Walking Contradiction..

Having worked in Technology Park for so many years till recently, its amazing that I've eaten in so few places around here for dinner. So, just on an offhand night, got off early from work and ate here. It looked real posh from the outside (and also the inside, check out the ambience!) which made us hesitate to enter but the prices was really reasonable.



























What was ordered?

• Complimentary coffee mint drink starter
• Al-Diafah Salad
• Mixed Grill
• Shish Kebab
• Complimentary desert fruit cocktail
  

When i introduce myself to people that I'm from Kuching, I'll start to tell them that it's a small place, and most people know everyone. And you know what's the next question everyone will ask?

Do you know Kenny Sia????

A bit of a spontaneous trip to the one of the most relaxing places in the world, Pangkor Laut Resort....



Filled with sunbathing Caucasian tourists, no TV in the rooms, and just a small section with WiFi connection.


The Check In
Very cool system they have, they have an individual greeter to explain to you what facilities was available, so you feel extra special. And we felt super extra special because our Garden room was upgraded to the special SPA VILLA on stilts... :) The reason being that apparently the Garden rooms were booked out, so lucky us!


The Food

The package we ordered directly from the YTL Travel Centre included food but not drinks. The set food were basically one appetizer, one main and one desert EACH, and several buffets for dinner and breakfasts. I never ate too much in 2 days *pig*. Bloated by the 2nd night. The value of food is is CRAZY though. All our meals didnt cost less than RM200 per meal as they priced their appetizers no cheaper than Rm30, Mains no cheaper than RM40 and desserts at RM30. So having a food deal was super worth it! Having drinks would have been better....


The Beach, The Pool (where we hung out most)
Being in the Spa Villa was great, because you got to use the super exclusive pool for Spa Villa people. The infinity pool was great, overlooking one side of the island. The beach (Emerald Bay) was a bit overrated. The coastline was very short, and the sand had lots of corals and stones. The water was nice temperature though, but the WAVES were huge. Played around with the water but kinda scared me, cos I was wearing contact lenses and the water was super salty


In another 2 weeks, I'm heading of to Swiss Garden Hotel & Spa, Lumut. Let you know how it compares...:)

Wow, JS introduced me the best application for the Nokia N82. Introducing.... Sports Traker!




I tried it out this morning in the Taman Tun park, and it was great. It works like the Ipod Running thingy, and using the GPS that is inbuilt in the phone, you can see the route that you have taken (be it running, walking, cycling).





Some snapshots of this great great app are here. Basically you can see how far you went, your pace, how many steps, etc. They even generate charts based on your performance....

The only thing lacking now is a handband for the Nokia N82... Would be a bit weird running around with ur handphone on your arm, but thanks to this app, it has some use.



Not so useful in the gym since the treadmill already gives you this info.. (I wonder when we can have a heartbeat sensor on the phone.. aehahehae, mebbe as an add-on dongle?)

I was sitting in Starbucks One Utama today, enjoying my brunch before I went to watch Hellboy. Junk magazine was one of the magazines which was available there, and so i read it. They have a real trim down version @ http://www.junkonline.net/

Never saw the magazine before so read read read, and it's quite a read. It talks about the music industry in South East Asia primarily, KL, Singapore and all, and I stumbled on a article about an artist called KoKoKaina.

A new artist with an amazing Norah Jones-like voice. Absolutely awesome, and recommend it to everyone. Go on YouTube and search for her name. One of her most famous songs is a Christmas Song called No Christmas For You. I'm sold as a fan. Most proud of local KL music these days....

This is a video excerpt from Urbanscapes...

Last night was the first time I went to the new badminton courts in PJ behind Jaya 33. Its called New Vision Badminton Academy, and for a weekday night, it was solid packed, (as I think alot of people were trying the place out)

They had some lessons going on while I was there, and the kids were doing very well (look at the amount of shuttles they had to play with on the courts)

The court conditions were great (new-mah), and it was rubber mat. The court I was on, was laid relatively well, but I saw other players in courts next to us were using their shoe to smoothen the surface (bubbles on the floor)

The spectator area was not great, in fact the general feeling of the place was that they crammed in as many courts as they could in a very small amount of space.

The price is RM55 for a 2 half hour block (our block was 7:00 to 9:30), odd time huh?

The toilets are new, and still smell of paint. I have a feeling after a few weeks, it will most likely be seriously dirty or vandalised, but I hope New Vision will keep the quality up.

Shuttle Prices? Didnt buy a tube here, so can't say but others should feel free to comment

Drink Prices? Standard 100 plus was RM1.80

Getting there? I was a bit lost at first and they really need to work on their signage, cos the first time I literally drove past it. This is the map they provided which also seems a bit wrong geographically, as Federal Highway and Rothmans Roundabout shouldn't be on the same side. And the scaling of the federal highway with the rest of the map is a bit off.

So MBA, welcome to your new competitors, at least their prices are a little bit lower... for now.

First time I went to Casa Indah over the weekend for the 2nd BBQ of the weekend... Friday night was YS's place in Saffron, Sentul and Sat night was Doreen's place in Casa Indah. Nice place, especially love the view from the apartment where it faces th golf course... *ahhhh*

The FOOD was apleeeeeeentyyyy.. The big bucket of prawns scared me, but unbelievely we ate it all. It was really a fun crowd which included the project that I used to be on, and the HR dept in the company.

I can't say I much help in the cooking, as I gave the excuse that I was wearing contact lenses *muahah*, (apparently they melt if you go too close to the BBQ).

Jasmine is really master at this BBQ stuff, and it was really a good spread of meehoon, mushrooms, veges, meats and seafood. *yums*

My sister, Alice was graduating in Oxford and I didn't quite realise what a town of history it is. One of the lunches, we ate at a place called "The Eagle and the Child" which my sister calls the Bird and the Baby.

She lives almost next to this pub/bar, and is very well known to be the birthplace of the best written literature such as C.S. Lewis' Alice in Wonderland and also J.R.R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

This was a small, quaint little English bar, where the prices were not that high (even though its a bit of a touristy place), and it had its bright areas, and its dark corners. I could picture how these writers could literally sit here for ages, going through their notes, leaving this world, into their own imaginative world. New characters were devised in their heads, and maybe it was a bit of their happy place.




I mean we had the standard pub beers off the tap, fish and chips, burgers, salad and all. Something to keep us filled and it was a great atmosphere all in all. It wasn't too packed with people, and one thing about these small English towns is that there are literally like NO Asians there so we probably stuck out like a thumb a bit but it was nice.







More in Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eagle_and_Child

So, on a boring weekday, I was at home, and thought ok, let's watch a movie. something light, and witty. And I turned on "Kung Fu Panda". This turned out to be the best animated film I've watched for a while.. and made me fell in love with Po, the panda who was the main character of the show.



The taglines really got to me too...


"There is no charge for awesomeness"



I mean, it was a simple storyline (I mean, IT IS A CARTOON!!@) but it was kept short and to the point. The kung fu scenes were quite nice, and it was relatively star studded in those who did the voices, Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan...



I would think by now most people have seen it, but it you haven't you should!! I bet you would fall in love with Po as much as I did.



*getting mental picture of him stuffing himself with peaches*