Happy Birthday To Me!

Today is Dec 1st which happens to be my birthday! So Happy Birthday to me! Haha!

Shall we sing the Happy Birthday song first? Come let's sing along with me here. (Replace the "me" with "you")

Happy Birthday to me,
Happy Birthday to me,
Happy Birthday to Panda,
Happy Birthday to me!

I don't usually celebrate birthdays. But last night, I had a birthday dinner with my group of blogger and twitter friends at Pasta Zanmai in Mid Valley Megamall.


From the left in clockwise direction : Saucer, Witch, Eric, Grey and Erika.

It's only my third time at this restaurant and I think I really like the food here. Well, at least it's much better than Sushi Zanmai. I really don't get what's up with the long queues at Sushi Zanmai!

I had the Mini Tempura Prawn Sesame Pasta and Unagi on Rice served with Miso Soup.



Ooh!! I just love the unagi meat! I am now dreaming of eating unlimited unagis at Japanese buffets. Yum! The egg on the rice added to the enjoyment of this yummy meal!



The tempura prawns were nice! And the pasta was pandalicious (read delicious) with its sourish sauce. How clever of Pasta Zanmai to fuse Japanese food with Italian pasta!



Oh by the way, you can also order unagi with pasta instead of rice - taste just as marvellous!

Both Erika and Grey ordered the same set as mine.

Witch ordered the Unagi Kabayaki set.



The unagi with kabayaki sauce looks damn delicious! I will surely enjoy eating them!



Eric ordered the Mini Shortneck Clam Soup Pasta and the Mini Grilled Chicken Cutlet on Rice. But I forgot to take picture of the grilled chicken!

Oh well, here's his clam soup pasta.



I have never tried this clam soup pasta before and I had also forgotten to ask him if it's nice! So Eric, is it nice? : D

Saucer ordered the Sizzling Grilled Spring Chicken with Mushroom Sauce.



I tasted a little bit of the chicken and it was not bad.

We also ordered Turkey Ham and Japanese Mushroom Pizza for all to share.



But the pizza was not really that good to me. Suffice to say I have eaten better pizzas. However, this pizza was recommended by the waitress so I must now remind myself not to order items that are recommended to us in future!

Lastly, we also tried these Assorted Mini Canapés. They were supposed to be appetizers, but I ate them last. Haha!!



Didn't quite like them but they look cute, don't they?



It's always nice to be the birthday boy cos I can eat for free! Haha! Come to think of it, I should have exploited it further by ordering some expensive fancy drinks and eating some desserts as well!

But I decided not to cos my friends could do the same thing to me when it's their turn to be the birthday boy or girl! Or worse, they would not want to celebrate my birthday ever again! So better not be too greedy. Haha!

Anyway, thanks to my good blogger and twitter friends for celebrating my birthday! I really appreciate it! Love you guys!! : D

Now let me ask you a quick IQ question : Who among the five here is abnormal? Haha!!

FIRST COMMENTER

Kiss My Grits!

Stick a fork in me, I'm done.  Over the past week or so, I've celebrated two birthdays (mine being one) and two Thanksgivings.  I've pretty much eaten enough cake and pie to feed a small country!  In addition to the sweets, wine and Prosecco flowed freely.  I wolfed down turkey, mashed potatoes, lobster macaroni and cheese, crab cakes, steamed shrimp, cheese, crackers, cashews, quiche, stuffed peppers and giant Florida tomatoes and grapefruit.  Being that I was in the south for these festivities, corn bread and collards took part in several of my meals.  To my surprise, the one southern staple that I didn't have was grits.  Oh well, I'll save them for Christmas!
My gluttony over the past week reminded me of this old INXS video... beware of the 80's hair!

Michael Hutchence plays with his food

Vote The Winning Post!

Three people sent in entries for my "Why I Love To Visit Guilin" Contest. (aka Contest #3)

Yes, only three miserable people! But it's OK, three is better than two! Haha.

Anyway, I would like you, my readers to vote which of the three posts you like best!

Your votes will determine 50% of the results. The other 50% will come from me. I will give points to each of the post and add to your votes to find the winner of this contest!

Simply leave a comment on which post you like best and you will be entered into a lucky draw and one lucky voter will win a prize!!

Voting closes on 3rd December 2010 at 12am sharp.

Visit the three blogs below.....

Contestant#1 : Ghosty Nana

Contestant#2 : Kopi Soh

Contestant#3 : Caroline Ng

Now leave a comment and tell me which Contestant you vote for. Thank you!

Note 1: All 3 contestants above are not allowed to vote.
Note 2: You can only vote ONCE.

FIRST COMMENTER

Walking Through KLIA Jungle Boardwalk

I know some of you are waiting to read about my Bangkok trip, but I just need to blog a little about KLIA first.

You see, most of the time I fly with AirAsia and therefore I usually go to LCCT and not KLIA.

This time I flew with Thai Airways so I had to go to KLIA. If you have read my previous post, you would know that I took the KLIA Ekspres from KL Sentral. It was still early when my friend and I reached KLIA so we went to have our breakfast.



We had the usual coffee and toasted bread with butter and kaya. I did not like the way they made the toasted bread but since we would be having meals on the plane, I did not bother about it too much.



After breakfast, we went to check in our luggage and since there was still a lot of time, we walked around the Main Terminal of the airport.



This is near the place where I took pictures of the numerous plane models which I blogged about in a previous post.



We found out that the Aerotrain service which transport passengers from the Main Terminal building to the Satellite building and back, was closed for maintenance and modification work. It would remain closed until March 15 next year.



During this shutdown period, shuttle buses were provided as alternative. We went up a shuttle bus.



We reached the Satellite building in about 10 minutes which was of course slower than the 4 minutes it would have taken us if we were to use the Aerotrain.

We still had a lot of time in our hands so we walked around the Satellite building.

There were many shops in KLIA. One of them is Harrods.



Stepping into Harrods, I saw this!



Yes, it's me Panda!! Haha!! I checked the price tag. Can't remember the exact price now but it is definitely above RM100 which I thought was too expensive! Oh well....



I spotted this restaurant and couldn't help thinking how easy it was to create a name for a restaurant by simply inserting an extra "O" to the word "NOODLES"!



KLIA is known as an airport in the forest. It was in fact designed with the concept of "an airport in the forest" and "forest in the airport".



I have heard that you can visit the forest in KLIA but I never had the chance to do that. So when my friend introduced me to this KLIA Jungle Boardwalk, I was delighted!



I wonder why they use the word "Boardwalk". Kind of reminds me of the Monopoly board game! Haha!

The entrance to the Jungle Boardwalk was quite unique.



Once we got past that, we found ourselves in the jungle, sort of!



Lush greeneries and tall trees surrounded us. And of course, the jungle would be incomplete without a waterfall.



We took some time to enjoy the waterfall and snap some pictures.



This is the view of the entrance we came in earlier from where I stood near the waterfall.



After walking through the jungle, we reached the exit on the other side and walked out. This is the view of the exit from outside the jungle.



Soon it was time to board the plane.



I took a few more pictures as we walked to the departure hall. Below is the Aerotrain tracks currently closed for maintenance.



Would you rather walk or stand on the moving platform?



Having traveled most of the time with budget airline AirAsia, I was looking forward to fly with Thai Airways!

FIRST COMMENTER

Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving taffetadarlings!  What are you thankful for?  I'm thankful that I don't have to dress like a pilgrim.  First of all, I don't look good in hats and that goes for bonnets, babushkas or any type of kerchief.  Second, the idea of donning an apron makes me want to put pins in my eyes.  OK, maybe that's a bit dramatic, but a domestic goddess I am not.

traditional Pilgrim woman

Furthermore, I don't look good in anything that even resembles a dirndl skirt (not many do!) and although black dominates my closet, I wouldn't want to wear it as a uniform every single day.  BOR - ING. 

quadruplets??

Actually, I grew up near Lancaster, Pennsylvania so I am very familiar with this type of dress as I got to see the Amish and Mennonite quite often.  I'm not positive, but I think the Mennonite people are a less strict version of the Amish.  They wear the "tea strainers" (I credit my mother with that description) over their bun-like hairdo's and I'm pretty sure they're allowed to use electricity... and they may even drive cars!  Still, their outfits have a lot to be desired.

Mennonite woman with her "tea strainer"

When I first came to New York (too many years ago to reveal), I used to tell people that I was Amish and I busted out one day because I was sick of the lifestyle.  Sick of wearing the same damn thing every day and the same damn thing as everyone else.  That's why I became a designer.  I could usually keep people going for a while until I tried to describe my escape -- riding my horse and buggy up the PA turnpike into NYC.  Can you imagine? 

A couple of years ago, the great Steven Meisel did a shoot for Italian Vogue where they featured Amish fashion and their way of life as the concept for the spread.  Interesting.  Of course, they used a lot more color and pattern not to mention sexy, young models.  Still, I thought even they looked a bit frumpy. 

cover, Vogue Italia, February 2008

My Very First Ride On The KLIA Ekspres

Believe it or not, I have never taken the KLIA Ekspres before in my life! As such, during my recent trip to Bangkok, I decided to give it a try.

For the uninitiated, KLIA Ekspres is a premium, non-stop high-speed train service linking Kuala Lumpur Sentral (KL Sentral) and Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). It shares the line with KLIA Transit, which stops at 3 stations along the way.

My friend and I reached KL Sentral early in the morning and made our way to KL City Air Terminal (KL CAT) within the KL Sentral building to purchase the tickets. The tickets cost RM35 per person one way.

After getting the tickets, we walked through the turnstiles, down the escalator and reached the platform.



A train was already there but even if we missed it, there would be a train departing every 15 minutes during peak hours or 20 minutes during non-peak hours. There were no crowds at all which I liked a lot!



KLIA Ekspres is operated by Express Rail Link Sdn Bhd (ERL). You can see the company's logo on the train below.



Stepping inside, I could see the interior was clean and spacious.



I can say we almost had the whole train to ourselves as there were just a small number of passengers. The seats were comfortable and they even have TV screens!



Since this was my first time on the train, I decided to check out the toilet!



It was not bad but I did not use it.



Like a child, I had some fun pressing on the red button to open and close the door. I mean, how often do you see a toilet door slide open or close at the push of a button? Haha!



Of course, once the door is closed, do not forget to lock the door as anyone outside the toilet can still open it by simply pushing a button located outside. This must have happened a lot of times in the past as can be seen by a reminder notice being placed there!

The train ride was smooth and comfortable. I enjoyed sitting by the window and watching the views outside.



I even took a couple of photos.



At one point, we passed by Putrajaya. Can you spot the Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC) in the picture below?



Before long, we reached KLIA. I timed the ride. It took us exactly 28 minutes to reach KLIA. Very efficient indeed!

The good thing about KLIA Ekspres is that it stops inside the KLIA building which is pretty convenient.

Walking inside KLIA, I saw this - a panda bear!!



What is a panda doing in an airport? Stay tuned for the answer in my next post coming right up!

FIRST COMMENTER