Nibble of Thoughts

Woo hoo, it’s already past midnight… I’ve been writing this post since Christmas… 8920 (8920, internal office code.. =p)

On Christmas Eve, we had a Christmas gift exchange session.

It’s so nice of ShookYee to make us some nice blueberry muffins (I’m not sure if it is strawberry). Thank you!

Chirstmas Eve is actually our last day of work of year 2009. It is an official off days for all of us till 4th of January 2010.

We were all playing Christmas music using USB on Sony TV blasting it through the whole break time and lunch time. Iron man and Terminator 4 played using USB Video. Awww really no mood to work leh…

We tried to kill time by killing some reindeer as well.

And I didn’t know that killing a reindeer will make you a stupider reindeer.

Merry Christmas from nibbleofthoughts!

Wishing you a Joyful Christmas and many blessings!

 

-Catfish-

YAY!

We had made ourselves back to Bangkok again all thanks to Airasia. Our tickets cost us both around RM300 return flight. It was a spontaneous booking, hell with it, it cost around the same getting to Singapore by BUS…

Well spontaneous booking without proper research ain’t that good. 2 days before we took off, I found that everyday will be a RAINY DAY?!!! HELL NO~~!!!

Based on last year Bangkok shopping trip, we knew very well how much we should pack our bags this time. We took minimal clothing and essentials only + 2 BIG bags. The heaviest cloth was my jeans. This is how empty both our bags are. We put them together for easy travel…

It is only 1/4 bag full only. Both bags alone weight 10kg in total. That leaves us 20kg worth of shopping. (We did such a good job that we actually ran out of clothes and proper shoe to wear. I missed out a pants for sleeping and a shoe, had to get one there, that’s how minimal it is)

PW looking forward towards to the trip very much. Just look at her smile…

We were extremely lucky to get the whole row to ourselves. Well not exactly ‘ourselves’ but maybe PW only. Well you get the picture.

The flight was quite a bumpy one but it got so much better when the pilot decided to fly on a lower altitude. This is what we saw right when we got below the dark cloud. I wonder what island is this?

I’m not sure whether is it the anxiety or the discomfort bumpy cloud that makes the flight so damn long.

BUT WE ARE FINALLY IN BANGKOK!!! YAY again!

As soon as we got to the airport, we grab any free Bangkok maps in our sight like robbing every tourist counter when we were on our way to the taxi booth.

We got a cool taxi, a little too big for 2 folks.

It was pretty hard job holding our gas in. See the no farting sign. Plus we got stuck in a jam which took us a little more than 1h to get to our hotel, Samran Place. (Without the jam, we took only 30min – 40min only)

First tourist Stop: Wat Pho or The temple of Reclining Buddha. Entrance Fee is 50 baht each.

Mr. Wiki says: It is one of the largest and oldest wats in Bangkok. The Reclining Buddha is forty-six metres long and fifteen metres high, decorated with gold plating on his body and mother of pearl on his eyes and the soles of his feet.

So Big~~ We can fit into his lubang hidung.. Sorry Amithaba.. 

While we are busy cam whoring in front of the Buddha, we keep hearing the sound of raining coins.. We thought it was some feng shui tape playing in the background.

But when we peek behind the Buddha, we saw rows of this. $_$

There’s a counter for you to change your bills to coins. It’s a form of donation to the temple as well as good blessings. You are suppose to drop the coin in the pot while saying prayers.

So for those of us tourist who don’t know any prayers just chant your wish. Crossing finger that it will come true.

Temple lady collecting the coin to sell it back to us tourist. PW standing there as decoy.

Besides the reclining Buddha, you can catch lil monks around.

Scholar monks:

Construction Monk helping out the replacement of the new shiny roofs.

A view of the four largest Chedi and Chedi Rai, all of which are decorated with flower motifs. The pretty lady there look so small compare to it.

PW call it the chiam chiam building (chiam = sharp).

She almost died climbing those steep stairs and had to hold on to my hands. I wonder how she still manage to have the energy to camwhore.

“Beware of your head!!”
They should have hired PW as the minimum height ruler. (5” below ONLY)
There are suppose to have more than a thousand Buddhas to be spotted in Wat Pho but we only manage to find a few. Future travelers to Wat Pho: you can make your trip more interesting by making a mission to spot the thousand Buddhas.

The minute we found this building, we knew very well that this is the famous message school because of the message oil pungent smell.

It is well recommended but the price is around 100 baht more. We did not try it since it was just the beginning of our trip. 

We got extremely hungry without lunch so we headed outside of Wat Pho for some BBQ pork which we enjoyed so much but unfortunately, it RAIN!!! What a spoiler to the first day!
Even the owner of the stall abandon the stall for shelter.

Both of us got stuck at one of the entrance of Wat Pho. You can just see how wet we were. 

We met a very friendly professor at Wat Pho. He recommended us to pay visit to the Black Buddha which opens only once a month and the EXPORT Shop which he said there is a promotion going on and ‘things’ are super cheap there.

He convinced us that the port to go to Wat Arun will be flooded with rain and the sunset will be a good few hours away. We took his recommendation.

He helped us to bargain for a 40 baht tuk tuk.

It was great experience for the first time in a tuk tuk although it is dangerous with no seat belt and door.

Don’t believe how heavy the rain was? The roads were flooded OK!

PW helping Black Buddha with the gold paper.

Me adding oil to the lamp to keep the lamp fire going.

We tried to ask why the Black Buddha is only open once month to public but no one knows. We hope that this temple is ‘leng’ + it was faith that got us there to pray.

After praying at the Black Buddha, we headed off to the ‘Export’ shop. We look forward to it so much but to our very dissapointment, it was a local gem shop!! We felt conned by the professor… We got out empty handed.

When we got out of the shop, the rain started again and our tuk tuk driver said that the Wat Arun port is still not in good condition. He asked us a favor whether we could help him out to visit his sponsor.

Well… guess what’s the shop? GEM!! GEM!! GEM!!!
ARGH!!! 2 gem shop in one day! I can’t believe it! Later when we look at the free Bangkok map we got from airport, first reminder to tourist, do not fall into the tuk tuk and gem scam.

Finally, we got back to the Tha Tien Pier for the Wat Arun ferry. Our stomach started to growl again since we had a disrupted lunch at Wat Pho.

First, we got some fried crabs. Not soft shell. Was pretty difficult for my jaw to chew on.

Next, we got some grilled bananas.

I looked like a hungry monkey waiting for the ferry. The ferry cost us only 3 baht/one way.

In the ferry heading to Wat Arun, we saw a good few personal tourist guides.

This is something you won’t miss when you arrive at the Wat Arun side of the ferry pier. CATFISH!! There are humongous. I had a short thought what happen if I join them for a short swim will they recognise me or BITE me?

This is Wat-ever. Lame! Don’t get it? They call all their temple Wat-something…
This is Wat Arun.

Wat Arun is decorated with China porcelain in shapes of flower. Imagine how they build and maintain it for such a long time.

Does this sign means loosing your life by jumping down the Wat Arun is priceless?

The steps at the last flight of the stairs at Wat Arun is super steep. Just for proof: the steps vs bottle 450ml. The bottle lost…

Don’t believe how steep it is? Nah…

Not convincing enough… Here is another one…

Well, you can say the picture above is camera angle and bla bla bla…
I think the photo below here with the uncle’s head almost 180 degrees tilted up to look at our camera will be more convincing. Believe now?

This view of the newer Bangkok region, overlooking Grand Palace, Wat Pho and Baiyoke Sky Tower.

Both of us camped at the top of Wat Arun for the ‘Ham Tan Wong’ (this is how PW call a sunset).

Sunset with the old Bangkok City.

After one long hour there, we finally feel satisfied with the sunset mood so we started to ‘climb’ down the steep stairs and get back to the new Bangkok city side.

Stay tune for more! It took us so long to finish this LOOONG post, still more to go.

Do cheer on us to finish the rest of it,

PW, Catfish

Dear Readers,

You know Sunny Boy.

Now I present to you ‘Hot Chick’.  (Disclaimer: That ‘P’ sticker is not meant for me..)

But look at Hot Chick’s 1st doctor visit. T______________________________T

Tell me, did I kena con or wat?  Is this the “market” price? Shop’s name mosaic-ed because I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt.. But ENLIGHTEN me please~

I’m sooo feeling the burn and sam tong-ness ok.

I hate using services of mechanics, plumber, electrician, etc etc other service oriented people..

I always feel conned and stupid around them. For me, they are like vultures.

When you bring your car to a mechanic, there will always be something wrong with it. (Oil seal leaking la, mounting break la, absorber soft la, filter dirty la, pump puncture la, add many many more parts break, loose, hard, soft, etc etc destructive adjective)

Never understood what they say, and worse case is you can never judge the seriousness of it because they will be telling you all the worse case scenario. Maybe the situation is not that bad.

Just imagine that you are visiting a doctor for a small cut on your finger and your prescription is a new prosthetic arm. T___T  Skip the medicine. Their story is a cut risk infection, then assume it will spread to your arm then you will need to chop off your arm. So to avoid that, just use a ‘plastic’ arm.

It’s like if you don’t do anything to it then you won’t feel safe using your arm or driving the car in my case.

AND they quote ridiculous price for small simple job. Changing a fuse cost you RM100 when it only require a few minutes work. Even Catfish can do it. *proud* It’s like charging you RM100 to place a plaster on the said cut if you are smart enough to not buy the plastic arm. T_T My uncle’s electrician friend said so himself one. I’m not just saying it based on nothing.

Any useful tips or good guide book out there on how to handle these service people? Help me. *beg* I will appreciate it a lot X 100000000000000000…… ‘sleeping 8’ (sleeping 8? neh, infinity la.)

 

- Pei Wen -

It’s been ages since ‘We’ have been blogging. I must say it have been a long crazy, stressful and health threatening month of work.

But the tiring working Saturdays is coming to an end soon and workload is easing up a little. On top of that, we had just returned from a very ‘dehydrated’ Bangkok trip. I thought we deserve a good hearty meal.

We head to a restaurant that I had wanted to try for such a long time, Michelangelo’s in Pavilion.

Surprisingly the one in Sunway Pyramid has closed down and turned into some bad bad bad Taiwanese restaurant. That is a story for another day, we got picture and evidence. Please avoid it at all cost.

PW look very happy since I’m treating her.

The ambience was perfect for a nice romantic peaceful dinner.
Adapted from TheStar “Exquisite: The decor of Michelangelo’s exudes an exotic charm with a play of black and white for contrast..”

Besides this section, there is also a smoking area outside where most foreigners will be chilling out with jugs of beer. Also enjoying view of neighbor restaurant customer blowing their Shisha pipes.

The bar on the left and the kitchen on the right.

We ordered a soup as our appetizer, Creme di Funghi. First sip, the soup tasted slightly sour-ish but surprisingly the overall taste blend in quite well together. One word: Weird~

As for our main dish, PW ordered Risotto di Mare. The dish is full of seafood, it’s quite worth the money.

Doubt how much seafood were in the Risotto? This is what PW had collected and it is just half of it + lots of squid in it. PW presented a very nice dish here, I thought I should give her some credit for this.

I got the Pollo alla Cacciatora. Whole thigh + spaghetti with capsicum in rosemary sauce.

My dish on the other hand had nothing much to collect at the end of it. This is how it turns out…

The food were superb. I must say the risotto gravy, spaghetti sauce and the serving are perfect. Writing this blog makes my mouth watering again. I had a great time treating PW and myself such an costly meal after a taxing month.

What’s happier than stripping a prawn perfectly! Wee~

I absolutely recommend this ristorante when you have a little extra to spare for the month. You should also tryout their tomato basil bruschetta which KLue recommends.

We will definitely come back for more.

Michelangelo’s:

Location: Lot C3.04.00, Connection Level 3, Pavilion Kuala Lumpur. (Near starbucks)
Tel: 03-2141 1123.

Food: 4.7/5 nibbles.
Cleanliness: 5/5 nibbles
Pricing: 2/5 nibbles
Service: 4.5/5 nibbles (The waiters there were polite and friendly except for one grumpy one which so happen to be serving us. *Look at other table with envy*)

Well, not really raining men.. 

I prefer raining Megan Fox. But if the report is true that Megan Fox is a transvestite.. cue song* Oh! It’s raining men! HALLELUJAH!!! hahaha…

Back to point. The song is actually describing how’s the weather in the room.

If rain come from clouds, then this is our cloud. A big faulty dusty white cloud that had been raining indoor for almost a week.

The Haier air-cond in the room was leaking water into the room instead of flowing out of the room… Which means we can’t on the air-cond for too long because once it starts to get slightly cold this is what happened.

drip* drip* drip*

Our ears were prepared to pick up any sign of dripping water. One drip everyone in the room will be running with a pail to the air-cond. Very good exercise.

We can’t on the air-cond without supervision. So we have to sleep in sweat through the hot nights for 4-5 days. In the end we can’t take it anymore and determined to turn the air-cond ON no matter what. After some time of rescuing the table from rain, this is what happened:

With a watchful guard:

After much investigation, I was told that the leaking air-cond is probably due to blockage in the pipe directing air to the outside unit. Means it’s time to give your air-cond a service. Chemical service is a better option to clear the blockage.

But during our last service, the guy told us that the air-cond was not in a very good shape. The blower/fan of the Haier is blowing like an old man.

WoOOoo… WooOO… WOOO… Wooo… WooOO…

Instead of:

WooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo…

So the ultimate solution is to replace the OLD MAN

 

We went to scout for prices typical of me. Really thanks to my aunt to accompany along.

Found one decent shop for all household electric appliances Tan Boon Ming (http://www.tbm.com.my). They have about 5 branches throughout Klang Valley and they have one of the widest range of brand and series. How often can you see Daikin, Panasonic, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Sharp and Midea together. Well you better check out TBM.

Our criteria for an aircond:
1. Inverter type since we switch ON the aircond for more than 8h throughout the whole night.
2. Reliable and cooling
3. Environmental safe (on father’s request to safe the earth) and R22 HCFC gas will be faced out by 2015. Check this out: http://www.orionair.co.uk/gas%20regulations.htm

Daikin is cheap but were using the R22 HCFC. We ended up with Hitachi, Mitsubishi and Panasonic which are using R410 gas.

Ultimately we ended up with:
Why? Because it is the cheapest among the 3 and also I had not come across any bad complain about it on reviews online.

The best compliment I would give this aircond is that it is one of the most silent aircond that I had ever come across. Not a single noise from the compressor and at times when the aircond stop operating, you might even think that “Eh?! Didn’t I just switched it ON”.

This is to show you how cold (on my face) and how satisfied (PW) is with the aircond:

 

Please watch this video! Gave PW a shock. She only knew of the Geri Halliwell version.

(I think this original version will take your attention rather than the Geri Halliwell’s )

“Tonight for the first time just about half past ten…

For the first time in history it’s gonna start raining men!!!”

“It’s raining men! Hallelujah!

We can’t get any sleep now… Because my room is getting soaking wet~! Argh!”

“So that each and every household could find her perfect air-cond

Please Stop Raining Men! Yeah!~”

Hahaha too bad I’m not good at modifying lyrics……

 

Thanks Dad for sponsoring!!! Really appreciate it!

Love you so much Papa

Catfish

Happy 09/09/09 9:09AM…

De Ja Vu! It is like we are having the so many once in a lifetime date, the last one was 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 incident… A meteor shower that happens like once in a decade, forgotten what’s it’s name… Earth and Mars comes the closest this year + Venus, Earth and Mars aligned in a single line…

It’s hell of a year!

We have been busy around August and September could not make it to blog as much as we usually do. Plus I’m working from Monday to Saturday. I have almost no time to rest so yea, will try to blog as soon as we have tiny little bitty of time…

Stay Tuned!

Cheers

Catfish

In Penang, we have Char Kuew Teow.

In Melaka, we have Gula Melaka Chendol.

In Ipoh, we have Steamed Chicken Bean Sprout Rice.

In Klang, we have Bak Kut Teh.

In Ampang, we have Yong Tao Fu.

 

While in Japan, Sai-san have taught me that:

The finest Takoyaki can be found in Osaka.

But highlight of the day is Hiroshima Okonomiyaki!!

Okonomi means “What you like” or “what you want” and yaki means “grilled” or “bbq”… So basically it’s grill everything you like. PW wonder if it’s possible to add in marshmallow.

Unfortunately, I've never been to Hiroshima and Sony HQ in Japan is no where near it. Lucky enough Sai-san did manage to get me to try out Okonomiyaki at a bazaar near Japan HQ during one of the visit. But still he said the FINEST OKONOMIYAKI IS FOUND IN HIROSHIMA!!!

I think I missed Japan alot~~

Sigh~ So I have to settle for the next best thing nearest to Sony BANGI instead. While browsing through the World Wide Web for new Japanese buffet (We found one. Wait for it) I stumble upon this Okonomiyaki place in Lowyat.

Restaurant Jepun Okonomiyaki Citarasa Asli Hiroshima:
This shop give me the same feeling I have with all the restaurant in Japan. It is cramped.

The Okonomiyaki here is a little different from those I ate in Japan. A common version in Tokyo is more like a flatten Takoyaki with more flour, ‘liu’ and without yakisoba.

After a long look at the menu, we ordered Tuna Okonomiyaki

and the Okonomiyaki All Stars

All Stars contain all the ingredient available except Tuna in one Okonomiyaki as illustrated below.

The dishes are served on a hot “teppan” in front of the chef cooking just like how they do it at Mr. Teppanyaki. PW enjoyed the whole session till the bit.

They even have this notice on the table just like how Japanese like to do with any warning or notice. Again I miss Japan.

The chef give me a feel of a Japanese where they will strive for perfection for every dish. The dish he prepared must be in perfect shape, same amount of ingredient and neatness with no loose cabbages around. A little bit of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) I must say.

PW was particularly interested with the chef (guy) with his muscular arm performing all the kung fu moves with the spatula. Sigh looking like this –>

I’ve tried to get more photos here but his moves are way too fast to be captured by a camera. But anyway if you are interested, do stop by at the shop and have a peek girls…

I can’t stand how PW kept staring at the chef moves so I tried to pull out some kung fu moves with the spatula and some muscles… Keng mou…

The shop did a very good job in serving the food in terms of friendliness and cleanliness. There was once I asked for extra Okonomiyaki sauce on my dish. The waitress said that they have run out of it so they never allow us to add on our self. Still she gave me a few good squirt to make my dish taste better!

I think it is a little pricey. Our total bill sums up to about RM50. However, I think the price is just alright since I got the last one at about 500 yen so conversion is around RM20.

The Okonomiyaki here taste alright for the Malaysian standard but it is near to nothing even if you are comparing to those Okonomiyaki that you can get at the street side in Tokyo.

I want to go Japan again~!! I-ta-da-ki-mas!!

 

Restaurant Jepun Okonomiyaki @ Lowyat
Location: LG Lowyat Plaza near the ATM machines

Food: 4.5/5 nibbles.
Cleanliness: 4/5 nibbles
Pricing: 2.5/5 nibbles
Service: 4.5/5 nibbles

 

Missing Japan,

Catfish.

This post is dedicated to Mr.Small Gas aka Catfish who is currently on a blogging strike.

Last weekend out of a sudden, he make an announcement to me. He declared that he won’t blog until I start blogging again. gulp~  

So evil of him! Depriving all his loyal reader of interesting long gas blog posts..
Bad Catfish..

I got solid reason why I stop blogging K. Laziness is one of them and it is a damn good reason too I must say. Agree? OK OK.. My bad.. Don’t throw shoes at me.

 

Actually, poor Catfish here have tried countless way of motivating me to start blogging again.

He tried the more gentle way of encouragement where he actually gather feedback from people and relay it back to me individually.. But in doing so, he starts to feel less loved by you guys and he actually sulked to me. hahhaha.. You guys please give him deserved praising and comments as well.. Terima Kasih banyak banyak.

he tried scolding.. (he better be careful with this)

he tried tickling.. but I’m not scared of tickle.. In fact, he’s the one who are running round the room. (I only have one spot of weakness and I’m definitely not revealing it to you here.. hehehe)

He tried ignoring me the whole night thinking I’ll be bored and will start blogging. So fail.. I got so many drama to watch, lots of books to read, manga chapters to catch up with, restaurant to build… etc etc..

And finally The Blogging Strike… He’s being very determined! Normally I can manja my way out of anything with him but he’s being very serious this time. I tried one last depressed card today and he finally soften down. He say he’ll blog.

But to not lose face, he told me that I have to blog at least one sentence. I was planning to be mean and blog only one sentence but I started feeling guilty for abandoning Nibble of Thought to Catfish alone. This is suppose to be a joint effort.

So people, do visit more often as we’ll start our blogging mode again.

 

Happy to be back,

PW..

How cool is that:

12:34:56 on 07 08 09

I might have missed the timing for a few seconds…

And what’s more…

It was so coincident that I was listening to Plain White T’s 1 2 3 4…

Spooky…

It’s been a very sad long week during our absence from blog. My deepest sympathy and heartfelt condolences to See family. Do drop a message for PW in the Nibbling Box –>. She will be back to read it.

In KL-Marathon post, it was a spontaneous act joining King of the Road Shah Alam. Maybe we were over into the hype of marathon then.

The receipt for the run made the organizer looks very well planned. It was divided to 3 parts where 2 parts were used to collect your race pack and for reporting on the day of race. The shirt was not the quality as I’ve expected when we registered though .

Hew and me took part in the 11km race.
 
It was lucky that we have opt for the 11km race. The weather was not very good for the run as the haze was very thick.

The road was not an easy game, it was continuous uphill and downhill. Never a good flat land. Especially the 1km stretch at the start and the finish route. It was terribly difficult to run. I’m not sure if it was because I’ve had only 2.5h of sleep or was it the haze. Breathing were very difficult or maybe I’m just an amateur .

Arrived finishing line at 1h 12min bad timing. No improvement even though I’m running a shorter route. Sigh.

Lesson learned: downhill != fun/relax/speed but control step speed and breathing.
                       uphill != slowdown/walk but keep same step speed as flat ground.

I was SS in this run. Heheh SS means sad but satisfied NOT syiok sendiri. Why?
Sad – I was not qualified for the medal.
Satisfied – I did not stop a bit despite the steep slopes!

Hew came in slightly later than me at 1h 25min+ who claim that he walked the race. Not a bad time.

After the race, it took us like 1.5h before we found each other. We did mentioned a meet up point but unfortunately both of us did not end up the seat to wait. Later that we know, we were actually at the same area looking at the same place but overlooking each other.

I just can’t understand why they don’t understand what’s the use of a rubbish bin?

I was worried after 1h of waiting. I actually should be worried because there were an unfortunate incident happened reported today in NST during the day of race. Gary Leon Robert was found dead at the stadium 24hours after the race. This is a tribute video to him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN8ae9tM86M

I did not take my camera along so this is the only photo we had:

We don’t really look very tired though! Heheh notice I’ve got a hair cut again before a race . Helmut say it increase aerodynamic movement. We had a hearty meal with our colleagues after the race at Klang for Bak Kut Teh. Yum Yum!

I think it’s possible to beat the King of the Road title in 50min. I’ll be stronger and sure to come back to challenge it again!

 

God Speed,

Catfish

PS: Sorry Axio stealing photo from you again