Sunday, March 25, 2007

TML ADD 2007







Our Talisman 2007 Annual Dinner took place last Friday [23d April] in Shangrila Hotel, KL this time. An event that all Talismanites look forward to each year. The only dinner event in the Talisman Social Calendar, so naturally everyone cannot wait for the big day to get a chance to spend some money for an outfit to comply with the theme, splurge a little on make-up, hairdo and perhaps for someone like me, a good excuse to get a long overdue manicure.



Incidentally, the theme was The Swinging Sixties. Since I have decided what to wear for this year's dinner way in January this year, I decided not to bother with the theme. I actually had something tailored earlier in the year, as I needed something new to attend my friend's wedding. I made it a little extra glittery compared to my other clothes that I have in my wardrobe. Since I have already decided on what to wear, preparation for the night, wasn't such a hassle for me. The only other thing that I finally spent on was perfume, cause I cannot remember the last time I had a designer perfume. I have been going through this phase of Crabtree & Evelyn and Body Shop for quite a while.


This year's entertainers are REM, Joanne Kam Po Po and Jaclyn Victor. I always thought that REM had a nice, husky voice, he sang only 2 songs I think. I was looking forward to his one and only hit a long time ago, but he only did 2 cover versions old songs which I can't even remember now! Joanne KPP was a boring, a hum sup let down, the only highlight of her show were the 2 cross-dresser dancers that she had backing her and every so often come out in really elaborate costumes between her stand up comics prancing about and lip syncing to some songs. Totally forgettable performance. And finally, we actually waited for the main artist Jac, of the 1st Malaysian Idol. Boy that girl can really sing. She sang 2 English songs and when we were just getting into the groove of her performance, she sang her infamous Gemilang from her Malaysian idol days and then left. Yes, that was it, only 3 pathetic songs. I must find out how much we are paying her for that 3 songs. Really what a let down. We were really expecting more, especially the whole load of rubbish from Joanne KPP. If the event management company actually paid the JKPP troupe more than Jac, that's was such a waste. They should have paid Joanne's act less so that she performed only for a bout 10 mins and gave more to Jac so that she we could afford for her to sing more than 3 songs! Really. The only person that saved the night was the MC which was none other than Sarimah Ibrahim. She was a hoot! Really just like how we see her on TV all these time. My goodness can this girl talked. So hilarious. We should have her sing some of her songs instead of calling Joanne KPP and even RM. So that was it, nothing much to say about the dinner. I didn't win any lucky draw prizes. Won some Crabtree & Evelyn vouchers last year that too my number was called out when I was at the ladies, so Jack did the honours. I refrained from going to the loo cause I wanted to be around when my number was called but that ceratinly did not happen. So perhaps I should have just gone to the toilet, and pray that what happened last year would happen again this year.



Me and Jack on the Vespa, sixties style, check out my pose. That side "saddle" is so very sixties don't cha think. All that is mixing is perhaps a bee-hive hairdo. He!he!he! Yeah, and batik shirt on the man isn't exactly very sixties is it? Oh but I took a picture with one sixties looking fella, check out below...

TML Operations Manager, Paul Atkinson. So sporting. There was another Elvis that night it was Don Binedetto from Indonesian Office.

Quite a lot of people came to in the them of the sixties. Quite cool really. When Sarimah wanted to look for 5 people dressed in the sixties for the audience to vote to get the best dressed title, there were about 20 people who voted themselves and went up the stage.





Sarimah was baffled and gave up. The winner ended up to be a Mr Shah Rukh Khan (sixties? exactly, Sarimah just gave up cause people kept on cheering for him) and Mrs Hippies (at least it's according to the theme).


Our table, #27, though Jack and Razlan (Maisura's Hubby) is out of the hall at that moment, probably smoking or just taking some time out from JKPP!!! So standing from right to left is Maisura, Me, Izam and sitting from right to left is Ally and Jamil, Badli and Norlina (proud mum to be!!!).

Some more snapshots, check out Go our Exploration mgmt trainee currently stationed in our dept. Woohoo!!! cool hair do dude!!!




And finally me, making a fool of myself but managed to win something [a 512 MG thumb drive, puhlees isn't it all 1G now???], trying to finish the song Kokomo by the Beach Boys ... Aruba, Jamaica come on pretty mama, Kilargo, Montego baby why don't we go Jamaica off the floor to Nikita. That's where we wanna go to get away from it all. Way down in Kokomo.... p/s no spell check done here.


Over and out, here's wishing that next year we would have more luck with the entertainers.

Ameen!!!!

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Eat to live, live to eat...

if someone were to asked me what's my favourite food? well, I may not be able to answer immediately... straight away... point blank you know like... Rojak or Steak Sandwic or just plain nasi lemak. I can't do it. Ok, let's take it by meal times.

Breakfast - Naturally, my favourite meal time of the day. I'm okay with toast + butter + jam or kaya. This is my staple growing up food. The whole of my schooling years, really I never got bored of it. Infact this is the last thing on my mind before I go to sleep. I can still remember when I was 10 or 11, when I was all alone in my room, feeling slightly anxious all alone in the dark, that moment before the requisite citation of Surah Al- Ikhlas and a couple of other Surah to keep me safe throughout slumber, I would imagine waking up to the smell of toast and shiny melted butter on my slightly burnt toast, and then the jam only ever so little not too much that it would overcome the taste of butter, just a little over the butter to complement the salty taste of butter. Emmmppphhh, even writing it now, I can smell the toast, the butter, the jam...yumm yumm! Later on in life at Uni I discovered cereals and milk, I don't know why. We never drank fresh milk at home when I was a kid. Just the sight and smell of milk put me off. I even drank nescafe before school with CONDENSED MILK. Give me a cup of Nescafe with CONDENSED milk now, I won't be able to drink it without making a face. Cannot stand the sweetness now. Anyway, fresh milk. Don't know what's sooo special about fresh milk in the UK, somehow I got started to drinking them, stocking them in fact for my coffee and also to have them with cereals. So that's my breakfast at uni, plus the mandatory yesss, toast and butter and jams.
Back in school, besides the normal toast, sometimes, mom would surprise us with 1/2 boiled egg which is ever so welcomed. Aaaaahhh, hot toast with butter, warm 1/2 boiled egg with soy sauce and pepper. Buttered toast is then pinched little by little and dunked in the egg and wham! yum!!yum!! sooo sedap!!!!

Now, a good breakfast for me would be of course the toast, again. Then perhaps some cereal like, the normal Kellog's Cornflakes, yes it has to be Kellog's! Nestle's just doesn't quite cut it. Then there's also Quaker Squares, trying to be healthy you see. Can't bring myself to eat the original muesli and oats, so quaker oats "with a hint of brown sugar" is the healthiest that I would go. Emmm what else, oh yes, sometimes I treat myself to Kellog's Frosties. Soo much sugar!!! That's why I said sometimes! If it were up to hubby, a good breakfast would be scramble eggs with onions and mushrooms, baked beans sometimes with corn or fried tomatoes on the side, plus sausages and toasts (but of course). My hubby loves sausages, a beef man he is. Well, I'm not so into sausages other then Ikea's. Now that's another story altogether... perhaps more in the line of what to eat when in IKEA. What else, oh yes for a change we would have this English breakfast I believe it's refered to, instead of with toast, with pancakes. Hubba!hubba!!! Need I say more??

As I am rambling about growing up eating toast bla! bla! bla! doesn't mean that I don't go local my friend. On the contrary, ever since I started work, since it is so difficult to get a decently priced western food for breakie... and it's too early in the morning to have it at home, I have resorted to eating local dishes for breakfast! You, can't be having nasi lemak every day, so I try to have a good mix. Sometimes roti canai, tosai, nasi goreng, mee/ mee hoon goreng, masalavadai. But I do try to save the roti canai for weekends to eat with the family coz my kids. Nayli and Zarif love tosai and roti canai and like their mom, they can even sip the dhal curry! No, kidding

So there I think I have about covered all the food that I normally have for breakfast. Ok, I just remembered, if hash brown is more readily available, I might have more of it and to go with my English breakfast too. Don't you just love hash brown? So I normally indulge myself with more than one if I can get them at a hotel breakfast buffet spread. Should remember to look around for it during my next trip to the supermarket.

Phew! too tired to continue... will stop now, will pick it up with my Lunch menu soon. gonna grab a snack now.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Gold Coast trip

the trip has been planned for quite awhile. glad that it finally happened. January 26 till February 3rd 2007. Nayli missed school for about a week. I guess she is the person who has been looking forward to the trip the mostest amongst any of us. She has been asking when is January? And
when it was already January... how many more days before the trip...


26 Jan : Left for Brisbane - transit at Singapore Changi to catch Qantas

27 Jan : Day 1 - Reached the Land Downunder early in the morning. Too early to head straight to the apartment at Coolangatta, so we drove around, supposedly to head to Brisbane town first, somehow we managed to get lost around the airport drive, and ended up in the Motorway ading towards Coolangatta so what the heck we went on but stop for b'fast at the 1st town that we passed that had Arndale Shopping Centre, that was our first (of cetainly many many) stop at an Oz Supermarket. When we reached the apartment it was almost time for check-in. after that we just laze around, checked out the beach from a look out point and of course took more pictures.

28 Jan : Day 2 - Dreamworld. Spent the whole day here from 9:30 am till 5 p.m. If only they open up till late. We might still be there till then, you really can spend the whole day here cause, there are just loads to do and the kids really wouldn't mind getting on the same rides more than once. They added a lot of new attractions and rides since the last time I've been here. That was way back in 1991 or was it 1993, can't remember. Anyhow, now that I have kids with me and at their age, [Nayli (will be 6 this June, this has to be stated precisely or she will not accept it!) and Zarif is 3], it is much more worth it to go. As they would get on all the kiddy rides and attractions like the Wiggles World, the Nickelodeon Attractions etc etc. The Mama, Papa & Uncle enjoys all the thrill rides....

29 Jan : Day 3 - to be continued...

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Recipe - Famous Amos Hawaiian Nut Cookie

This is one good chocolate chip cookie recipe! Don't know whether
it is really the famous amos recipe, but I've tried it and it is really very
good. Try it, will definitely turn out well. This recipe makes loads and loads.

Recipe may be halved:

2 cups butter

4 cups flour

2 tsp. baking soda

2 cups granulated sugar

2 cups brown sugar

5 cups blended oatmeal (measure oatmeal &

blend in blender to a fine

powder)

24 oz. chocolate chips

1 tsp. salt

1 8 oz. Cadbury bar (grated)

4 eggs

2 tsp. baking powder

3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)

2 tsp. vanilla

Method :

Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix together

with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate

chips,

Hershey bar and nuts. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a

cookie sheet..Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 112

cookies..

Points to note:

Do get the Hersheys Choc Chips, they are more chocolatey and sinful!

You need 2 packets for this recipe.

Also get the Hersheys Choc Bars - yum! yum! I just smashed them up

and tossed them in the first time I tried this recipe. The 2nd time, I

actually melted the Chocolate Bar.

The 1st method would give you choc chunk surprises when you bite into

your chocolate chip cookie which is lovely but the 2nd method would

give you a darker shade of brown cookie. Depending on your preference,

really. My hubby loves the 1st chunky bits of choc all smashed up method.

Perhaps you can combine.

Me, I am a no nut choc chip person, so you won't find any nuts in

my chocolate chip cookie!

the datin diaries episode 1

yes i have something to look forward to nowadys. it all started from the new tv series that just started on tv3, last Tuesday (6th) at 11p.m. just in case you are wondering what the hey am I on about ok, this is actually a new mini series kinda thing. I never was a fan for any Samrinda or Sembilu Kasih that is on our local channels all this while but somehow this is kinda interesting... at least I thought it was enough for me to actually stay up till 11 to catch the 1st episode.
anyhow... here's an excerpt of the show from a media web posting that I came across regarding the stars in the show ....
Datin Diaries dibintangi oleh lebih 26 pelakon-pelakon handalan seperti Azean Irdawaty, Rita Rudaini, Nasha Aziz, Fazura, Jalaluddin Hassan, Fahrin Ahmad, Ahmad Tarmimi Saregar dan Zulhuzaimy.

Turut berlakon di dalam drama ini ialah Ako Mustafa, Elly Suriati, Catriona Ross, Rosnah Mat Aris, Yasmin Hamid, Zek Zaidi dan Linda Onn.

Teraju utama drama ini dibawa oleh pelakon veteran Azean Irdawaty sebagai Datin Mary, yang merupakan pengerusi Kelab Datin dan adalah seorang 'datin' yang paling berpengaruh. Drama ini turut diwarnai dengan watak Datin Molly (Rita Rudaini), Datin Sally (Nasha Aziz) dan Datin Nelly (Fazura) yang menghadapi masalah rumahtangga masing-masing.

so it is a reall ALL STAR cast drama .... how can I not watch it???

Episode 1: quite interesting ... enuff for me to go back to the office the next day and asked if any of the girls at the office caught it the night before. nobody bothered to stay up. alaaaaaaaa borringnya now cannot gossip about the show.... after yours truly hear gave them a somewhat detailed summary (what rubbish) mmmm okaylah I told them every little detail that I could remember (downright to the fact that Azean's lips looked oh so pouty and plump)

enuff about datin diaries the drama... what you should take not here is that there is in fact a datin diaries, the blog!!!! uhuh! no kidding! nothing to do with the drama! or perhaps the blog led to the drama... can't tell right away. must wait and watch the whole 26 episodes of the drama and compare it with this anonymous datin's blog. I tell you this blog is bloody addictive. I must say whoever this datin is, no matter what type of person she is and what type of crazy or not (damn far more interesting life though) life she may be leading.... one thing for sure is that she is a one damn good writer!!!! if a publisher were to publish a novel based on her blog bet it would be a best seller in Kinokuniya for months!!!!

does this work


trying an alternative way to update my blog.... what have I been up to lately nothing much.... went to Ikea last Sunday... needed a tv cabinet for our bedroom got a disposed tv from surprise!surprise! mom's house... we got one now what we need next is a 2nd astro decoder for that tv. how can a free thing costs us so much additional extras in the end ..... well! well! so much for freebies huh! attached is Zarif's pic fast asleep in the shopping cart post Ikea.


Friday, March 02, 2007

Back from the dead

I can't believe that I actually managed to make my way back here. Upon checking my last entry was ... what??? June 2006??? So I was right after all, in one of out a total of 6 pathetic postings, I did say that I was starting 2 new things last early last year which were:

1) Blogging
&
2) Exercising

and I did say something about that I cannot expect that I would be following through both new things... so I am well kinda glad to say that phew, at least I followed through item 2.

So what's up since June 2006 .....

soooo many things.. will have to cut and paste my 2006 outlook calendar huh!!