up with Hubs and his colleagues, I went to Mitra Sehat for 1.5 hours body session which cost me RM 50 (including Rp 20,000 tip for the masseuse). On Saturday, Roger's it was for cream bath. You can read about the low down details of it in my previous post. And so off we went, after lunch at Mastro.

Masseuse doing her magic on Hub's shoulder and back

Happy face after a good treatment!

 OK.. I did something which I previously dare not. For the heck of it, I requested for a blow-dry. The stylist, before she started, asked if I would prefer a "normal" v.s. a "mengembung" style. Guessing that "mengembung" would mean puffed-up hair ala mak datin, I replied "normal" is fine.

This is how my normal home blow-drying will result...

TA-DA! Normal blow-dry Indonesia style. Hubs called me Power Puff that day.

The closest I get to look like a Mak Datin, don't you agree? ;p

A night of fun at T-Rex Family Karaoke at Gandaria City

Got invited to one of Hubs company outing. And this karaoke is the nicest one I have been to so far. We had a big room to fit something like 15 of us with 3 plasma TV to hoot and computerised songs selection.

Check out the psychedelic disco ball!

A bongo to jazz up the fun!

Smoke machine in action!

Scoreboard to tell you if you can make it as a singer :)

One thing I do realised, is that Indonesia is more successful in establishing a single-nation identity than us. Having observed Hub's colleagues on Friday night karaoke session, irregardless of race and religion, all of them can sing Indonesian songs, be it pop, rock, and even dangdut!

Recipe for Sleepless in Jakarta

I suffer from the occasional insomnia. Mostly is triggered by a snoring husband. Rarely, the late night green tea/black tea cuppa.. But tonight is ESPECIALLY bad! Because all these ingredients decided to jump into the mixing bowl at one go...

- 1 tablet of migraine meds taken at lunch time (which contained 100mg of caffeine) to ward off the ominous unilateral headache
- 1 teaspoon of Tie Kuan Yin tea leaves steeped in a pot of hot water, of which the last sip was taken at something like close to 10pm (I should have known better, but alas, confidence got the better of me)
- The snoring husband, which aggravated the caffeine overload
- Finding the right position, shifting from one side to the other with a not-so-soundproof pillow over the opposite ear...
- ... to finding the right room to sleep in (I shifted from master room to the spare room and finally settling for the hall because spare room is polluted by the cacophony of late night/early morning Jakarta traffic
- The resultant: A hyperactive brain with synapses firing off like crazy with all these ungodly-hour activities

It's gonna be a loooooong day ahead.. *trying to fake a yawn*

*smacks forehead* GOSH! I'M SO AWAKE!!