Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas !!

Will update more photos when I have the time.
Holidays seasons are just so much fun, so much to do, so much to plan, and plus the on-going sales, how can I resist the temptaion to get some 'gifts' for myself? :P.
Been so busy packing, wrapping and unwrapping. :) Hope you had a great time too, celebrating with the people you love.
and it's New Year soon. What are your new year resolutions people?

:)

I'm back from my Aussie road trip

I'm back from my long holidays!.. So much to unpack :P I've been unpacking eversince Tuesday.. (I procastinated a lot :P)

Tasmania has so much to see and so much to discover, my 6 days 5 nights in Hobart --> Launceston road trip (East Coast) resulted in about 5000 photos, journey through the country side, taking the road less travelled, sheeps, more (cuter) sheeps which looks at your car when you passes by slowly, cows, blue blue sky, totalling to more than 400kms with many stops in between.

The air is fresher there, we can drive with a peace of mind unlike in KL where you get rude stares from drivers who are rushing all the way, drivers tend to follow traffic rules and sign boards are well posted.

It's quite a journey!~ This includes the marvelous hike up the Frecyinet National Park to see the Wineglass Bay- the crescent moon-shaped beach, often listed as one of the most beautiful beach in the world and one of Australia's most remote beach due to the fact that there is only two way there : by foot (and the walk is definitely not an easy one) and by boat.

wineglass bay

There are tonnes of beautiful beches and bays on the East Coast of Tasmania, and a few of them are within the vicinity of Frecyinet National Park. Another highlight of the trip is the Sleepy bay, about 1 hour plus hike(return), this bay is not sleepy at all, there are granite cliffs, crystal clear water and strong waves.

sleepy bay

Located on the southern east of Tasmania is the Bruny Island - Its traditional Aboriginal name was Alonnah Lunawanna, which survives as the name of two island settlements, Alonnah and Lunawanna (source from wikipedia).

We took up the Adventure cruise - the best way to see the sea and coastal wildlife, the sea cliffs faces and caves upclose. The cruise is definitely not for those with motion sickness as the journey may be very bumpy at some point. But it is definitely worth it as some of these blowholes and sea caves may not be there anymore with the frequent strong waves crashing on them. Also, you get to feel the adrenaline rush speeding through the narrow gap between The Monument and the coast. So far this is the most southern place on Earth that I've been to. :) It is so cold, even with the extra windbreaker provided by the cruise I'm still freezing.

The Monument

the seals off Bruny Island

Those above are some of the amazing things I've seen and discover in my Tasmania trip. Will blog about it in more detail when I have the time.

And here are also some of the photos took in Mt Dandenong near Melbourne during our fruit-picking and farm-hopping trip.

Cherry Haven farm

cherries :)

lavendar in full bloom at Warrantina Lavendar farm

I shall blog more about my road trip in my next posts :) Till then, enjoy your December. I'm counting down to Christmas!! :)

Yay!

Time.. I need more time!!

Have been waiting to write something - but havent got the time yet, been pretty busy once I started my research master in Monash Uni. Oh, my poor blog, you must have dust all over you by now. :)

I am currently busy planning for a trip in end November :) yay!, hopefully I will have some time to update about it when I'm back.

And I have some new restaurants which I have tried and not blogged about yet... Oh no, I really need more than 24hours a day.. sigh.

Time to get some rest for now.. Good night!

Big Bad Wolf book fair

To all book lovers, don't miss out the Big Bad Wolf book fair at MAEPS, Serdang. 1.5 million books are at more than 70% discount!!~ The book fair will be on till 16 October 2011.

My harvest for the day..

Most books are going at RM8-RM12.. Time to get the all the books you want, do check it out~

So tempted to get more .. :)

Hong Kong style char chan teng @ Restaurant Tsim Tung, Pandan Indah

Over the years, more and more HK-style cafes are sprouting around town, some of them are good, but not all really resembles what they had in Hong Kong.

Recently I saw on Oversea Restaurant facebook page that they have a char chan teng under the Oversea group in Pandan Indah, Restaurant Tsim Tung. Since I am craving for more HK food after my HK trip last year, I decided to give it a try, although it's quite a long drive all the way from Sunway :) and it's a day before mid-autumn festival so it's ok to crave for some good food.

watercress honey with lemon (RM3.50) & ice milk tea HK style (RM5)

Japanese style pork rib with soup noodle (RM9.80)

BBQ pork HK polo bun & BBQ pork puff (RM2 each)

American mixed grill (RM23.80)

First of all, the HK style milk tea is good, served in a bowl of shaved ice just the correct way, like what they do in Hong Kong. Yay, thumbs up! By doing this, you'll have icy-cold milk tea without compromising on its taste (when the ice melts in your glass).

I wanted to order the HK polo bun (served with butter - polo yau), but they ran out of it, so I replaced it with the BBQ pork version. The Polo bun tastes good, but i still longed to try the one only served with butter. I missed the one I had in Hong Kong - Kam Wah cafe at Prince Edward, yummy!~

The pork ribs noodle is flavourful and it has bean-curd sheet in it, very traditional. I like~ The American mixed girll consists of pork chop, beef steak, chicken chop, sausage and bacon. A very good combination, however this dish would be perfect if they add an egg :)

The price is average - just like any other char chan tengs out there, but they do serve food and drinks more similar to what Hong Kong has to offer. A meal for two comes up to RM50 for all the above.

I'll be back to try their polo yau.

Give this cafe a try if you stay nearby, or if you want to try out more Hong Kong style drinks and food!~

Address:

Restaurant Tsim Tung

No. 22-28, Jalan Pandan Indah 4/6,

Pandan Indah,

55100 Kuala Lumpur.

03-42951896

.... thoughts ...

It's one of those nights which I laze around.. then wondering what would my life be with you still around.. A little nagging from you?..Laughters? Daddy-daughter bonding time?.. more serious talks? anticipated business talks?.. particularly in these times, i do miss you..
(Decided to voice (type) out my thoughts, thinking that the IT world there may be more advanced than what we have here..)

Signing out zzzzZzZ..

Mcdonald's Smurf collections

McDonald's Happy Meal launch their set of Smurfs collectibles, ten different Smurfs characters. After the first batch, it was difficult to get the second batch and so on, as most outlets have already sold out their smurfs toys. I went to a few Mcdonald's to be able to collect all of them. Phew!~

my Smurfs collection

Smurfs @ GSC Mid Valley

And here's a happy Smurf song to cheer up your day ~

All day breakfast @ Departure Lounge

Departure lounge is indeed a place for you to relax, have late breakfast or brunch, read a book, chat with friends or just watch the day goes by .... the list goes on. This cafe prides for their specialty coffee and espresso, besides having a wide collection of travel books. If you love travelling, and want to look for a place to browse through all these travel books this is the place you're looking for.

I woke up late during Merdeka-Raya holidays and was craving for some nice omelette, and Departure Lounge just comes to my mind.

The decoration in this cafe is simple and does resembles the cafes I went to in Australia.

selection of breakfast items

other sandwhiches, pasta and salad which are available

travel books :)

hot chocolate (RM7)

mocha latte (RM10)

7 item do-it-my-way (RM13.90 + upgrade RM1.50)

5 item do-it-my-way (RM11.90 + upgrade RM1.50)

upper deck with wholemeal bread (RM12.90)

I loveee the hot chocolate, very chocolatey and not too sweet, I can even opt for low fat milk to make me feel less guilty :P The mushrooms are good, I chose to upgrade them to fresh buttom mushroom for RM1.50 by the way. In my opinion, the breakfast sets are averagely priced, the 5 item DIMW breakfast feeds me just rigt, however, if you have a big appetite it may not be enough, there are other choices.

So, the big-eater chose Upper deck, that comes with triple deckers of turkey ham, crispy bacon bits, egg mayo, cheese, lettuce and tomato. You get to choose from white bread or the wholesome, wholemeal ones.

A nice all-day breakfast lounge, which serves good breakfast where you even can choose only the items you like, with a nice setting and relaxing environment for you to pick up any book you like. For the non-caffeine addict do try their hot chocolate. :)

Address:

Departure Lounge

10, Jalan SS21/39,

Damansara Utama,

47400 Petaling Jaya.

03-77251682

Mont Kiara outlet:

No. 10, Jalan Solaris 4,

Solaris Mont’ Kiara, 50480, Kuala Lumpur.
03-6203 0362

**Business Hours: Monday – Saturday 8am – 7pm, Sunday & Public Holidays 8am – 5pm,
Close on Tuesdays and major holidays

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Departure-Lounge/24541933315

Wedding gifts

Recently, a close friend from university got engaged, will be attending my cousin's wedding in 2 weeks, coursemate wedding next year and a few friends from school got married. So many blissful events to attend :P

Well, I've decided to DIY gifts for their special occasion, and the first I started with is a pair of glass wines for my cousin :)

groom and bride pair wine glass

The second one was when I heard about the friend's proposal, and decided to make them a couple egg. With some help for the 'technical' job (cracking the egg) :P, here's the result we came up with.

girl & boy eggie with lots of little hearts

Anyone wants to order some of these gifts? :P :P I shall remake lots more other designs if there is demand :P

tray of eggies

Congrats to you all!~

Smurf-tastic Meet & Greet at Isetan KLCC

I watched The Smurfs last night with the usual gang at Midvalley, and I managed to catch up with the Smurfs character appearance at Isetan, KLCC this afternoon.

Smurfette, Clumsy and Papa

with kids running around, this is the best photo I managed to take with the three of them

Smurfette~

In my opinion, it is not a well organised event, the staffs who were in charge did not control the crowd well, at least they should have form a queue. Everyone is everywhere, making it hard to even snap a decent photograph. However, this I believed had captured the heart of the kids and those who are just simply a fan of Smurf. :) I think they're really adorable.. :)

For those who have yet to 'smurf' the Smurfs, do take a look at the Smurfs meet & greet schedule posted by Sony Pictures on their facebook page.

Source from : Sony fb page: http://www.facebook.com/SonyPicturesMalaysia

Have fun smurfing ppl~ *hums to the rhythm of the Smurf's song* La la la la la la.. La la la la laa

Suki-ya @ Pavilion KL Tokyo Street

Suki-ya is one of the new eateries in Pavilion, KL, located at the newly refurbished Tokyo street. This House of Hot Pot offers all you can eat sukiyaki & shabu shabu. We went there for dinner and it was packed with people, waiting time that day was about 45 minutes, but since we really want to try this out, we waited.

Suki-ya offers fresh beef, lamb, chicken and also a wide variety of vegetables which include pumpkin & yam. Service is good, however when the hot plate on our table doesnt seem to work, the staffs could not rectify the problem completely (think they need a in-house technician :P).

sauces

vegetables, mushrooms, tofu

corn, pumpkin, yam

lamb

beef

chicken

healthy bar :)

instruction on how to enjoy sukiyaki

You get to choose 2 out of 3 types of soup offered; shabu-shabu, sukiyaki and kimuchi, we chose shabu shabu (light, clear broth) and sukiyaki (lightly sweet soy sauce broth). The beef and lamb meat are good; thinly sliced just right for shabu shabu, while the chicken is slightly fatty. I ordered the chicken to add flavour to the soup. A wide variety of vegetables are available and there are few types of mushroom as well. They refill the 'healthy bar' quite fast too!~

Suki-ya serves pasteurised egg, hence raw egg can be used for sukiyaki dipping sauce. The correct way to enjoy:

1) Crack and beat the egg in a bowl

2) Cook the fresh meat in the sukiyaki soup broth

3) Once it is cook, dip it into the freshly beaten egg

4) Nom..nom..nom..

The texture of the meat eaten this way is really smooth and the taste is just awesome :)

And for dessert, there is ice-cream (sundae). do it yourself. There is vanilla, chocolate or a mixture and there are toppings like chocolate sprinkles and cornflakes.

The buffet is priced at RM39.80++ per pax for dinner, and RM29.80++ per pax for lunch. Reasonably priced, with fresh ingredients. Don't forget to call up for reservations! The staffs there said that there are no reservations on weekends (but I do see reserved tables on a Sunday night), however you can always call and check it out.

Address:

Suki-ya,

Lot 6.24.04 Tokyo Street,

Pavilion KL.

+603-21414272

Visit their fb page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/SUKI-YA-Pavilion-KL/254516377900159

Merdeka!

Happy Merdeka, Malaysians!~

..and Selamat Hari Raya to all~

Yeay I love holidays..

Google's Merdeka Raya doodle :P

Travel safe people and enjoy the long holidays.. *yeay*

The birthday post 2 - cont. Favola @ Le Meridien

10th August - Favola @ Le Meridien KL

Decided to give this Italian restaurant a try, since it is said to have great ambience. Well, it does has an Italian setting with a poolside view. Favola is located on the 8th floor, just beside the swimming pool. Upon arrival, we were greeted - Buonasera :)

chandelier

Venetian face masks

mural on the wall which completes the Italian setting

complimentary bread - something different :)

antipasti : jumbo scallop (RM55)

Wild mushroom soup (RM30)

Potato gnochi (RM40)

Risotto rice with wagyu (RM50)

Lamb pizza (RM45)

Complimentary bread is good! They offer different variety of bread here :). The mains are average in my opinion, nothing to shout about. The scallop antipasti however is good, big juicy succulent scallops on a bed of cannellini beans. Initially, the service was attentive, however, when we were about to finish up our meal and ask for the bill, it took ages for the waitress to bring the bill.

Well, overall an average Italian meal with 'OK' service, I would expected something better since it's a 5 star dining standard.

Address:

Favola,

Level 8,

Le Méridien Kuala Lumpur,

2 Jalan Stesen Sentral,

50470 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

(next to Hilton KL)

Opening times:

Daily Lunch (except Saturday) : 12.00 pm to 2.30 pm
Daily Dinner : 6.30 pm to 11 pm

http://www.discoverlemeridien.com/index.php/favola-italian-restaurant/