Random Notes 24

1. Should I name this post Random Notes 23B? Most Chinese people do not like the number 24 as it sounds almost like 'easy to die' in Cantonese.

2. It is amusing to enter a lift in a condo and see buttons 4, 13, 14 and 24 missing. Instead, the 4th floor is replaced with 5th, 13th floor replaced with 16th and so on. So if you press button 25, do you know which floor you are going to actually? Let's see if you can do the maths! Haha!

3. I went to watch 'The Secret Life of Nora' musical at Istana Budaya KL a few weeks ago. I went there with high expectation but unfortunately it was not awesome enough for me.



I can only say that Adibah Noor and Aznil Nawawi's funny antics plus the outstanding dance choreography saved the show from being average.

4. Last month I received a gift from Filipino blogger Bluedreamer! It was a Kernel-Pult plush toy from the Plants vs Zombies game. Thanks Bluedreamer for this cute gift!



5. I had flu and a really bad cough a few weeks back that would not go away. The cough was so bad I could not sleep at night. I normally don't see a doctor for flu but I almost resorted to seeing one for this horrible cough. Then, my mom asked me to eat this leaf.



Do you know what leaf this is? I don't, but I have this plant in my garden LOL! I ate the leaf raw and I must tell you it was bitter and had an aftertaste that I did not like! But guess what? After eating just two leaves one night, I immediately stopped coughing!

It was like a miracle! Of course the cough was not completely gone but I would say it was reduced by as much as 80 percent! I even had a good sleep that night! It was definitely better than any cough medicine I know!

6. It had been some time since I last dine at the New Paris Restaurant in SS2 PJ. I had the opportunity to go for dinner with my brother and sis-in-law at this famous restaurant last month. The dish I liked best was this - watermelon chicken! So yummy!



7. Are you a fan of X Factor? Recently, I was engrossed in X Factor USA reality show on 8TV. Having been bored to death with American Idol, this new show is like a breath of fresh air! In fact I like all the 4 judges here especially Nicole Scherzinger.


Nicole Scherzinger photo courtesy of Judyhalone.com

There were so much drama and unexpected twists in this reality show that I was hooked. Besides, the contestants are all so talented, although not all of them have the X factor, I must say.

8. Do you like 'pun choy'? I am not a fan - in fact, I find it boring! - but I thought this one from Restoran LYJ in Kampung Baru Sungai Buloh quite good.


One side of the poon choy


The other side of the poon choy


The restaurant facade

9. Christmas is coming soon!! I know, I know, I should not be talking about Christmas when Deepavali is not even over yet, but I just love the Xmas mood! Cant wait for another Christmassy December and end of the year holidays!



I wonder if 1Utama shopping mall will put up this cute snowman again after it went missing for the past few years?

FIRST COMMENTER

Random Notes 22

1. I received a gift from blogger SK the other day. It was an unexpected award for Top Commenter in his blog! Thanks for the award, SK! I really love it!



Oh! He also left a message on the other side of the award! Nice! : )



2. My stickers from GetGlue arrived last week! Are you a member of GetGlue? For the uninitiated, GetGlue is an entertainment based social networking site. If you are into movies, TV shows, sports, celebrities and songs, then GetGlue is for you!



By checking in on the website, you can earn points and stickers! These stickers were mailed to me all the way from USA at no cost to me! Interested? Join and follow me HERE.

3. Two weeks ago, my family and I visited Putrajaya Floria 2011, a Flower and Garden Festival. We went there after dinner, so it was pretty dark by the time we reached there.



I did not really get to enjoy the flowers as the lightings were insufficient. Perhaps we should have gone there in the day time. But I enjoyed walking around and reading historical facts which were displayed on the side of this walkway.



OK, to those of you who have been to Putrajaya, do you know what is the name of this bridge? It was beautifully lighted up that night.



Although I did not get to see the flowers properly in the dark, I was lucky enough to see a float on the lake. There were a few floats that night but only this float from Tourism Malaysia were near enough for me to take a shot at with my camera.



Here are a few magnified pictures of the float. This is the famous Petronas Twin Towers.



Orangutan from Sabah and next to it, the Rafflesia flower - the biggest flower on earth!



Can you see the fishes and the divers?



The Flower & Garden Festival had already ended its run. Perhaps there will be Putrajaya Floria 2012 ? You can read more about the festival HERE.

4. If you remember, I wrote about my favourite actress Angelina Jolie in a Louis Vuitton ad last month. To recall, read HERE.

Now comes this full length Louis Vuitton commercial featuring Angelina Jolie. I love, love, love this video! Since I am in the midst of blogging about my Cambodia trip, I thought I would like to share with you all this nice video.

In it, you can see Angelina talked about her journey in Cambodia, how she felt about the people there and what made it so special for her. Fast forward to the 6th minute, and you will see her talking about eating crickets and spiders! And of course, you'll get to see how she was filmed in the commercial. Enjoy!!



Coming Up Next : Baphuon And Terrace Of The Elephants

FIRST COMMENTER

Random Notes 18

1. After our reunion dinner on Chinese New Year Eve, my family and I took a leisure walk around Pavilion Shopping Mall in KL. A lot of shops were already closed so we were surprised to see this Fossil outlet left opened with lights turned off and no one inside!



Wow! I should have just gone and in and helped myself! How careless of them! Or maybe they have invisible laser beams that will fry anyone who enters the doorway! Better not take any risk - I still want to celebrate Chinese New Year the next day! : )

2. I have finally figured out my way around Sunway Pyramid after all these years, believe it or not! I have always lost my way in Sunway Pyramid as I seldom go there, but last Monday, while everyone resumed work after the Chinese New Year holidays, I took the day off to visit this shopping mall.



After walking around and looking at the floor plan, I soon realized it was not as complicated as it seemed. Shall I celebrate my first achievement in this Year of the Rabbit? haha!

By the way, I have never tried skating at this ice rink. And now I am simply too shy to even attempt it!

3. Do you like Starbucks or Coffee Bean? I normally prefer Starbucks but since I had a RM25 Coffee Bean voucher with me, I visited the latter the other day in Mid Valley Megamall.



I ordered their most expensive drink, which was the Ultimate Mocha (RM15.30) and also tried their Red Velvet Cake (RM8.90). Not bad!

4. I spent part of my Chinese New Year holidays watching Glee Season 1 and Lady Gaga live concert.



I bought these good quality DVDs during my trip in Bangkok last year and it was worth it! Only about RM40 for Glee (6 DVDs) and RM7 for Lady Gaga!

5. I also watched this cute cartoon called Panda Kopanda simply because I like anything to do with pandas! Haha!!



While others watch Doraemon, Pikachu or Ultraman, I prefer to watch Panda Kopanda instead! Haha!

6. Talking about pandas, I would like to thank Eric Lee for giving me this panda head for my Christmas gift last year! How nice! Now I can always hide behind this panda face when someone takes my photo! LOL!



7. I would also like to thank dear blogger friend, Merryn for making me this beautiful angpow fish for Chinese New Year! Did you notice the hole in the middle is shaped like the ancient Chinese coin? Don't you think it's lovely?



8. After eating all the Chinese New Year food for so many days, I was getting quite sick of them! So imagine how refreshing it was for me when I went to Papparich at The Gardens Mall and ordered these!


Fried rice - simple and tasty!


Toasts with butter and kaya - heavenly!


Hot honey lemon tea - soothing!

9. OK, here's a poem I composed for the Chinese New Year and which I sent to some of my friends on the first day of the new year. I have made some little changes to the poem and decided to share it with you all today. Enjoy!!

So here we are the New Year of the Metal Rabbit,
So how's your New Year - is it great or you just don't care?
It's the time of the year when your work can take a backseat,
Now let's read this poem specially written by your friendly Panda bear!

How I wish the Chinese New Year holidays will last forever,
Or at least lasts all the way from now till December!
Imagine no working for one whole year,
And go traveling the world all over!

Alas not working means no income,
Unless you are as rich as Bill Gates or Donald Trump!
Or having Oprah Winfrey as your mom,
Then no worries even during the economic slump!

OK let's stop dreaming and just enjoy the Chinese New Year of the Rabbit,
Stuffing myself silly with pineapple tarts, arrowheads and kuih kapit,
Getting fat this holidays is no impossible feat,
Ladies, I just hope you won't end up buying clothes at Ms Read!

Chinese New Year is the time when I refuse to look at the music sheet,
Or play the piano for my guests like a perverted self-exhibit!
All I wanna do is just relax and eat, eat, eat!
Here's wishing you all a Happy Chinese New Year of the Metal Rabbit!

FIRST COMMENTER

Regifting?

Are you guilty?  Have you ever regifted?  When is it okay and when is it not... or is it never okay?  I'm sure we've all gotten our share of strange or cheeseball gifts that we have no use (or desire) for, so what's the harm if you stick a bow on it and pass it along to some semi-friendly coworker or to your neighbor or perhaps your postal carrier?

What's the worst gift you've ever received?  I've gotten plenty of bombs, but I think quite possibly the worst was a coffee maker.  Sure, it was a top-of-the-line DeLonghi ranked the best on the market, but being that it was from my boyfriend (at the time) and he had just gone shopping with me a week prior and witnessed me purchase a new coffee maker, it struck me as unbelievably thoughtless.  Sure, he had gotten me some great things in the past and he actually thought he was giving me something fantastic (guys can be so dumb), but after five years together I was hoping for more than a damn coffee maker.  Needless to say, we broke up a few months later!

Fuzzy Pumper Barber Shop

vintage Barbie shoes (on Ebay)

The best gift?  It's hard to say.  I've been lucky enough to have a lot of wonderful people in my life who consistently do nice things for me (and get me nice things too).  I tend to remember gifts from my childhood more so than recent years.  There is just such a thrill attached to the holidays when you're little.  I'll never forget opening my Dusty Gymnastic Set or shredding paper to reveal an Ernie & Bert radio and Play-Doh's Fuzzy Pumper Barber Shop.  And Barbies!  The Barbie car, Barbie clothes and those tiny little spiked shoes!  Barbie is the reason I'm a designer today (thanks Barbie, holla!).  My sister and I were just not satisfied with what was offered in terms of Barbie's wardrobe and we started making our own little creations.  Teeny weeny little toiles, I suppose.  When I was very young (about 4) my parents and grandparents built me the most insanely detailed dollhouse complete with 70's wallpaper and handmade furniture.  The best dollhouse ever!  Best gift ever.

me and my dollhouse

On Gifts, Pressies, Postcard And Souvenirs

Do you know that being a blogger has its perks? One of them is receiving gifts, presents, prizes and souvenirs from fellow bloggers! And that's exactly what I got for the past few months!

First, there was that nice little postcard from Ayie in the USA.



It's a greeting from her baby Jariel at 3 and a half months! Look how cute he is!! Oh no!! He called me Uncle!! That sounds so old!! Call me Brother next time, yes? Haha! Thanks Ayie for this wonderful souvenir! Please send me another one soon : )

Next, my good blogger friend Merryn gave me this wonderful gift in conjunction with Mooncake Festival last month.



It was a panda lantern made from ice cream sticks! How creative! Look! There's even a candle inside!



Thanks Merryn for this nice panda lantern. I love it! By the way, for those of you who are interested in all these arty hand crafts, do check out her Crafty Crafted site!

Last month, I also met up with blogger SK who is now well known for spamming comments on my blog and a number of other blogs too. Well, keep them coming SK - I love your spams! LOL!

The reason I met up with SK was to pass him his prize which he won from a contest in my blog and also to collect my prize which I won from his blog! Imagine that! Haha!

What did I win? A second-hand book called "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold.



OK, if you want to read what he wrote in that postcard, let me magnify it for you. Guess what? He addressed me as Panda Foong - that's nice! Haha!



Excuse me, SK but I did not win this book by accident! I won it by sheer hard work and sweat! I won it because I left the most number of comments on your blog post and you can't blame me if nobody was as hard working as me! Perhaps the second-hand book was not enticing enough for them. Next time, offer a brand new, expensive book as prize! Haha!!

Anyway, thanks SK for this prize! : )

I have been visiting Lina's blog for quite some time and the amazing thing about her is she goes to Japan for holidays every year! No kidding! Recently, she came back from her Japan holidays and surprised me with a nice souvenir!



Ooh! What a cute letter! I love it! And what is that badge I see? Let me magnify it for you.



It's Mickey Mouse! Cool! Thanks for this wonderful souvenir, Lina!

While Lina went to Japan, another good blogger friend of mine went to London for her holidays. Wow! I have so many rich blogger friends! And I can only afford to go China, Bali and Cambodia. *sob*

Anyway, this blogger friend is none other than Mariuca! She had a contest in her blog asking her readers where she went for her holidays and I was among the first three who guessed correctly! Yay!!

And so this was what I won.



The packaging was so nice I was a little reluctant to open it. But opened it I did!



Now ain't that cute! A nice souvenir all the way from England! Although I would have preferred a panda bear, but how would you find a panda bear in England right? Haha!

This bear is so adorable, don't you think? Love it!!



Thanks for the pressie, Mariuca! Now when is the next contest on your blog? Haha!

I am so grateful to have so many nice blogger friends! And I look forward to receive many more gifts, pressies, postcards and souvenirs in future! Thank you my dear friends!

FIRST COMMENTER