November 27, 2008

Confirmed Air Tickets

My flight to Malaysia (for the Chinese New Year season and also to attend my cousin Jaime's wedding) is finally confirmed. I'm leaving for Kuala Lumpur on January 8. This was part of my return ticket which I bought in Malaysia when I left for Melbourne early this year.

Trying to buy a one-way ticket back to Melbourne was a toughie. The first couple of months of the year is always the peak season, and air fares are just ridiculously expensive then. The cheapest ticket on regular airlines was from MAS, and it was $1236. One way.

In the end, I had to resort to flying back to Melbourne via Air Asia. A one-way ticket cost me RM1800. It was still costly but far cheaper than what MAS was offering. Sigh.

Anyways, that isn't the part which I wanted to talk about. So with my confirmed ticket and all, I've decided to see if I could upgrade to a better seat with my Enrich miles. I've collected a lot of air miles throughout my travels to Japan and Australia.

For the first time in my life, I'll be flying business class from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur. I'm so excited!! Champagne! Satay! Honest-to-goodness comfy seats!

Whee! :D

PS: And if you mention anything about me having to fly via Air Asia back, I'll thump you.

November 17, 2008

30 Skills Every Woman Should Have Before Turning 30

I saw this on Frisky, and then Ponikuta's site, and I thought since I will be turning 30 in just under two years, I reckon I'd give this one a go.

Here is a list of skills a woman should have mastered by the time she turns 30. The ones in bold are the ones I've done, including my comments in italics.

1. Hard boil an egg
2. Diplomatically tell Mom to butt-out (it wasn't easy, but it had to be done)
3. Ace a job interview
4. Ask a man out (it's not as difficult as it looks)
5. Send a thoughtful thank you note
6. Listen to a friend in need
7. Ask for help
8. Effectively end an unhealthy relationship (romantic or platonic in nature)
9. Beautifully wrap a gift
10. Say “no” gracefully
11. Whip up a great dinner with the five items in her fridge (Five years ago, I would have said "Are you out of your freakin' mind?!" Now, not so bad :p)
12. Forget pleasing him, by 30 a woman should be able to tell her man exactly how to please her (Learned this pretty early ;))
13. Sew a button
14. Mix a kick-ass cocktail
15. Take off her bra without removing her shirt (I studied in an all-girls school for 11 years. I learned that as soon as I started wearing one)
16. Apply lip gloss in the dark (now this, I can't do. I can't even apply colour-less lip balm properly!)
17. Balance her checkbook
18. Create a budget (have to, now that I'm married. Back then, I wasn't so consistent)
19. Find the best deal (I'm Chinese. I'm all for a good bargain :p)
20. Negotiate a salary and/or pay raise
21. Read a map (give me a satellite navigator anytime)
22. Hail a cab
23. Say something in French just for the hell of it (I can say "Yes", "No", "Please", "Excuse me" and "I love you". Does that count?)
24. Apologize when she’s wrong
25. Dress for her body type
26. Change a flat (or know whom to call to come change it)
27. Spot a fake (handbag, diamond, potential friend…)
28. Feign interest
29. Know what to tip on a $25 dinner bill
30. Hold a baby (Hey, someone you know is bound to have one sooner or later)

19 out of 30. Guess I have to work on the other 11 in the next two years. Hopefully by then, I'd be able to know how to hold a baby. And read a map. And apply lip gloss in the dark. And everything else.

Anyone of you over 30 could do all these yet? Help me out here, eh?

November 16, 2008

Lor Mai Kai Goodness

The in-laws were in Melbourne and Sydney for a visit the past couple of weeks. It was an eye-opening experience to say the least. But more on that some other time. Methinks it's not too safe to talk about it here, what with a lot of familiar eyes reading the blog :p

We've been eating out a lot for the past couple of weeks, and it was exhausting. Not just to the pocket, but to our bodies as well. The amount of MSG used in every meal is just astounding. We'd be so parched by the time we were home; we'd gulp down so much water that we'd make many trips to the bathroom in the middle of the night. And I HATE waking up just to pee.

I finally got to cook again today, and it was so refreshing to be able to heat home-cooked food once more. It's not that I don't want to cook for the in-laws. We just don't have a decent place to dine on. Our 'dining table' is a tiny TV entertainment unit with wheels. We sit on the floor when we have our dinner. We can't have more than four plates on the table. Pathetic, right? That's because the actual dining table is currently holding our actual telly. Ish.

Anyways, on to the subject of the post, which is today's dinner. We had a craving for lor mai kai, so after a bit of searching on the Internet, I tried the recipe of steamed glutinous rice with mushrooms from Little Corner of Mine. Modified it a little and added some lap cheong (waxed Chinese sausage) into the rice. Steamed it on the bamboo steamer for 15 minutes, and voila! Lor mai kai!

Lor Mai Kai Nov08 1


Lor Mai Kai Nov08 3

Felt like having some fresh salad instead of stir-fried vegetables (also because I was lazy to do any further frying :p), so threw in a mixture of rocket leaves and romaine lettuce, white onion rings and cherry tomatoes. Splashed a dash of lemon-infused extra virgin olive oil (great stuff I snagged from Montalto Winery), balsamic vinegar and some crushed black pepper.

Lor Mai Kai Nov08 2

Finished the meal with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice (and I mean really squeeze and twist on a orange juicer thingy; I don't have an electrical fruit juicer). It's a very odd combination for dinner, I know, but heck, it was good.

*burp*

November 12, 2008

Toilet Peeves

- Ladies who can't seem to aim. There shouldn't be any problems with aiming, right? We don't have schlongs to aim with, but somehow, there's always traces of pee on the toilet bowl. And they don't even wipe it off. What gives?
- Wet loo floors. Ugh.
- Single-ply toilet paper. This probably pisses me off the most. Seriously, what is the point of single-ply loo paper? We'd just end up using more anyway. And when we wipe our wet hands with these pathetic pieces of paper, they turn to goo in our fingers.
- Ladies who do not flush, and leave floating brownies behind. And the toilet isn't even broken. All due to sheer laziness.
- Overly high-tech loos which are supposed to flush automatically after you're finished with your business. Only to find out that after waiting a minute for the darn thing to flush, it's broken. And there's no way to flush. You frantically push whatever buttons and tiles there are to find a lever to flush. Then you feel like such a prat when you leave the cubicle when the next person who uses it mutters under her breath "Geez, a lazy turd who doesn't even know the meaning of flushing the loo".

Anything else to add to toilet peeves?

November 10, 2008

Birthday Shoutout To Cuzzie Bea

To my dear cousin, Bea, on her birthday,

Birthday - Beatrice - November 2008

Image Credit: American Greetings

May we always be "the devil's spawns" Tee hee hee :p

Happy birthday, babes!

November 04, 2008

Kari Daging

Beef curry

Two hours of sweating over a wok of bubbling beef curry resulted in two bowls on rice. Mmm ...

November 02, 2008

My New Baby

This came as an early Christmas present. When I first heard about it from Edrei, it was a week after I bought the iPod Touch. And I wanted it real bad. Everytime I was at JB Hifi, I scrambled to the computers section and would drool over it. Still, I persevered and waited for newer editions to be launched.

When the one with the 10" screen came out, I was in love. And thanks to one of Catch of the Day's great bargains, I managed to snag it at a very good price.

Behold, my new baby, the Asus EEE PC 1000HD.

Asus EEE PC 1000 HD

It's so light; at less than 1.5kg, it's a huge difference from my brick of an Acer. Granted the keyboard is going to take a lot of getting used to, what with my sausage fingers. Typing out this post on it sure took a while. It doesn't have an optical drive, but really, who uses one these days?

Asus EEE PC 1000 HD and Acer TravelMate 4002WLCi

The only gripe I have about it is that it seems to have a tough time connection to the wireless network in the house. It takes a long time to connect, and as it does, it's eating up the battery. Does anyone who has an EEE PC have the same problem too? I mean, it's supposed to be a netbook with good WIFI capabilities, but at the moment, I'm just not seeing it.

Other than that, I absolutely love it. It's going to be so nifty bringing this with me when I'm traveling (I know, I know, I hardly travel these days, but that's neither here nor there).

I would sleep with it if I can. I'm serious.

Tim's so not amused :p