Sunday, September 15, 2013

eat and shop.....amidst the busy week

it has been really really busy at work and the pile of work is not going to be lighter anytime soon as well.
the sudden change in the sports calendar for the year means, training will start in october in preparation for the district level competitions come end of october. already the handball boys have asked me when training will start. and my athletics boys will start theirs soon too when they finish their exams.
and since it is the end of the year, there are bound to be exams....so there is marking to be done. i am in the midst of marking now and i doubt i can finish it in the public holiday tomorrow. haiz....work life is a torture now. everybody is counting down to the holidays. hmmh....i guess the next long weekend is deepavali weekend. but....i will also be marking at that time.
adoiii.......

and escapism with material goods is not actually that good.....and it really does not provide any long term relief.....yet......some happiness do come from good right?
so here are some things i got.....and i have not got at the moment but is  already mine. haha

my complete set of hello kitty fairy tale collaboration with mcdonalds from singapore. and i did not have to queue for this......thanks to someone who willingly did it for me. lucky me.

a pair of rubber shoes from melissa, another collaboration good this is.....with karl lagerfeld. it is in australia now as it was bought from melissa's aussie website. after doing a bit comparison with the price in malaysia, i found australia to be cheaper.....so it was ordered on its website then. i hope the shoes will be comfy. i have not even tried this yet as they only have stores in 1 utama and midvalley and i seldom go there. will be getting the shoes in 2 weeks' time.

naaah....i did not buy this book. it is my housemate's. i am just really impressed with the pop-up art of the book. gosh they were really impressive. i have not read this famous story before, so this is really a good intro to the story for me. but i won't be picking up the full story anytime soon. the story is too dark for me. and this book is also not recommended for young kids.

now let's some of the pop-arts.

grrrr......  

a burning house.......

another monster being created.....

the last page of the book.....which i think is the most impressive. amazing.
pop-up books is a good way to start nurturing the reading habit in kids i think. i remember we had one or 2 fairy tale pop up books when young and it really impressed us.  so to parents out there, invest in pop-up books to kick start the reading interest in your child. you won't regret it. but the price is definitely higher than what you will be paying for a normal hardcover children book.

a trip to ipoh was also inevitable in the midst of the busy week. i got a phone call from alliance bank telling me that i had to open a bank account before 13 sept so that i would be able to get my winning money from the star win & bid contest deposited into the account. haiz....rm300 gone to open that account......and i am still waiting for my winning money to be deposited.

so it was lunch in ipoh on tuesday at jose & deli cafe at french hotel ipoh.
it had really nice setting and was quiet on the day we went. maybe because lunch hour was over already.

i ordered their set lunch which comes with tea and dessert.

i told the waiter to bring my dessert out first, i was really hungry. it was tiramisu. yummy!!!

i ordered marinated lamb. the portion was quite big for the price they charged for the set- rm19 only.  it was a good meal at a very reasonable price. definitely worth going again.

and....another trip north was made on friday and saturday....this time, the destination was kuala kangsar.
ping pong competition.......a losing game for me from the start. gosh, those aunties were killers lah. the ginger is hotter the older it is. hmmh.......if only i have learnt to play ping pong properly from young. is it too late to get myself a coach now? but first, there is the paddle to buy. wait lah......

since i could not win in the games, i better used the opportunity to enjoy myself right? and so the saturday day trip to kuala kangsar turned into a food trip instead hahaha.....

started at 6a.m. and the first destination was ipoh, foh san restaurant to have dim sum. so this jakun had never been there before and was determined to set foot at least once in this famous restaurant.

this place was already crowded before 7a.m.

and i learnt that it was self-service here. you have to queue up to get the steamed dim sum from the designated counters. chaik! there are a few trolleys and they will also come for orders for certain dishes, but for the rest, please join the long queues.
the three of us only ordered these. not much eh. my verdict? the lo mai kai was just so-so and they charged rm5 for it. that black thing there with the green blotch, it was steamed bun with yam filling. this one was really unique and good.  the pau was really soft and fine and the yam filling not too sweet. the rest was also so-so. so besides the impressive building this restaurant is in, i can't find any other good words to say about my experience here. prices are definitely more expensive than the other dim sum restaurants in ipoh. the variety was also not that many. i did not see any egg tart. and the thing that i really hate is the queueing up to get your own food. for the kind of prices they are charging, self-service is definitely unacceptable. so i guess that would be my last and only visit to foh san. the next time i come for dim sum, it will be ming court (opposite foh san) of course.

for lunch, we had yummy hainanese food in kuala kangsar town.
we searched quite a while for this place- yat lai restaurant on the main road.

this place still maintained its old charm and the service is also what you would expect from a hainanese restaurant- slow. ;)
however, the slow service was compensated by good food.
lunch at the restaurant is only served from one p.m. onwards. we arrived at 12.45noon and waited till 1.15 to get our food. i guess they really only started lighting the stove at 1p.m. and started cooking lunch then. there was another table that arrived earlier before us and they ordered the hainanese chicken chop. it looked good, and the sauce is tomato base if i am not wrong.

i had soft-boiled eggs on toast, iced coffee and hailam noodles. haha.....what a big eater. the wat tan hor was good and the fried rice was perfect too. i wished i could have all especially the wat tan hor too!!! so this is a must stop place in kuala kangsar. the restaurant is also famous for their steamed buns (paus) which are only available starting 2.30p.m. onwards. we wanted to place order to collect later, but unfortunately, all paus had been sold out for the day. see......how popular the paus are. and this place is also friendly to muslim customers as they can also eat here. too bad no pau for us. the restaurant is closed on sunday.

the end of the road trip.

but it was not the end of shopping trip in the cyber world...........

unless this happens:

that was target america's website. i guess it crashed due to the release of phillip lim's collection on this day. too bad they don't have this on aussie's website. but i wonder if the clothes will be available in store?? who can help me check? hahaha.....i am only interested in a sweater.

ok...enough of all shopping talk. i might be sleep talking shopping later. time to call it a night. better sleep earlier as home is where i can get the best sleep! hate those dream-filled sleep in bidor for the past week. not rested at all.

happy malaysia day to all malaysians. may we stay together in this land we call our home.